Tuesday 28 December 2021

Sydney Sapiential travels north - and is no more!

 

It's been nearly 24 years now of getting to know and love (not always, but often) this town of Sydney. But all good things must come to an end some day. Sydney Sapiential has upped and left. Gone to Queensland droving, so to speak.

 

I've sold up and moved house four times now. Each was prolonged and painful, but this one was probably the worst. So much stress, so much to do. I never want to do it again. (That's what I've said on the previous occasions too, of course.)

There's so much to throw out, so much to pack and take with you....



There's removalists to co-ordinate.

 

And of course you have to actually find a buyer for the house. All came good in the end.


Perhaps the biggest hurdle was the Queensland border. They opened it just in time, a week and a half before Christmas, but they imposed a near-impossible permit system, requiring vaccination documentation and a Covid test both 72 hours before and 5 days after entry.



We broke our journey at Tea Gardens and at Evans Head. Both are scenic and slightly off the highway.

 

Then it was time to brave that Queensland border. See if you can work out the system being used by the border policeman to sort the wheat from the chaff. (And note the pesky passenger coughing on cue!!)


 

 

And it's on then to the Sunshine Coast and Maroochydore, with its fine beaches. (And its oversized shopping centres, innumerable homemaker centres and a Los Angeles style tangle of motorways to nowhere!)


Sunday 5 December 2021

Ben Bullen pagodafest

 

With my imminent departure to a new life in a more northerly location, last Thursday's Gardens of Stone expedition may well have been my last such Thursday Survey. Living National Treasure Harold found us yet again a totally new area to explore (for most of us, not for him).




We were in the Ben Bullen State Forest, not too many stones throws from the Mt Piper power station, which is indirectly responsible for the subsidence damage to some of the pagodas and other formations around the area.

The good news is that, after decades of campaigning for it, a Gardens of Stone National Park is finally to be created. Details aren't yet widely accessible though.


Mostly you're away from such sights, and from the trail bike trails, and then it's a fabulous wilderness. A pagodafest even!