Heading Home

Am sitting in the departure lounge at Sydney Airport waiting to head back to Perth for a couple of days before heading to Denmark ( Denmark in the South West of Western Australia that is).

Have spent 4 great days on the Hawkesbury River, in particular Dangar Island just off Brooklyn.

On Wednesday caught up with some friends we met while they were "in residence" at the Katherine Sussanah Pritchard writers centre in Perth. They came down from Lake Maquarie and we spent the day with them, there is a great little fish & chips shop in Brooklyn, so with a bottle of wine and some salad we had lunch in the park, accompanied by the bush turkey, carrawongs and noisy miners (oh, and a couple of small humans also).

Yesterday got up early and again took the ferry (The Sun) to Brooklyn and boarded the Hawkesbury River Explorer, which is the last remaining River Postman in Australia, for a 31/2 hr trip up the river dropping off mail and goods to the various communities along the river.

But am afraid that is all over now and this morning  Rose and I had to pack up, leave our cosy little cottage and verandah overlooking the river and head off to the airport. Caught the train out of Hawkesbury but stopped off in Sydney, but would you know it, ther are no luggage lockers at the Rail Station! so we were stuck with our lugagge, however found a nice little cafe close by (at the Youth Hostel actually!) and had a lunch of Teryaki Chicken with drink for $9.98!.

So here we now are at the airport waiting for our flight. Next week we head off to Denmark, so will write again then.

Dangar Island, Hawkesbury River, NSW

Well Hullo from Dangar Island!

This is a beautifull and thoroughly relaxing place and only one hour by train from Sydney, perfect.
Although we had to be up at 4.00am in the morning to get ready and catch a flight from Perth in Western Australia to Sydney and THEN the train, arriving at Dangar island about 6.00pm EST (including daylight saving) - so it was a looong day! but certainly worth it.

The Island itself is very small and very lush, we thought we had accidentally arrived in Queenslands far North, the vegetation is so green.

The house we have rented is directly on the beach with kayaks for exploring and very comfortably furnished, even the TV is located in the second bedroom so you are not tempted to switch it on except for important news items, which is a great idea.

There are no cars on the island so almost every house has a wheelbarrow for carting the shopping etc from the ferry to the house - very unique and rather cool!

Have spent today exploring the island, and the first thing we found was the Island store so we dropped in for a caffeine fix and contemplation of the river (I think we may do a lot of that - its that type of place and the river is so beautifull).

Luckily we brought with us some emergency supplies (Rissotto, some greens, breakfast cereal etc) because the supplies on the island are minimal and we have no transport except the ferry to Brooklyn about every hour, so you cannot just pop out and buy something, and the cafe is closed for evening meals.

Tomorrow some friends who live at Lake Maquarie are coming to visit and we will meet them at Brooklyn for lunch and they are going to take us for a tour of the surrounding area, looking forward to that.

On Thursday we will take the River Postman for a morning trip (with Buffet lunch) up the Hawkesbury and hopefully we will be able to see some of the oyster farms which are located on the river.

Will report on this in a later issue, Cheers for now.