This morning, Hez and I got up bright and early, said goodbye to April and James, then headed out. We drove from Woolongong to the big Maccas at Albion Park, where we met Robyn and Jim. We sat and had a coffee, along with a quick bite of Maccas brekkie, then all hopped into Jim’s car for our drive out to the Southern Highlands, to go to the ‘Illawara Fly’.
The drive took us up and up some very windy roads, which Jim said he didn’t like and I could see why; some of the turns were hair-pins and when there is a large vehicle towing a caravan trying to go in the opposite direction around the hair pin at the same time as you are trying to go around it, it does indeed feel a bit scary! Apart from being a bit scary, it was a beautiful drive, as the views offered much in the way of contrast between lush green land and the dry brown countryside.
As we went, we drove past places I came to in 2005 with Rotary – i recognised some of the centres where we went to give presentations! Jim was quite impressed that I could remember and spot the buildings; but then again, so was I!
Eventually we arrived at the Illawara Fly – a purpose built boardwalk through the trees. It was really beautiful walking amongst the canopy of gum trees. Despite the glorious sunshine, the air was much colder here, really crisp indeed – I guess because we were up high and relatively near the sea. The walkway led us to a cantilever bridge, which took us further out to a look out point. Robyn was a bit tentative on the bridge – she is not a massive fan of heights, so did very well to get across, as the walkway was made of a kind of metal grill, so you could see through it and down to the floor, quite far below! The views from the lookout were incredibly pretty – across the tops of the trees and out to sea, with the sun shining down, twinkling off the water.
We walked back over the bridge and to another, where the lookout was at the top of a tall tower with a step, spiral staircase on the outside (it looked kind of like a helter skelter). Robyn decided that she would wait at the bottom for us, so Jim, Hez and I went up. Once at the top, we were very impressed the views, similar to the last look out, but from way higher up! We learnt an interesting fact – the bridge we’d crossed has the capacity to hold 28 tonnes, which is the equivalent of 800 wombats! That fact made me chortle to myself for some time. We had a good look at the views, before going back down and finding Robyn at the bottom.
There was another bridge which took us to one more lookout, Robyn wasn’t sure about going across, as she had decided she was not a big fan, but we convinced her to come with us. This one was colder and windier than the others – it was freezing! It was so windy we could feel the whole thing swaying – this freaked Robyn out a bit, so she didn’t stop there long! From this lookout we could really appreciate the mixture of views – in one direction; gum trees, in a second; rainforest and in the third; the sea. We could see Woolongong quite clearly, in particular the steel works rising up high in the distance.
The last bit of walkway took us through some of the rainforest, which was very pretty and verdant. It lead us back up to the normal path, which pleased Robyn as it was low and firm ground once more! We followed the rainforest path back up a very steep slope and back to the entrance, where we gathered our breath before getting back in the car and going back to Albion Park (this time along a different route which was less winding).
Jim and Robyn dropped Hez and I off at the Maccas, then the two of us drove to Gerringong to the supie (the IGA where Hez works). We picked up some salad stuff and went back to the house to prepare it, just in time for Robyn and Jim to get home with some tasty crumbed fish and chips from the shop at Werribee beach. This proved to be a very delicious lunch indeed.
Hez and I spent the rest of the arvo just chilling out, watching tv, chatting, playing Scrabble online and generally doing not a lot, but enjoying sitting in the lounge in front of the fire, with Roland jumping on us every now and then, vying for some attention. This brought us round to one of the most important points of the week – Dr Who (Hez is a big fan!). Sadly, once again I was not particularly wowed by it, but hey, never mind.
Robyn prepared us a lovely stir fry for dinner, which we enjoyed whilst watching Masterchef. Hez and I then spent the rest of the evening watching tv, surfing the net and chatting with a few beers, trying to stay up so as to be able to watch the football. We kind of wished we hadn’t. Sad state of affairs indeed. It prompted much discussion between us and between the Aussie pundits on the show after the game. So once that was all over, we turned in.
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