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Wollongong (18–22 December)

After Wagga Wagga, the obvious next place to go was Wollongong, since it also starts with a ‘W’.

OK, we actually picked it because it’s a mid-sized beach town that was a reasonably easy ride by train and coach from Wagga Wagga. And hitting the beach seemed like a great idea, right up until the weather for most of our stay turned uncharacteristically cool, wet, and windy. The ‘W’ was just a bonus. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Our train was from Wagga Wagga to Moss Vale, with a connection to a coach (bus) from Moss Vale to Wollongong. Unfortunately the train arrived at Moss Vale over an hour late, and the bus was long gone. In Canada this would have been our problem, because the trains and buses are run by separate companies. But Transport New South Wales does both, and it was a single trip booked through them, so they made it their problem.

While we were still on the train, fretting about connection, the conductor let us know it had all been taken care of and we should talk to the staff on the Moss Vale platform. To our surprise they said that a cab would shortly be arriving to collect us and one other passenger. In the end the third passenger never showed and it was just the two of us.

So, instead of a tedious bus ride, we got a private chauffeur for the hour-long trip, at no cost to us (but probably about $150 Australian to the rail company). Roy, our driver, was a talkative middle-aged guy with brightly dyed hair who was happy to share his opinions about Australian politics (“a shambles”), the Australian COVID response (“massive overreaction for nothing”), and how the whole Moss Vale area isn’t what it was when he was a lad. He was also happy to narrate the incredibly twisty drive through Macquarrie Pass, and we’ll say it was definitely better him driving the pass than us – and definitely more fun in a car, ’though it would have been interesting to see the bus take on those hairpin turns.

The sun was setting as we were arriving at Wollongong and the cicadas started singing so loudly that we literally couldn’t hear the traffic over them. At the same time, the Grey-headed flying foxes came out. These are enormous fruit-eating bats, with a wingspan as wide as a metre, and really quite awesome to see. At one point there were dozens of them in the air.

Roy wasn’t supposed to drop us anywhere but the bus station, but since it was just us, he took us straight to the door of our AirBnB. Thanks, dude! In the end we lost an hour due to the late train, but gained thirty minutes because the car was faster than the bus, and ended up at our apartment only thirty minutes later than expected.

In putting together this entry we discovered we took almost no pictures in Wollongong. So, what you see is what you get. We promise the next few entries will be better illustrated!

As we already mentioned, the weather turned cool, wet and windy the evening after our arrival. We did manage to get to the beach once, on our first afternoon. This is a photo Greg took from the Flagstaff Point Lighthouse while out for a run that morning. You can see the flagged area at the near end of the beach, which is where the lifeguards are, and which is the only place you’re supposed to swim. We came onto the beach about halfway down and walked along the high tide line towards the flags. As we were passing a group of teenagers near the middle of the beach, we all spotted a solitary fin about twenty metres out in the water. The teenagers freaked out (“shark!”) and sent one of the boys running to the lifeguard while the rest followed the fin along the beach, towards the swimming area. After a couple of hundred metres the fin was joined by three others, and they all started breaching high enough we could see it was a pod of dolphins. Whew!

Since the weather was crap, and there really wasn’t a whole lot to do in our part of Wollongong, we mostly hunkered down in the apartment for the next few days. Greg got a bunch of work done, both “real work” and work on this diary. Karen busted out her sewing projects and played a lot of video games. We started re-watching season 1 of Reacher, since season 2 was coming out. And of course we had snacks, including these chips in two more uniquely Australian flavours.

We did get out to the nearby Five Barrel Brewing craft brewery for dinner one evening. This is a small, family-owned business that’s been open about eight years and features its own food truck outside.

It was a quiet evening in the tap room and we chatted with the bartender after placing our order. The order numbers to take to your table were polished wooden blocks, and Karen immediately balanced one on top of her head (as one does). The bartender challenged her to walk from the bar to the exit without dropping it, offering a tasting-sized (100 ml) beer if she managed it. Which was a terrible bet on his part, since Karen has done entire dances with tippier things in a head balance. The bartender was impressed, and graciously paid up.

If you’re ever in Wollongong, we’d strongly recommend popping in. The beer was top quality, the burgers from the food truck were excellent, and the sweet potato fries were about the best we’ve had anywhere. And maybe you can tempt the bartender into a sucker bet of your own.

Our last day in Wollongong was Greg’s 59th birthday, so we went to Lux Bistro Bar for a celebratory dinner. The food was great and the cocktails were both interesting and delicious.

We spotted at least two sideways palms like this in the pedestrian mall outside the restaurant. No, we’re not sure what’s going on either.

From Wollongong, it was just a short ride north on a commuter train to Sydney and the home of Karen’s cousin Liz, where we were heading to spend Christmas with the family.

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