Today’s plan is to go to Royal National Park, so we had an early-ish start, aiming to leave the house by half 8 so we could pick up Steph en route. Steph lives by Clovelly Beach, which is lovely for its proximity to the coast, but a bit of a faff in terms of connecting to the rest of the city. Anyway, she was there and ready for pick-up from Entertainment Quarter and she bundled into the car to join us for our little adventure.
A popular Australian phenomenon is the Bunnings Sausage Sizzle, which is the equivalent of a hot dog barbecue in a B&Q car park. And there was a big Bunnings on our left as we drove out of the city, so we did the polite thing and stopped for a Bunnings sausage sizzle – a beef sausage with fried onions ‘wrapped’ in a slice of white bread. Simple pleasures! (Pork sausages aren’t really a thing here).
They proved quite difficult to eat as the slice of bread didn’t provide much stability for the sausage/onion and sauce combo. But we managed and it made for a very nice Saturday morning brunch.
We pulled up at Heathcote train station, made use of the facilities and got to the start of the Karloo Track at about half 10.
Our destination today were the Karloo Pools, which are freshwater pools you can swim in. We scoffed at the ‘hard’ grade on the sign, but actually the route wasn’t all that easy! Lots of ups and downs and tricky rocks to climb.
The noise of the cicadas along the way was deafening, as if there was construction work following us along the track. Steph likened it to a load of rape alarms going off at the same time, and I am inclined to agree. It’s not a particularly pleasant noise and you have to shout to each other to make yourselves heard, but it’s all part of the atmosphere, and was occasionally interrupted by the monkey-like laughter of the kookaburras in nearby trees.
Karloo Pools
We made it down to the pools in about an hour, which felt fast, but we’d only covered a few kilometres. That just goes to show how rocky it was in places.
It was very peaceful down here and the water was lovely, clear and cool, which was wonderfully refreshing after our tricky downhill hike with the sun beating down. It was certainly measuring up to be a hot day in Sydney! We changed out of our exercise gear and went in for a nice swim to cool off.
We got out and Michael noticed something swimming quite fast downstream… it turned out to be a water dragon!
Dreading the climb, we eventually made our way back up the hill.
Surprisingly, the journey back only took us 45 minutes, which must have been driven by our desire to find shade again or just finding it easier to climb up rather than down. I suppose it felt less precarious going up!?
With exercise comes an appetite, and Michael had read rave reviews about a fish & chip shop by the coast a bit further south called Rosie’s Fish&Chips, so we headed in that direction. But before we got there, we spotted an amazing lookout point over the east coast and stopped to take pictures and admire the view.
If you look closely, you can see the windy coastal road hugging the hills – the road we were about to take!
As you can see, this is one of those things where you had to be there and photos were useless, but I had to try…
As we travelled down the road to Rosie’s Fish & Chips, I took the opportunity to see where we were on the map. Quite far south, as it turns out!
Rosie’s Fish & Chips
We made it to Rosie’s and placed our orders, but there was a fair queue, seeing as it was lunchtime and the place is obviously quite well known for the quality of its fish and chips. As near to a British chippy as you’ll get…!
While we waited, a man with two dogs was hanging around, so of course we said hello to the dogs and the owner tried to get involved in the conversation too. Annoying!
One of them, the King Charles spaniel called Beamer, was shivering a bit, having been in the sea and not fully dried off yet, and bless her she came and leant against my legs, so the owner gave me the lead while he went in to collect his order from Rosie’s.
Our orders were finally ready and we were famished, and we thought it’d be nice to enjoy them on the beach we’d passed. Alas, it was very windy and there would be no enjoyment in battling the wind while trying to engulf our eagerly awaited fish and chips. So we resigned ourselves to scoffing them in the car with a view of the sea instead. Pesky coastal winds!!!
The National Falls
Once we’d had our fill, we just had one more stop on the way home – the National Falls. I napped a bit on the drive there – just couldn’t keep my eyes open.
Diagnosis = Possible food coma.
These waterfalls are probably spectacular in the wetter months, but while there had been some rain recently, clearly it wasn’t enough and all we experienced was a slight trickle.
The walk down to the observation point was clearly not a well or frequently trodden one and we had to be very mindful of snakes, but thankfully only saw a few lizards.
After the adrenalin rush of trying to avoid snakes in relatively undisturbed bush, we made our way back to Sydney to drop Steph off and then head into the city to meet some of Michael’s other friends.
First, we got ready back at Michael‘s and then tried to get an Uber as we were already quite late to meet the others – the drive back having taken longer than expected.
Side note: as we went to get our shoes, Michael noticed a weird kidney-shaped thing by the front door where we left our shoes. There was some blood around it and we wondered what the hell could’ve left it there or what on Earth it was. Michael’s flat is pretty secure so it seemed unlikely that something that brought it in and he doesn’t haven any pets. Strangely enough, I’d started bleeding from my ankle after my shower when we got back and assumed I’d cut myself shaving or something. However, I didn’t remember shaving my ankles, so this absolutely baffled me. A Google reverse image search told us that the horrible kidney-shaped thing by the door was actually a leech… EWWWW! I got leeched in Australia!
If squeamish, look away now…
Anyway, back to Michael’s friends…
We met them at Harbour View Hotel for a drink and then moved further towards the Rocks area for something to eat. Lots of places were absolutely rammed full and had queues outside but we managed to find a table for 8 at the Tap Room. A bit of QR code confusion and a few drinks and meals later, we headed to one last bar before home – the Doss House.
Michael very generously bought a round of drinks for everyone and we sat around some barrels upstairs. Really nice bunch of people. Three British guys, a Yorkshire lass and three Australian ladies.
The alcohol was going to my head (still a lightweight) and I didn’t want to return to the dizzy fog I’d been in a week ago, plus we had a fair drive and adventure planned for Sunday, so after a few couples had left we made our excuses and grabbed an Uber back. Straight to bed and asleep by about midnight!
14,942 steps covered
Blonde on a Road Trip 
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