Cockatoo Island
We hadn't got out of the house much for the last few weeks, so I thought it would be good to go camping before the school holidays started. I tried Lane Cove River Tourist Park but it was booked out. Then I found Cockatoo Island camping packages. They provide the tent and mattresses; you bring sleeping bags. pillows, food and utensils. It sounded easy and something different so I booked for Saturday night.
We walked to Manly for lunch then caught the next ferry to Circular Quay, then the Parramatta Rivercat to Cockatoo Island. The Rivercat was very crowded, with a group of young people carrying camping gear. Sure enough they got out at Cockatoo Island too — but they went off to a different camping area and we saw little of them while we were there. We found our tent, set up our sleeping bags then headed off to explore.
Maps of the island show two levels, almost like a building plan, and it is a bit that way. Most of the island is flat, but there is a high area surrounded by sandstone cliffs created by quarrying the stone for some of the buildings (and for extending the flat area too). Shortcuts from one side to the other are provided by several tunnels, two of which are open, at least during the daytime. We wandered through the huge abandoned turbine shop, which Louka felt was haunted. We climbed the stairs to the upper level and explored the sandstone convict buildings.
We saw no cockatoos at all. I saw two wood-ducks. a willie wagtail, a noisy miner and a magpie, and heard a currawong. Louka saw a pigeon. But mostly we saw seagulls. It was like a seagull nesting colony, with gulls sitting on eggs everywhere — hard up against the walls of buildings, by the sides of paths, under stairs... The gulls squarked at us and flew around us whenever we went near their nests, which was hard to avoid. Fortunately the camping area was relatively free of them.
The camp kitchen was well equipped and clean, and Graham cooked the sausages and re-heated the fried onions (these were the worst thing about the experience, as the container seal leaked and left patches of oil on most of our camping gear). We'd brought a baguette from our local bakery — very good — and tomato sauce and relish. A good dinner.
When I'd booked the camping, the weather forecast was for mostly sunny all weekend, but by Saturday morning they were predicting rain on Sunday. However, when we woke up it was still fine, though cloudy. We'd brought muesli bars for breakfast and thought we'd get coffee at the café which the website said was open for breakfast. On our way to the café we explored some more of the island so that it was nearly 9 o'clock by the time we reached it — but it was still closed. There were people waiting there though, so we waited with them and the café soon opened. We got our coffee and sat on beanbags in the open-air seating area, which was very pleasant. Just as we finished, Graham felt a spit of rain so we headed back to our tent to pack up and go home before it got too wet. It started to rain while we were on the Rivercat, but stopped again on the Manly ferry, and we didn't get wet much on the walk home.
We walked to Manly for lunch then caught the next ferry to Circular Quay, then the Parramatta Rivercat to Cockatoo Island. The Rivercat was very crowded, with a group of young people carrying camping gear. Sure enough they got out at Cockatoo Island too — but they went off to a different camping area and we saw little of them while we were there. We found our tent, set up our sleeping bags then headed off to explore.Maps of the island show two levels, almost like a building plan, and it is a bit that way. Most of the island is flat, but there is a high area surrounded by sandstone cliffs created by quarrying the stone for some of the buildings (and for extending the flat area too). Shortcuts from one side to the other are provided by several tunnels, two of which are open, at least during the daytime. We wandered through the huge abandoned turbine shop, which Louka felt was haunted. We climbed the stairs to the upper level and explored the sandstone convict buildings.
We saw no cockatoos at all. I saw two wood-ducks. a willie wagtail, a noisy miner and a magpie, and heard a currawong. Louka saw a pigeon. But mostly we saw seagulls. It was like a seagull nesting colony, with gulls sitting on eggs everywhere — hard up against the walls of buildings, by the sides of paths, under stairs... The gulls squarked at us and flew around us whenever we went near their nests, which was hard to avoid. Fortunately the camping area was relatively free of them.
The camp kitchen was well equipped and clean, and Graham cooked the sausages and re-heated the fried onions (these were the worst thing about the experience, as the container seal leaked and left patches of oil on most of our camping gear). We'd brought a baguette from our local bakery — very good — and tomato sauce and relish. A good dinner.
When I'd booked the camping, the weather forecast was for mostly sunny all weekend, but by Saturday morning they were predicting rain on Sunday. However, when we woke up it was still fine, though cloudy. We'd brought muesli bars for breakfast and thought we'd get coffee at the café which the website said was open for breakfast. On our way to the café we explored some more of the island so that it was nearly 9 o'clock by the time we reached it — but it was still closed. There were people waiting there though, so we waited with them and the café soon opened. We got our coffee and sat on beanbags in the open-air seating area, which was very pleasant. Just as we finished, Graham felt a spit of rain so we headed back to our tent to pack up and go home before it got too wet. It started to rain while we were on the Rivercat, but stopped again on the Manly ferry, and we didn't get wet much on the walk home.
posted by Liz + Louka at 3:40 pm
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