18.11.2018 | Australia, Travel

Exploring Sydney by car and ferry – Bondi, Manly, Blue Mountains

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1. Bondi Beach and a tip for free parking:

After driving with our campervan successfully through the outback, visiting Adelaide and Kangaroo Island, the Great Ocean Road and Melbourne, we arrived in Sydney. Early in the morning, we started from our free rest area behind the fish market in Kiama to the famous Bondi Beach. Unfortunately, the parking space in front of the Bondi Beach costs 8 AUS Dollar per hour!! Funnily we found out that you can park for free on top of the hill Ray O´Keefe Reserve on the left side of Bondi Beach (looking towards the ocean). There are only 20 parking spaces, but early in the morning, a few were still free.  There was only a sign, that you aren´t allowed to stay overnight. And what should I say – it is the best parking space ever! From there you have the perfect view to the Bondi Beach. Furthermore, the Bondi to Coogee walk starts here. A small trail on top of the rocks leads down to the beach, where lots of people do sports in the sand and continuously new surfer groups jump into the water. Further up, at the expensive parking slot, there are beautiful graffitis. We´ve been there in May and it was still warm, the sun shined, we could wear short clothes and it was less crowded.

2. Humpback Wales at the Bondi to Coogee Walk

Starting on the Bondi Beach, the Bondi to Coogee Walk continued passing the famous Bondi Icebergs Pool. Especially when there is a high swell, the waves splash into the outdoor pool. The way leads on top of the rocks, along with the coast and occasionally down to the little bay beaches. The view is gigantic! The total trail is 7 km long. There are several spots to take a break and to enjoy the view on top of the rocks. Just as we were taking a few pictures, a nice Australian man told us that there are at least four big Humpback Whales in the water. It was an impressive experience! They were swimming extremely near to the coast of Bondi because at this time of the year they have to swim up to Cairns in the north. They were jumping out of the water, again and again, I could even see there really big body above the water as well as the white ripped bellies. Also, the side fins, the tail fin, and the fountain were clear to see. They appeared to play together. We were totally impressed because we booked a whale tour in Iceland a few months ago without seeing one of these creatures. Apparently, we had to come to Bondi Beach to see some whales :). Towards evening it got windier and we drove to Manly.

3. Manly and the ferry trip to Sydney at night

We didn´t found a cheap parking space for longer than 3 hours in the center of Sydney, therefore we drove to Manly crossing the Harbour Bridge. Attention partly you have to pay toll here, which you can report and pay on the internet. We left our car in Manly and took the famous ferry from Manly to Circular Quay / Sydney, luckily we made it to sunset. There is also a faster ferry, but we chose the older, traditional one. The ferry trip costs 8,60 AUS Dollar per person and I highly recommend it – it was adorable! We stood outside all the time and looked at the residential areas at the coast. I loved that the people are living directly next to the water. The spectacular skyline of Sydney came closer and closer until we reached the harbor, Circular Quay.

4. Sydney by night and a tip for a popular restaurant

When we arrived in the harbor, we walked through the beautiful center by night. In contrast to the day, when people are wearing suits or working clothes, the people seemed to be a lot more relaxed. Everyone enjoyed the evening and spending their time outside with friends. According to an Australian woman the best restaurants are pretty scattered in the city, sometimes they are located in big malls. However, we found a big secret restaurant “Jamies Italien”. The entry is pretty inconspicuous, it looked like a little café from outside, but inside it was really big, with two floors in industrial chic style. We found a lot of locals relaxing in this restaurant. I think it is a big secret tip and very popular among the locals. The pasta was amazing and they have special offers in the evenings ( big pasta portion + soft drink 15 AUS Dollar).

5. Lightshow in Sydney

On our way back, we were pretty surprised by all the lights in the city. We found that there was a light show (2018 from 25th May to 16th June). The high-rise buildings were illuminated simply everywhere and they showed little animations on the walls. The opera transformed to a Phoenix or a fern according to the sound of the music. A fantastic spectacle and people from all of the world as well as the locals enlivened the city. The Harbour Bridge and the ferries were illuminated, too, furthermore big floodlights brightened the night sky. There were wonderful playing and singing street musicians at the harbor.

6. Goodbye to Sydney and the return to Manly by ferry

Finally, it was time for us to say goodbye to this wonderful city because we wanted to drive further north. It was sad on one side to say goodbye, as we both fell in love with this city. Maybe it felt like home because we already visited Sydney for the second time. (our flight arrived in Sydney before we moved to Alice Springs). The view from the ferry to the illuminated opera and the buildings with the changing motives and animations were fantastic. It then got quieter and darker until there was only the illuminated skyline on the horizon.

7. Blue Mountains

From Manly we drove our camper van a bit further to the Blue Mountains, we used the highway in the darkness. We planned to reach the Blue mountains the next morning before the tourist buses arrive. It was hard to find a rest area for two-wheel-cars. We found a place “Bulls Camp Reserve” not far from Katoomba, where we could stay for free. There were at least 15 other campers. The next morning we moved on at 7:30 am and arrived at the Echo Point/Blue Mountains at 8:30 am. There was a side street with parking spaces in front of the Echo point, unfortunately, you have to pay 4 Dollars per hour. As a precaution, we paid for 5 hours because we didn´t know how much time we would spend on the hiking trails. (We actually used 4 hours) At this time there was absolutely no one and we enjoyed the view over the hilly landscape with the blue dust coming out of the eucalyptus trees. The tourist information opened at 9 am, but you don´t need it. You can set off on your own. Be the early bird, otherwise, there will hundreds of tourists!

• At first, we visited the viewing platform at the Echo Point with the view to the Three Sisters and the Table Mountain.
• We then walked the path to the Three Sisters, crossing a bridge you can walk directly on top of one rock. Again we had a wonderful view over the blue dust of the eucalyptus trees.
• We walked down the “Giant Steps” and found ourselves in the middle of the jungle. The way with all the steps was a little steep, but there were viewing platforms for a break repeatedly. Arriving in the jungle we walked a trail through the forest with fern and tropical plants.
• We then reached the first cable car station, which you can use to go back up. But we decided to not use the cable car because you can reach everything by food and the pass per person for 3 car cables was 39 AUS Dollar. Furthermore, the cable cars were full of tourists. From the car cable station, you can walk the longest wooden walkway of Australia. The “Board Walk” was built beautifully in the middle of the jungle and leads through big trees, ferns, and palm trees.
• Then you reach the old mine shafts, in the past, they were mining coal with the help of horses. After that you will reach the second car cable station, floating above a little gorge. Here again, we decided to take the footpath. We passed two waterfalls until we reached the “Scenic World” station with the cable cars, after that we had to walk around 30 minutes back to the Echo Point with the parking place. The last section was very beautiful with a lot of stunning viewing platforms.

When we reached the parking space it was absolutely crowded by tourists – the exact opposite of when we arrived earlier in the morning. Many touring busses had reached the Echo Point and it was very noisy. I would highly recommend coming as early as you can and to leave around 12 pm. Otherwise, it will be hard to enjoy nature without noisy tourist masses – we were so glad that we came early in the morning. In general, the Blue Mountains are a beautiful excursion destination, especially if you can only explore the area of Sydney. But I didn´t like all the cable car stations built in the beautiful nature, which attract a lot of tourists. The national parks between Sydney and Melbourne, like the Wilson Promontory NP or the Cape Otway NP, felt a lot more “untouched”. Nevertheless, there are still a few more places in the Blue Mountains you can visit with a 4-wheel car a lot quieter and isolated from the tourists.

Our way up north to Newcastle

From the Blue Mountains, we took another route passing Berambig. The road was smaller and more beautiful and we had wonderful views from the Blue Mountains. Passing Windsor, we completed the course to Newcastle. In Newcastle, we slept on a free rest area directly next to the ocean. At first we wanted to stay at the York Drive in the King Edward Park, it was declined as a free rest area in the wiki camps app, but in the evening there were a lot of young guys with loud music parking directly next to us, revving up the engine of their cars all the time. We felt a little nervous, therefore we finally moved to a green area in a calm side street. We then continued our road trip from Newcastle to Woolgoolga and Byron Bay.   *** Dieser Artikel enthält Werbung, da Marken genannt werden.