Wollongong Weather

After a day exploring Sydney’s neighborhoods, we ready for a drive down the coast about 50 miles south of Sydney to Wollongong.  This is where Zach is going to college for a junior year abroad, and we’re expecting to see the town and campus and bits of the beautiful coastline.  But wait! “Count Dracula” calls in a weather strike and our plans take a turn toward indoors.

(A brief mention of our day before, when the weather was hot and humid, and we took to the ferries for a visit to Sydney neighborhoods.  The harbor is always filled with ferries, coming and going and at the dock—pretty much a water-based bus system, reminiscent of the “vaporettos” that ply Venice’s canals.  In Balmain it feels like being in a San Francisco neighborhood with chic restored homes favoring scroll-worked balconies and views of the harbor bridge. 

Best part is our stop for a cold beer at the London Hotel, sitting on tractor seats (seriously farmer chic!) side-by-side along a balcony overlooking the street and sipping a Coopers Dark Ale, devouring a plate of hummus, and generally enjoying life.  Later we ferry over to Manly Beach, with its volleyballers and surfers braving heavy 12-foot waves while the rest of us obey the signs for no-swimming-today as stormy dark clouds and wind threaten and we get a sprinkly taste of Dracula weather to come.)

Rain accompanies us, starting with a damp drizzle in the morning in Sydney where we see both the largest church in the Southern Hemisphere—looking a lot like Notre Dame etal, full or peaceful prayers and stained glass windows arching upwards 100+ feet to soaring dark-wood buttresses—and after a walk across Victoria Park, a glimpse of the doorway to the Great Synagogue, oldest one in Sydney. 



In between, we stand for a bit in the shelter of large trees in an attempt to wait out the rain.  Zach has donned a red poncho, the color a reminder of his irritation at our morning walk in humid steaminess.  But all is well, we strike out on the road to Wollongong in pretty decent skies.

Then comes the fog, and the wind, and the heavy, Heavy rains, until, just as we reach Wollongong, great flashes of lightning crash-booming so close to the hotel that as I check in, the hotel clerk runs to the glass doors to see if the latest, loudest bolt has destroyed the place next door!  Once inside, we find a fabulous suite of a room.  We order in some great pizza—mine a “Philly Cheesesteak” (I gotta try it, yaknow)—and enjoy chilling for an evening after days of tourist trekking and city fun.

The University of Wollongong encompasses a beautiful campus at the base of Mt Keira (we take Zach’s word for the beauty of the peak as all we can see is the fog-cloud shroud rising above the trees).  Zach checks in with the RAs and is the in the same dorm/apartment as last semester; he’ll be there with 2 of his roommates returning and 2 new guys.

Fun to walk around the empty campus with Zach and hear his comments about classes, buildings, etc.  He seems at home here, a great contrast to his ultra-city experience in Chicago’s loop.  We come to The Evil Duck statue, commemorating the evil-ducks (they look evil!) that congregate on one of the many greens that edge along walkways and between buildings.  The campus is all so quiet now.  Zach says there are about 30,000 students of which a good 20,000 commute from the surrounding areas, and it will get very busy with students when classes start in about 3 weeks.

We finally say goodbye to Zach—big hug!—realizing it will be almost 5 months until we see him again.
The drive back to Sydney airport takes us through some of the soupiest fog I’ve ever driven in, barely able to see 50 feet ahead at one point.  Then we are there, the whole drop-off-car, get-through-security, and on the plane to Cairns.  When we arrive there, the weather is totally different—hot and steamy and beautifully tropical!