September 2017

Fine and mainly sunny in Sydney, but a little cooler than we have been used to, at about 18 degrees.

Today was to be a cultural day with a visit to the Botanical Gardens book-ended by visits to the Irvin Gallery to see the Archibald Refuses (those that missed out), and the NSW Art Gallery for the Archibald Portrait Prize finalists. From Wynyard Station we walked to the Irvin Gallery located on Observatory Hill, stopping in the Cafe for a morning coffee before looking at the portraits that had missed out as finalists in the Archibald Prize. From here we walked down to Circular Quay and on to the Opera House for lunch at the Opera House Bar on the Concourse.

After lunch we walked through the Botanical Gardens on our way to the NSW Art Gallery to see the finalists in the Archibald Prize for Portraits. While the Irvin Gallery were not concerned about photos being taken the NSW Art Gallery stipulated "No Photos", although that did not seem to stop the mobile phones coming out occasionally. Not so easy with a larger DSLR camera. A feature at both galleries was a selection of Young Archies as they are called - an exhibition of portraits done by children aged 5 to 18 years - some of them were very good.

After having an afternoon coffee we headed back to Wynyard Station via the old Sydney Hospital and Bird Cage display in Angel Lane.

We walked about 10 km today.

The Sydney Observatory.

A view of recently renovated terrace houses from Observatory Hill.

The Irvin Gallery on Observatory Hill in Sydney.

Some of the Young Archies at the Irvin Gallery.

More Young Archies at the Irvin Gallery.

Ben Quilty - painted by Luke Cornish.

Head in a box - self portrait by Sally Robinson.

The Captain and Paul - painted by Donald Keys.

Nelson and Phoenix - The producer and the star of the movie Red Dog - painted by David Darcy.

Australian Hotel in the Rocks area of Sydney, built 1914.

The Opera House from Circular Quay.

Circular Quay from the Opera House.

Fort Denison in Sydney Harbour, built 1857.

Boats large and small on Sydney Harbour.

HMAS Hobart - lead ship of the Hobart Class Air Warfare Destroyers - entered service 2017.

Floral display at the Botanical Gardens.

Those sisters at the Botanical Gardens.

Sydney CBD from the Botanical Gardens.

A lake at the Botanical Gardens.

Wollemi Pine at the Botanical Gardens - One of the world's oldest and rarest trees.

NSW Art Gallery.

Il Porcellino (Bronze Boar) located outside the old Sydney Hospital.

Bird Cages in Angel Place - Public Art?

Fine and mainly sunny in Sydney today.

Today we drove to the historic Coal Loader Terminal at Waverton, for a coffee before a look at the partially restored coal loader terminal, before a walk around Balls Head Reserve.

The coal loader terminal operated from the early 20's until its closure in the early 90's. The coal loader consisted of an extensive elevated platform which housed a large coal stockpile, under which there was a series of tunnels each with chutes for loading skips that were drawn through the tunnels. The skips operated on a cable hauled system that took them out onto a finger wharf to load waiting ships. The skips were replaced by a high speed conveyer in the 1970's.

In the early years coal was brought from nearby coal mines by small colliers and unloaded onto the platform using large grab cranes, before being transferred as bunkering coal to other vessels. In the 1970's the facility was converted for loading export coal ships.

Coal loader platform with two of the tunnels.

The derelict finger wharf at the coal loader terminal.

A coal loading skip.

Inside one of the coal loader tunnels.

HMAS Gascoyne a mine sweeper at the nearby Naval base.

Jan resting in a cave on Balls Head.

Goat Island from Balls Head with Sydney CBD in the bacground.

Ferries coming and going on Sydney Harbour.

Small shipyard located on Goat Island.

While it was fine and sunny for our trip into Sydney it turned out to be very windy.

The road from Seal Rocks to Bulahdelah was in very poor condition, but once onto the Pacific Highway traffic flowed fairly smoothly until we got near Newcastle, The old Sydney Newcastle Freeway was much busier with more trucks as we approached Sydney.

We arrived at the Lane Cove Caravan Park at about 12:30 pm to check in and were told that we were a bit early as it was not 2:00 pm. They checked us in anyway, then warned us that there was a grass fire between Lane Cove Road and the M2 Motorway, and if it jumped the road and got into the Lane Cove National Park we would have to be evacuated, and have to leave behind our vehicle and our caravan.

We had a quick lunch and packed our bags as we are staying with the Conways in Artarmon for our time in Sydney. As it turned out they got the fire under control so we were not affected.

No Photos today.

We spent a couple of lazy days at Seal Rocks enjoying the fine weather.

On Monday morning we went for a walk to the local shop looking for papers - no Australian however,

On Monday afternoon David decided to have a closer look at the Narva trailer connection plug on the caravan as a couple of pins has broken sections and did not connect well. Late in the afternoon he made a flying visit back to Forster to buy a new plug from the local Autobarn outlet. After carefully connecting the new plug with the colour coded wires reconnected in the same order as before, it was time to plug the van into the socket on the Navara. Right hand indicator not working! For some reason this indicator only works when the Caravan is hitched up to the Navara - perhaps an earth return? We might need to get this looked at when we get home as the colour coded wiring for the Narva plug does not match the actual wiring on the van. It all seems to work but we do not know why!

On Tuesday we made another trip in to Tuncurry for papers, lunch and visits to the Pharmacy and to Woolies.

Looking north from the beach at Seal Rocks.

Seal Rocks Beach.

Not sure where Andy is.

The Boat Beach at Seal Rocks.

Another view from Seal Rocks beach.

A boat undergoing repairs at Forster.

The bridge connecting Forster to Tuncurry.

A houseboat on Wallis Lake at Tuncurry.

Another fine day for our trip of 255 km from Nambucca Heads to Seal Rocks.

We were on our way at about 9:45 am. We were slowed by a lot of roadworks for the early part of our trip today, with speed limits of 60 and 80 kph. One of the other downsides of the roadworks is the closure of nearly all of the Rest Areas. Eventually we were able to stop at the Taree Service Centre for fuel and lunch. Just south of Taree we turned off the Pacific Highway on to the Lakes Way that took us through Forster-Tuncurry.

We arrived at Seal Rocks at about 2:00 pm and checked in for three nights. Last year when we were here the caravan park was a bit of a bomb site, but all the reconstruction work has been completed. The only down side of Seal Rocks is a lousy Telstra mobile phone signal, so we are making do with 100 MB of free Wifi per day.

Seal Rocks Caravan Park - last year we saw this building arrive in 2 parts on a couple of low-loaders.

Set up on Site 66 towards the back of the caravan park.

Seal Rocks caravan park - not too many customers at this time of year.