Days 312-316- Full Circle- Back to Sydney

Melbourne –Sydney -Bondi Beach -Manly –Blue Mountains -Katoomba -Sydney –Melbourne: Friday, November 2 to Tuesday, November 6

Time was running out for us to use up our free Virgin Blue flight credit after our trip home from Darwin when we were bumped to a flight via Brisbane. The Melbourne Cup is held the second Tuesday of November and for residents of Victoria, the day is a public holiday. Added to that, Wesley College takes Monday as a midterm break and makes a 4 day weekend out of it. Our quandary was how far we could go on our credit in 4 days. Gold Coast, Hobart, Adelaide, or Sydney?
We settled on a trip back to Sydney so that we could do a few more city things, go to Bondi Beach, see the Bondi outdoor sculpture exposition, maybe return to Manly to browse the shops, and to see something new, the Blue Mountains.
Friday night we scrambled to the airport, not realizing that half the city would be trying to travel west on the Monash Freeway. The traffic was horrendous and the automated road signs indicated the airport would take well over an hour to reach. It took longer than that. We dropped the car at a long-term parking space and ran to the shuttle stop. We arrived at the Virgin Blue self check in computer with less than a minute to spare, dropped off our baggage and ran to the boarding gate. We were in luck when we found out that the plane had arrived late and we still had a few minutes before boarding.
Off to Sydney, which is just over an hour by plane but a full day’s drive if one chooses to go that way. We picked up our hire car and Mat navigated us in the dark to the home of my friends George and Robyn Atkinson in Canada Bay. We caught up with them until late in the evening and finally put ourselves to bed.
Saturday morning dawned cloudy and cool, which is not typical of the city tis time of year. The boys were determined to visit Bondi Beach, so off we went, bathing suits and all, just in case. Navigator Mat got us there just fin, and we parked, watched the surfing competition and quickly put swimming out of our minds. The lifeguards had the flags up but no one in their right minds was in the water.
The boys tried their luck on Bondi’s famous skate park, watched the surfing competition and checked out the surf shops. On the other hand, Colleen and I walked the trail towards Bronte Beach, where the annual Bondi Art and Sculpture display was running. The combination of setting and the unique sculptures, from the surreal to the silly, made this alone worthwhile.
We parked downtown and grabbed a Manly ferry for the afternoon. Browsing shops, watching the surfers, enjoying the food, we stayed until near dusk.
After and all night thunderstorms, Sunday was clear and breezy and we joined Robyn and George at his parish of St. Luke’s Burwood, afterwards lunching on the main street of the suburb.
We had a mission that afternoon, as a friend of my mother’s had requested that we research the grave of her sister and nephew at the Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney. I had phoned over on Saturday and received information about the location of the grave. George, who claimed to have lots of friends there (sadly, he is there all too often due to the aging of his parish), offered to take us on the tour. Rookwood is one of the largest cemeteries anywhere, and it would have been difficult for us to find our way around. We toured the Catholic Mausoleum (the new way to be interred) and then went on a search. Fortunately, the graves are in sections and are marked with numbers. Once we got the pattern, we located the grave. It was not the one we were looking for and the office was closed on Sunday. George took us through other sections of the cemetery, each as large and as the others: Chinese, Anglican, Muslim, Jewish, Croatian, Greek Orthodox…
We dropped off George and said our goodbyes, with the proviso that George and Robyn would come and stay with us next summer in July 2008.
The sunshine and warmth of the day were misleading as we drove the Great Western Highway up into the mountains. We planned a rendezvous with fellow exchanglings Tom and Ginette Andress and family from Hillsburgh, who have been in Sydney this year. They visited us last April in Melbourne. They were at Echo Point, the lookout over the Blue Mountains in Katoomba. Little did we know that it was quite cool and breezy until we got out of the car. It was great catching up with them. They had planned a exchange teacher’s weekend of their own and gave us some great tips on places to go and what to see in the area.
Monday’s weather was cool and damp, and drizzle was falling. We picked up some wonderful baked goods at the great bakeries in Katoomba and drove to Jenolan Caves (http://www.jenolancaves.org.au/), one of the largest collections of underground cave anywhere. We were thrilled to tour one of the caves (Lucas) with a tour guide, which took almost 2 hours. We also took the self guided tour through the Nettles Cave, which took another hour. It would have taken a full week to tour all of them, each one uniquely spectacular. It was a good day to do this as the cool, wet weather was not conducive to hiking and sightseeing above ground. Besides, we had not brought enough warm clothing with us.
Tuesday was even wetter, so we walked the main street of Katoomba exploring the shops. Then we stopped in at various towns along the way, Leura, and Wentworth Falls to name two. Leura was particularly pleasant, and we picked up a few souvenirs here at the all-wood shop.
The weather began to clear, or so we thought, so we took an hour hike from Wentworth Falls Reserve to the Princes Lookout for a great view of the Wentworth Falls and the Jamison Valley. It was the only hour of the day when heavy rain did not fall. But the mist shrouded mountains and falls were spectacular!
Heading back towards the city, I called the Rookwood Cemetery Office again and was able to determine that we indeed had been given incorrect information. I carefully wrote down the correct details and Navigator Mat directed me back to the cemetery for another try. The office was still open so we asked for more precise information so as not to waste time so late in the day (as we had a flight to catch). It did not take long to find the numbered grave. My mother’s friend, who had emigrated from Italy to Canada after the war, had a sister who had done the same, to Australia. Her son had died as a young child in 1948. The sister had passed away in 1990. We stood in silence for a moment, regretful that we had not bought flowers to add to the stone on the grave for that purpose.

In loving memory of
Our darling son
Robert John McCue
Died November 24th, 1948 aged 2 years

At Rest
Giovanna Erminia McCue
Died 26th of January 1990 aged 69 years
Her courage was our strength
RIP



It was a peaceful place, and we took a few photos, but could not find the piece of information that was missing, the boy’s birthday. We walked through other sections, many military, and found soldiers who had gone to distant shores to fight at Gallipoli, in France, and in other far away places. It struck me again that the young men and woman who went off to war from this country were so far from home when they arrived in Europe, the South Pacific, Korea, and Vietnam.

Our weekend was quickly coming to an end, and we navigated back to Kingsford-Smith Airport, where we arrived in this country 10 months ago, jumped on our Virgin-Blue flight back to Melbourne, collected our car, and drove home. It was late and we were tired, which was balanced by the fact that we only had 3 days left in the week.

A footnote: Our exchange friends, Cam and Cathy, and their son Josh, had traveled to Uluru for the weekend (despite this being their second exchange, only Cathy had been to Uluru). They were lucky enough to see rain on the Rock, a most rare event, (once in a few years) they captured in photos. The whole Outback village of Yulara, even the employees, left their posts to see the rain. The picture does not tell the whole story.


Photo of "Rain on the Rock" by Cathy Boote