April 30, 2014 8:00am
In the morning about 3:00am it started to rain again. I wasn’t about to stay longer in the expensive part of town so I packed up in the rain and cycled down to Manly, about 15k to catch the Sydney ferry. The ferry came in at 12:00 noon and I was only charged $7.20 for a one way ticket. Here’s my bike strapped in and waiting for takeoff.
My bike strapped to the rack.
The ferry had an incredibly fast WiFi that was free to use so I shot off a string of emails to the guys catching them up on recent developments. Then I readied my GoPro camera to get the obligatory photo of the Sydney Opera House as PROOF that I truly was here.
Here is the photo to prove it!
Once off the ferry in downtown Sydney I went into panic mode. It was lunch hour and the city was crowded with thousands of people hustling around with cell phones. It was too busy to cycle on the sidewalks and the streets were a mass of taxis and buses honking and jostling for better positions. No place for a lowly bicycle so I walked the bike through the city for about 8k using my compass to always head south.
And one with me in the picture.
I had no idea where I was going, I just knew I couldn’t stay in the center of Sydney. After another 15k I came to a town called Rockdale to the south of Sydney and it amazingly is only a 10 minute ride from Rockdale to the International Airport. So I figured that if I could find a spot to hole up for a week or so around Rockdale, I could box the bike and get a cab to the airport without it costing a fortune. But I looked and looked for a caravan park or campground anywhere within a 50k radius and no luck. I stopped at a McDonalds for one of their 30 cent ice cream cones and asked the employees if they knew of any caravan parks close by. One guy said that there was a small one hidden on a back street near where he lived and he drew me a map. It took three tries and another 10k to finally find the place.
Downtown Sydney
Their rates were fair and they were only 5 minutes from the airport so I paid for a week and setup the tent. I got all settled in just as the sun set. I noticed a plane lifting up from the direction of the airport headed west which confirmed the close proximity of the terminal. So I guess I lucked out finding the only caravan park in the Sydney metro area and getting a good weekly rate in the bargain. Now I need to wash all my clothes and locate a couple of suitable boxes that will fit the disassembled bike, racks & panniers. It was a good day.
