Day 297 - Sunday 22 October - Grand Pacific Drive part 2

Day 297

Sunday

22 October – Cairns v Wildcats – The first game we have managed to catch on TV this season and they play terribly, what a disappointment

Corrimal Beach – Bulli – Coalcliff – Bald Head – Wollongong

We were both awake at 6am needing the loo, so we reluctantly crawled out to make our way to the amenities. The sky was a little grey and cloudy but it seemed like the day would hold out for our planned sight seeing.

The park is over run with rabbits, we have seen them every day scampering about between dusk and dawn. I was even able to pat a black one the other night, they certainly aren’t fazed by human interaction.

While I think it is great, though I know they are a best, Paul likes to go around shooting them with his finger, blowing the smoky tip with each pop. He tells me he is very accurate and it is a bunny massacre. It is very amusing, if not somewhat macabre. How one innocent act of the first settlers in Geelong has spread and caused massive ecological change is just incredible. If only they knew their actions would be so long lasting and widespread.

We returned to bed to read until 7.45am, when we got up for real. Paul made his way to the laundry to do a load of washing, only to open the door and have two cop cars and a van turn up outside. The officers soon vacated their vehicles and made off down the sandy beach path. Hmm. That was when I remembered I had heard car alarms going off in the night.

Paul returned with the gossip. They were looking off someone who was in the park last night. The cops had been around the park in the evening, but couldn’t find the wanted person, so were back, but we didn’t see anyone being taken away before they left the park.

We prepared ourselves for our day of sight seeing and by 9.30am, we were packed and on the road. Today’s adventure took us north on the Grand Pacific Drive and our first stop was Bulli. This is basically the next beach along from Corrimal.

We stopped as I insisted we go for a walk. We made our way out to the point where we could see to the north and south and those attempting to fish and surf.  I was glad that the blue sky was appearing and while it wasn’t as clear as yesterday, there was less wind and warmer, so it was quite lovely being out.

Once back in the car, we continued our drive, following along beside the various small beach side spots. We made a quick stop at a lookout in Coledale. There wasn’t a lot to see but there was an interesting sculpture to wander around.

Back on the road, we continued to follow the winding road passing the sign indicating the Sea Cliff Bridge and parking. We didn’t find the parking area after driving over the bridge, so when we had driven the full length, we ducked into the small suburb and parked on the side of a street and then walked back.

The road bridge that was built to hug the coast also incorporates a pedestrian path on the water side and it gives tourists and locals the opportunity walk the full length and enjoy the view of the water as well as marvel at the road and the bridge works.

We walked the complete span, about 1.5km, with me clambering up on the side barriers to get a better view. I am sure Paul was having kittens as I hung myself out over the railings, it was the only way this short arse was going to see anything.
 Plenty of bikers were out making the most of the good weather, though Paul was lamenting how painful the ride would be with the amount of traffic on the road and not something he would have enjoyed if he felt so inclined to get his bike off the back of the trailer.

The cliffs are quite ominous leading straight to the water. At one stage we noticed a group of youths walking the top edge and we both thought, just one slip and you are gone.

After reaching the far end of the bridge, we began the return journey. From here we could see the town Stanwell Park and the Bald Hill Lookout that sits towering over the beachside town below. The hill is so named, as there are no trees and bush covering, just rolling green. It is known as a great spot for paragliding and parasailing and we could see a few floating about as we looked out.

Once we were back at the car, we joined the Sunday traffic and drove on to Bald Hill. We ducked into the lower car park away from the crowds and proceeded on foot to a lookout. From up here there was a great view south. You could see the sea cliff bridge, Stanwell Park and Wollongong in the distance.

We continued up the path, dodging the foreign tourists oblivious to the orange cones designed to create a barrier between them and the landing area for those that were airborne. We just shook our head and raised our eyebrows.

At the top car park, bikers had taken over, this was obviously a bikers destination and with good reason with such a great view and the entertainment of those silly enough to strap some plastic to them and take a leap of faith.

We watched them float about above our heads and over the water, ducking away from view as they dropped below the cliff only to rise again on a thermal breeze.

As Bald Hill was the end of our drive, we ducked off the Grand Pacific Drive and made our way to the Highway for the journey home. This was the same road we had first travelled into Wollongong on and I knew there was another lookout to stop at that looked over Bulli. Sure enough when we stopped and looked out, we could see the point we had walked this morning, as well as where our van was parked and Flagstaff Lighthouse.

With our last stop done, we drove on back to the van making it back for 12.30pm. We ate lunch in the van and then opted to head to the camp kitchen so that we could watch some of the motorbike racing occurring at Phillip Island. We arrived in time to watch the first race, Moto 3 before it was rained out, mirroring the rain that began falling here as well. We were then able to watch the complete Moto 2 race. All the while I was going through the photos for the day and loading what I could online while the net was behaving.

At 3pm, we made our way into Wollongong, the sky threatening to open up yet again. We walked the main streets taking in the art and attempting to find a bar that might be showing the Wildcats match. We came across a fountain in which some smart bunny had poured bubble mixture and the pool surrounding the fountain was just full of white bubble, I kept looking for Kylie Minogue amongst them expecting her to pop up singing I Should be so Lucky!

We stopped briefly at Woollies, dumped the groceries in the car and walked to the WIN entertainment centre where people were just starting to mill about. We decided to go to the Illawarra Brewery bar and were happy to see that Fox was playing and better yet they had the Melbourne vs NZ game playing as well as the MotoGP, we were in sports heaven.

Paul bought us drinks and we sat down where we could see both events, playing tennis with the TV’s as we gave attention to both events. We stayed until the end of the GP race, Paul happy to sitting Rossi pick up 2^nd and the Aussie Jack Miller come in 7^th. The basketball wasn’t quite done but NZ looked the goods.

We found our seats in the arena, not as good as the Kings game and more expensive. The entertainment centre isn’t large and wasn’t overly full. The game start was delayed due to the Melbourne game running late and FOX not being ready to broadcast until it was completed. I kept an eye on that game via my phone, happy to see Melbourne was rolled.

We settled in to watch Illawarra take on Brisbane. I was pleased to see that the crowd was much more like Perth, vocal and clapping and I felt more entertained than I had at Sydney or Adelaide. We were amused by the court side announcer proclaiming, “here come your Hawks last years grand finalists” and of course Paul couldn’t help but point out they were swept by the Wildcats, the eventual champs. He continued to throw the baits out there, clapping and cheering for Brisbane, meanwhile I wanted to see Illawarra had a win.

The game itself was topsy turvy, Brisbane came out firing and Illawarra looked rattled but as the game progressed they rallied and after a fight on court in the third, that took the umpires ages to decide who would take what shots in compensation, the Hawks finally walked away with their first win of the season. 

We didn’t hang around, as we wanted to get back to the brewery to have dinner and watch the Wildcats take on Cairns, glad we were finally getting to see the boys play. The cats match was also delayed due to the bumping of the TV schedule.

 It didn’t look good from the start, Cairns making some big shots and we just looked insipid. We ate as we cringed, mesmerised by how badly the cats were playing. We thought surely they would turn it around, but the hole just seemed to get bigger and with shades of deja vu, a fight broke out and we were left baffled, as were the cats bench, that the umps found in favour of Cairns.

Thankfully the pain was over shortly after with the cats going down by 19! The bar staff glad they could now kick us out. We walked back to the car in the cold and returned to the van, jumping straight into bed to put the disaster to bed.