Travelling again!

On Friday I felt like I'd returned to my favourite pastime, finally getting the opportunity to travel to somewhere I haven't visited before!

I was off to Newcastle - 100 miles north of Sydney & 2.5hrs on the train!  That means the trains out here travel at the kind of speed steam trains used to in the UK... what a progressive nation I now live in!!  It's easy to understand why there is so much controversy over the governments plans for high speed rail links which will cost billions, take 50 years and be outdated by the time they're finished.  Surely just building a 'normal' speed rail link would be good!

It's amazing how far Sydney's rail system extends and for just $61 per week, you have full access to all of it, so you can travel to Newcastle in the North, Wollongong and beyond in the South, into the Southern Highlands, the Hunter Valley or the Blue Mountains and beyond!  This was the ticket I purchased, so I now have an excuse to travel a bit more over the next week at no extra cost!

The reason for my trip to Newcastle was to visit an old school friend who I haven't seen in 23 years, but who, like me, has ended up on the other side of the world!  The trip up to Newcastle is fabulous and is worth doing even if you have no specific reason for going there.  Once you leave Sydney's suburbs, you are travelling through dense bush (trees) along the Hawkesbury River with views out across wide expanses of water with boats sailing in the sunshine and marinas tucked into corners of the waterways.  It is a watersports enthusiast's nirvana and makes you wonder why more people don't choose to, live out here.  Oh, of course, it'll be that slow-speed rail link!

Newcastle is the centre of coal mining and transportation, which means you rather expect it to look black and grimy.  Instead it has a beautifully modernised, busy waterfront lined with eateries along the river and then massive stretches of beaches running from Nobbies lighthouse south, interspersed with rocky headlands and hidden coves.  It's certainly not a haven of activity as far as shopping goes with just a couple of sleepy main streets, so possibly not a great place to be if you're a shopaholic!  The residential areas are fairly sprawling, so you really need a car to get around, but if you like living somewhere close to countryside, this would be a great place to base yourself.  We visited a number of different places, all within around 25km of Newcastle, including a lovely nature reserve with raised walkways where you could spot the local wildlife, from birds to wombats, koalas to kangaroos.  Although further north than the Hawkesbury River, there is still inland water near to Newcastle and we did a lovely lakeside walk at Lake Macquarie Park, where we also found a great local farmer's market where we got a delicious lunch.

Saturday afternoon saw me travelling south again, back towards the city.  An hour & a half closer to Sydney are the small towns of Woy Woy and Umina, where I was off to visit another friend who's recently moved out here from the centre of Sydney.  It seems Sydney property prices are now starting to drive people out here and they realise you've got great beaches, right on the Hawkesbury river, a relaxed way of life, but still have access to the city with the train journey taking around an hour & 15 mins.  For the price of a small apartment share in the Inner West of Sydney, you can find yourself a 2/3 bed house with a garden out here.  There is a ferry from here to Palm Beach, which joins you to Sydney's Northern Beaches and as the crow flies, I'm probably not more than 5 miles away from my friends in Avalon, just south of Palm Beach.  The views are magnificent and we enjoyed a long sunset walk along the beach which seems to go on forever.  The only downside to life out here, it seems, are the bogans that congregate here!

My relaxing long weekend was completed by a trip to Manly to join my first Meet-up group on Sunday.  If you find yourself in a new place, anywhere in the world, I would strongly recommend heading to the meet-up website (www.meetup.com).  There are literally thousands of different meet-up groups all over the place, geared up to all different kinds of things, so whether you're into outdoor activities, wine tasting, partying, quiz nights or whatever, there will be a meet-up group for you.  The one I went along to on this occasion was Manly Meetup - Fun, Fitness & Friendship where they were having a meet-up for snorkelling and picnicking at Shelley Beach, Manly... one of my favourite spots in Sydney.  I arrived a bit late, but managed to find the group and met some great people from the UK, NZ, China and some home grown Aussies too!  The website (and the app) are great and once you've met some people, it's easy to see which other groups they belong to or what other events they're going to so you can attend other meet-ups where you know at least someone going along as well as meeting lots of new people too.

So after a hectic weekend, I watched sunset in Manly before heading back to Circular Quay on the ferry and home on the bus, ready to start a fresh week of job hunting!