No Boxing Kanagroos!

Sunday 9^th Nov. - photos to come!

A good night’s sleep in Lake Munmorah.  We are off towards Sydney.  We return to the Hyee Point to see if we can see any kangaroo’s in the wild.  This is, the location of the YouTube video of the kangaroo’s boxing we saw on the news.  We do the drive around but no luck.  Time to head towards Sydney.

The rock cut outs are enormous.

With our GPS programed for Nowra (south of Sydney) we are off. 

The M1 is fast (110 km/hr) and the traffic builds and then slows as we approach the city.  They are very conscious about speed here and there are numerous reminders that you are being watched regarding your speed (speed camera, red light cameras, roadside cameras, aerial 

Rocky side of the road.

cameras, average road cameras, speed and fatigue camera’s, etc, etc).  As you can imagine, the speed is very close to the speed limit.  They are also very good about using lanes properly, which we in Canada can learn from.  They drive in the slow lane, pass in the fast lane and return to the slow lane.  Although, I understand there is a hefty fine if you are found driving continuously in the passing lane. 

We drive for about one hour past the city then stop for lunch and to check out the cherries and other fruits for sale.   They are selling a small clamshell pack of fresh local cherries for $15.00 and the larger clamshells are $25.00.  We pass on the cherries and have a coffee instead ($8.00). 

Avon Dam Entrance.

I spy a fellow, Geoff, selling beautiful tumbled gem rocks and Alan checks out the Barista on the back of a truck. This gentleman makes his own jewelry and does a beautiful job twisting the wire.  I purchase a tigers eye. I purchase a second one of local rock_____. Afterwards he shows me the paintings he has done depicting a famous poem about a Ned Kelly, the gangster. We know Waltzing Matilda also written by Banjo Patterson. Then Geoff picks up his banjo and plays us one of the tunes. It was marvelous! What a fun artist!

Sharp turns on the mountainside.


Not far down the road we find the sign to the Avon Dam.  It looks interesting so we get off the high way and follow the signs.  The road is very scenic and extremely wind down into a gorge and along the river valley, and yes very narrow road, into the dam site.
   This is the Avon Dam, the main water source for Sydney.  The dam is capable of holding 4.3 billion litres of water and looks like it is doing quite well for a 1928 construction. The level marker shows the level is down almost 2 m below the “0” water mark indicating that they are a bit dry like the rest of the country.  The site is very picturesque with nice blue water, a huge stone dam built in 1921 and archway pillars at the entrance to the top of the dam. Very picturesque!

Down the road we stop for the night at Mittagong and stay in a lovely room at the Mittagong Motel.  It is an older motel that is beautifully renovated! They allow us to use their washer and dryer, then provide a free breakfast! What a family friendly Motel.

Dinner at the modern RSL is excellent. I have the Tangiers chicken with roast potatoes and roast pumpkin, Alan has beef stroganoff.