I may have mentioned this one or twice (or countless times) but I really enjoy going to Sydney – but enjoy leaving it much more!
Now the kids are all living in Sydney, we actually travel to the Big Smoke a little more often.
We can’t talk the kids into coming home too often so if want to see them, we have to pack up and travel down to the city!
I have to say though, I enjoy spending a few days there and the kids take us to different spots all the time which gives us a bit of an inkling as to why they love it down there so much.
Truly, there are some magnificent locations and views, and plenty to keep your interests.
We actually went on a 20 kms bike ride around some of the most picturesque scenery you could want to see.
But I also know why I could never live there.
The bloody traffic! (Sorry about the language).
It really is a nightmare. Maybe the people who live there can handle it, but for someone who can drive along looking everywhere but the road and still get to where you want to in less than five minutes, it’s a new way of life.
And it is not just a simple matter of dropping around to say g’day to someone.
We have quite a few nieces and nephews who live around Sydney and we like to catch up whenever we are down there.
But it’s not as simple as that.
Here in Parkes, you can see a dozen different people in just a morning if you want to.
To go and see just one in Sydney is an all-day excursion!
Yep, they can have it all to themselves.
But what really destroyed us was actually getting out of the city to come back to Parkes.
‘Quite easy,’ everyone told us. ‘Just jump on the freeway and it will take you out.’
Yeah right!
We had to travel over the Harbour Bridge (getting there was also an absolute nightmare, stuck in heavy morning traffic in the heart of the city – the kids couldn’t understand how we managed to get caught there, but it was no problem to us).
Anyway, we had to go over the bridge to get to North Sydney where we had an appointment, and believe it or not, we actually found it easy to find the freeway from where we were.
Onto the freeway and away we went.
Unlike most times we travel, and as we were on the ‘north’ side of Sydney, we decided to travel back via the Bells Line of Road.
That means Windsor, Richmond.
So speeding down the freeway we were until we saw signs directing us to Lane Cove, Epping, Timbuktoo ….whatever, but anything but Windsor or Richmond!
Obviously, we thought, we were heading in the wrong direction. So off the freeway we came (actually finished right back where we started!)
Looking at the Gregory’s (a few years out of date) and it again reinforced that we should get on the freeway, that it would change from F1 to F2 somewhere along the line.
Away again…still no signs so…yep, off again.
In the end, we were assured along the way we would get some signs to Windsor, so back on again we went.
Only a few kilometres along, our e-tag (getting that organised was yet another story!) was zapped. Our toll was paid.
Within five kilometres I guess, we got a Windsor sign, which we took.
Down a tunnel and zapped again, another toll.
The tunnel went for a few kilometres and up we came into daylight again and straight onto another freeway.
Another zap, another toll!
But what was more annoying this time was that after only about 500 metres (yep, metres) we had an off-ramp to Windsor.
So $6.80 or whatever it was, for the pleasure of driving straight off it.
Finally getting over the Great Dividing Range never felt so good!
And driving back into Parkes…well, it’s the best feeling of the lot!
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And while on interesting experiences, I am sure I spotted a bilby at our home last week.
At first I thought it was a rather big mouse (but better looking) – it was certainly not a rat.
When I told someone about my interesting little friend, complete with long nose and big round ears, they said it was more likely a bilby.
So that’s what I am sticking with anyway. A bilby – right there in our own yard.
Maybe someone who knows can let me know if they actually exist around here.
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THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:
‘It’s not the mountains we conquer, but ourselves.’
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