Cairns and Sydney 20
June to 4 July 2016
Cairns 20 June –22
June
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| Cairns at night |
We had booked a berth at Cairns marina as it was close to
the town and we had a lot to do before
setting off to Indonesia – boat
maintenance, provisioning and attending a series of seminars on the trip.
Our first priority was to fly to Sydney as we could not miss
this out on our first visit to Australia. We left Cairns in 28 degrees and
arrived in Sydney in 10 degrees. The sub-zero temperatures were a shock, back
once again in jeans, jackets and shoes. OK it was 10 degrees but it felt like
the depths of winter. This was the start of the coldest weekend of their winter
so far.
Sydney 22 -27 June
The five days in Sydney were very enjoyable, seeing all the usual
tourist places but first we had to take our passports and forms to the
Indonesian Embassy to apply for the visas for our upcoming trip. As the Embassy
was in Sydney we decided that we would deliver the forms by hand. After some
research on the internet we found the location of the Embassy – a 20 minute
walk to the bus stop, a thirty minute bus ride and a further 20 minutes’ walk
the other end – not exactly the central location we had assumed. We waited an
hour and half for the 2 minute appointment to hand in the forms and together
with the hour and a half trip each way - should have just posted them!
On the way back we stayed on the bus to the old quarters - The
Rocks - near the Sydney Harbour Bridge which used to be the place of thieves,
drunks and prostitutes. Attempts to
demolish the area to remove the blot on the landscape had failed many times and
it has become one of the main tourist areas with its network of alley ways. It
now boasts a host of up-market restaurants and cafes all trading on the areas’
illustrious past.
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| The Opera House Bar |
The evening was spent at the Sydney Opera house where we had
booked tickets to see Carmen – a Nice and easy for the tourists and all the
same very enjoyable and good performance. We had champagne at the interval while
we marvelled at the views of the harbour followed by a late supper in the Opera
House bar (outside) as we huddled under the outdoor heaters, eating and
enjoying the spectacular view of Sydney and the bridge.
modern interpretation of the opera.  |
| View from the Botanical Gardens |
The next day we took the bus to the botanical gardens and
spent the morning enjoying the walk around the gardens overlooking the harbour.
We tried unsuccessfully to visit the former governor’s residence in the grounds
as we did not have our passports (at the Indonesian Embassy) which were needed
to be allowed in. This was the day of the referendum and as we were walking
back past the harbour we were approached by Australian TV to give our views for
the lunchtime news. At that time it wasn’t looking hopeful and we were in a
state of disbelief. We were both interviewed and I went into on a bit of a rant,
having followed the debate and the misinformation that seemed to abound in the
UK press. Alas to no avail alas as it was all too late by then.
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| Kings Cross |
In the evening, Catherine had found an Italian restaurant in
the guide book which was out of the tourist area and highly recommended and was
just a 30 minute walk away from our hotel (according to her). It was freezing
cold and an hour later we found the place which was packed with locals. With no
booking we waited for an hour for a table but the wait was well worth it and at
midnight we left for the hour walk back.
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| View from the Bridge |
No visit to Sydney is complete without walking across the
Sydney Bridge and although we decided not to do the climb the next day we took
the train to the north side of the harbour to visit the market with a long walk
around the north shore and back over the bridge. I did think that the bridge
was much bigger than it was but impressive all the same.
Arriving back on the south shore we took the traditional “old”
ferry for the 45 minute ride to Manley. It was an enjoyable trip across the
harbour and Manley is a very popular and attractive town with a great surfing
beach. Even better, we found a restaurant on the beach where we could eat while
watching the surfers on the big rolling waves, not ones for the novice. We set
off on a long walk around the headland scrambling up rocks and walking through
grassland always keeping an eye out for snakes (warning signs everywhere).
After a few wrong turns and dead ends we finally made our
way back to the late ferry just before it got too dark to see. We visited the
Chinese quarters for a very late dinner along with the mainly Chinese customers.
With the menus in Chinese and the English translation rather opaque, we ended
up choosing our meal by looking at what others were eating and pointing to it
when the waiter asked for our order in broken English. Still not sure what we
ate but it was Ok but there again we were hungry and anything would have been
Ok by that time.
The following day we headed west, taking two buses and a
train to get to the fish market – another tourist attraction. The range of fish
on offer was extraordinary, many that we had not heard of, and there were small
cafes in the market, all selling cooked fish in every way that is possible. It
was buzzing with life with people buying fish and all the cafes were packed
both with tourist and locals. Later that afternoon we visited the Australian
museum as we felt we had no real knowledge of indigenous Australians and wanted
to find out more. When we were in New Zealand we had visited lots of small
museums and galleries and Maori life was represented everywhere. In Australia
you seem to have to search for it. We learned little.
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| Bondi Beach |
On the day before we left, we decided we could not miss
going to the iconic Bondi beach – the playground for surfers in Sydney. With
just a 30 minute bus ride we were on the beach, watching the surfers out in
force, putting on displays for the huge number of spectators. However, after
our experience of Manley beach, Bondi seemed rather run down with seedy tourist
shops, trading on its reputation a little too much. There was however a
fantastic open air
swimming pool hewn out of the rocks and we spent ages
watching swimmers with waves crashing over them as they swam up and down. |
| Waves crashing into the Pool |
After watching the
surfing and somewhat hazardous swimming for an hour or so we took the coastal
path to the next bay which was a 45 minute walk around the cliff tops. We
ignored the closed signs and yellow tape stopping people using the footpath (as
everyone did) and we walked, or rather climbed, along the footpath which had
been smashed by a storm. Pretty impressive damage and I can see why they closed
it. However, we managed to climb round the worst parts and enjoyed a very
pleasant walk to the next bay to find a somewhere for lunch. We came across a nice
restaurant with tables on the pavement and some good food in the sunshine while
we waited for the bus back to Sydney.
Another very enjoyable day, our last unfortunately in Sydney but we felt
that we had seen enough after five days. And we had certainly walked enough!
Back to Reality 27
June - 4 July
We arrived back in Cairns to three days of talks on
Indonesia, weather, routes, places to visit etc. All very tedious and we could
have done the whole thing in one day which would have been better. It left us
only 4 days do everything else. We had to buy the remaining spares we needed
(most had been bought in England while we were there in April) but the list was
still long and would not be available in Indonesia. While the marina was close
to the town, the Chandlers were out of town requiring a 20 minute bus ride plus
a 30 minute walk to get there and it needed several trips. It made it a slow
process and in the heat of the day.
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| Alas I was not allowed to get our of the shopping |
Provisioning was the next priority. We had been provisioned
a lot in N We ended up with two trolley
loads of shopping and a four hour job to try and store everything on the boat.
Not something that either of us enjoys.
ew Zealand but we had been told that there are no dairy products
available in Indonesia, little meat (fridges and freezers are not common) and
very few actual shops – there are mainly markets selling fruit and
vegetables.
A day off
Fortunately we had been doing extensive maintenance since
before we left New Zealand so we only had small jobs left to complete (small
but important). We took a day off to go on a dive boat to the outer Barrier
Reef. We had snorkelled in the Whitsundays but that was only inner fringing
reef and with all the hype we were expecting some very special. It was a huge
disappointment. We had seen better reefs with more coral and fish on many of
the islands in the Pacific and much more accessible, normally just a snorkel
off the back of the boat rather than a two hour boat ride, crashing through
waves! We were pleased to have gone but only so that we felt that we had not
missed out – not because it was the amazing trip we were expecting. Maybe if we
had not been across the Pacific we might have been more impressed.
Final Checks
The last day was spent checking everything and completing
all the last minute jobs. That is when I found that our Cap Shrouds (that go
right to the top of the mast) had broken strands in the wires which meant an
urgent replacement needed (otherwise the mast could come down in strong winds).
I could not believe it as we had the lower shrouds replaced in New Zealand and
the rigging checked by the rigger before we left. Mind you we had taken a
pounding on the way into Australia and the Cap Shrouds were the only one of the
three sets of shrouds that had not been replaced since we left England.
We had resigned ourselves to the fact it would take at least
a week to get it replaced and we would not make it to Thursday Island to set
off with the rest of the boats. I phoned the first rigger who said he would not
be in Cairns for another week and he was the only rigger in the area. When I
mentioned that we might go off to Port Douglas, thirty miles north of Cairns,
he said he lived there and if we could get the boat there by 4pm the next day,
he could have the rigging done by the following midday as he could fit it in
with a big job he had on there. Our celebration was a little muted since riggers
are very good at promising to do things but not so hot on actually doing them
in the timescale promised.
That night we met up with Exocet Strike and to say our farewells. They were re-joining the World Arc in Darwin to go back to the Caribbean to complete their circumnavigation. We had met up with them several times after we both left the rally in World Arc rally in Fiji and it felt strange that we probably wouldn’t see them again, at least for a longtime.
We left the next day, pleased to be on route again, albeit only to Port Douglas to get the rigging repaired.
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