We woke to a sunny yet windy day in Sydney, which would also be the day we leave the hostel and head to our Airbnb in Freshwater. We’d mostly packed Tuesday night, finished off Wednesday morning, checked out and headed next door to do our laundry. Yes that’s right, we were back to the good ol’ laundromats! After getting it washed and dried, we shoved it all in my backpack, the easiest option, which then made my case/luggage insanely heavy.
Next mission? Figuring out the bus schedule to get us to Freshwater. We crossed the road to Elizabeth/Hay St bus stop and waited for the M30. Same process as in the Gold Coast, we tapped our opal card on, then tapped off again as we exited. We got off and waited about ten minutes for the L90 to take us to Westfield Warringah Mall. There, we stopped to get lunch before trying to figure out how to get to Ordurman Road, where we’d be staying. We crossed the road to wait at stand A and caught the 136 to the bottom of a hill, about twenty minutes from the Airbnb.
We started walking. It was so hot and by now the wind had stopped so it was less than ideal trekking to our destination. To make it worse, there were no pavements. Like none the whole way to the house. So there we were walking slowly up this huge hill dragging our bags, along the road. Remember before when we were in the Gold Coast and those two strangers bought our dinner? You wouldn’t get that back home that’s for sure, well you wouldn’t get this either. A guy pulled up next to us and asked where we were going we said Ordurman Street and he said to get in and he’d take us there!
We were so grateful. He’d just finished golf and said it was too hot for us to be lugging our stuff up that’s treacherous hill. He also gave us some busses to catch and walks around Manly beach. It was amazing. We got to the house, said goodbye and entered our home for the next week. Ta daaaaah…..
It was a converted garage and was bloody awesome! We had a kitchen and shower and our own little picnic area! The best part of this is it actually worked out cheaper than any hostel we could find!!
Now we saw what kitchen appliances we had, we set about heading back to the mall to visit Coles and get supplies. We had worked out our money and were on a very strict budget food-wise. For the next week, we would be cooking our own meals at home. We walked down to the main road and caught the 169 to the mall and took our trusty hold-all with us to fill up. We must have wandered round for about an hour or so, picking up noodles and beans and soup with some salad too and then got to the bus station again.
We got on the wrong bloody bus! We got the L80 and didn’t see it was an express bus going to King Street so when we pressed the button, he said he wasn’t stopping but basically kicked us off. Whoops. The worst part? We couldn’t tap off our opal cards as it wasn’t a designated stop so we ended up getting charged the full fare for that trip which was just under $6.
So, what could we do except start walking? Which we did, along the road that cut between the golf course until we realised just how heavy the tins and bottles were so we gave in and booked an über. It was cheap and saved Nathan breaking his shoulders with the hold-all. The driver kept talking about how girls get über from one road to the next in this area because of the heat and the hills. I thought he was talking about hookers but I clearly got the wrong end of the conversation.
We arrived at our home, unpacked and sat on our table and chairs enjoying the last of the sunshine. Vanessa (our host) came home with her two boys and Matt, her husband said hello later on that evening. It had been a productive day and figuring out public transport was actually pretty easy! Nathan cooked dinner for us that evening and it was delicious.
Mmmmm chicken noodles. To be fair they actually were filling and tasty! Darkness descended and we relaxed for the evening watching Jack Whitehall: Travels with my father, a hilarious TV show about Jack travelling South East Asia with his stuffy dad, and I also had an exfoliating orange clay facemask on. There was enough for two in the sachet and when Nathan asked for some just on his forehead, that quickly transpired into ‘May as well do my whole face.’ As you can see he loved it.
That brought and end to our first day here in Freshwater. The best part was that Thursday, we awoke to gorgeous sunshine and clear blue skies. Perfect sunbathing weather!
We stayed outside on our picnic table for the majority of the day only heading inside to make lunch and dinner. Sadly, I ended up a little sunburnt again but I’m sure it’ll go brown in a day or two 😊!
It was bliss. A whole day out in the sun. We were so chilled out. Dinner consisted of beans on toast for myself and soup for Nathan. Yuuuuum!!!
Until next time….