After finishing work last Friday we kicked off what would be our last weekend together for a while by visiting the Sydney institution known as Luna Park - basically a Coney Island or Brighton Pier style amusement park, beautifully situated near the base of the Harbour Bridge on the north shore. Looking back to the city centre from here you can see skyscrapers, ferries, the famous bridge and the probably even more famous Opera House without moving your head.
It being Autumn here now, it was dark when we arrived, which was perfect, given the giant illuminated entrance complete with giant clown face and scary mouth that you have to walk through.
Determined to get maximum value out of the wristbands we purchased for unlimited rides, we went on almost all of the determinedly low-fi and old-school attractions. We probably liked the "wild mouse" ride the best, which was a bit like the "crazy mouse" at the end of Brighton Pier, which we are also fans of. A wooden rollercoaster with ridiculously tight turns, it actually made us think our car would just wobble off the tracks. We went on it three times.
Other ridiculous attractions included giant slides that you slide down on a hessian mat - Hannah chickened out of the tallest one - and the "rotor", which seemed like a good idea at the time... and I suggested it! Basically you stand inside a scaled-up version of a toploader washing machine, which spins round very fast, the centrifugal force making you stick to the sides of the drum. Then the floor drops away to leave you suspended halfway up a wall. Sounds fun, doesn't it? Probably would have been, were it not for the fact that it made me so dizzy that my face turned grey and I made a loud "uuurrggghhh" sound for the duration of the ride. Hannah commented that it was this noise, more than the spinning around at stupid revolutions per minute, that made her feel the most sick. And after that we had fish & chips.
Saturday was our last day together in Sydney and we spent some of it shopping for clothes for Hannah - not that she wanted more stuff to carry, but because she'd been warned by a friend in India to 'cover up', having arrived in India with a wardrobe that was 90% useless. We spent the warm sunny afternoon in the Domain i.e. the big park in the centre of Sydney, which is on the harbourfront and has the amazing view of the Opera House with the Harbour Bridge behind it. There's a theme here isn't there...
Then after some beer and food at the Lord Nelson (great pub up the road, one of Sydney's best) Hannah completed her packing and we hit the sack - we had to get up early the next day so I could drive her to the airport (minor panic about the van not starting in the dark on a lonely suburban street on Saturday night when I went to collect it notwithstanding).
And then by 9am the next morning Hannah had passed through to security at the airport and was on her way to Mumbai and then Delhi - where she'll be for at least the next six weeks. After that she's probably returning to the UK, so although we have a plan, we don't actually yet know for sure when we will see each other again! (Sounds awful! boo hoo!). After I left the airport car park I drove to a shopping mall nearby, just for somewhere to stop the van without having to pay for parking (Sydney really is a bitch of a city for that) and gather my thoughts. It really is a big step that Hannah has taken and i'm sure it'll be the making of her career. I'm immensely proud of her going off to India on her own and not very secretly quite jealous. But my turn will come. Hopefully my remaining in Sydney will be the making of my career, or that's the idea anyway...
Despite being on my own I had plenty to do on Sunday, not least of which was figure out how to sell the van (poor Tara, she really needs to be driven by someone, or she'll just seize up, we reckon!). She's now parked up at a multi-storey car park in Kings Cross, where once i've managed to get her a safety check certificate, she can enter the backpackers car market based there. Having conducted a couple of visits in the name of research, this seems to be a rather depressing place, where bored travellers sit in the dark until someone buys their clapped-out wagon. Unable to do this myself during the week, it looks like this is what i'll be doing next weekend. Everything sells at a price though, and looking at the ridiculously hopeful prices some of these backpackers seem to expect to get (the nerve!), I should be in luck - even at $3000 we would make a profit on Tara, including what we've spent on servicing & repairs, and undercut the competition. That's less than 1500 quid for a fully equipped queen of the road (honest).
Robin
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