Written by: NAVEENA ISRANI

Photos by: SATYAN ISRANI

 

In my previous post, I gave you a virtual tour of Melbourne. We now proceed to the next part of our Australia sojourn. Sydney is to Australia what New York is to the US – a vibrant city with a charge that’s electric, and a tingle that lingers long after. With its fantastic ocean-side setting, stellar beaches, fabulously beautiful people, breathtaking views and remarkable architecture, Sydney is truly a visitor’s dream. Sydney is as dynamic as Melbourne is reserved. It has all the vigour of a world-class, multi-cultural city, which opens its arms to people from all around the world.

We landed in Sydney on a Sunday afternoon and decided to start our tour by paying a tribute to one of the world’s greatest harbours – the splendid Sydney Harbour.

This harbour is the pulse of the city and the people of Sydney are proud of the polyglottal, multi-cultural melting pot that has grown up around this blue-green shimmering central organ. The harbour offers a magnificent view of the sea, and its jagged jaws are filled with a flotilla of racing yachts, ferries and cabin cruisers.

The U-shaped pier, called Circular Quay, extends around 2 km on each side, with the iconic Sydney Opera House on one end and Sydney Harbour Bridge on the other.
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Last year, in 2011, when a friend of mine shifted to Canberra, I was anxious to go there by road. Then, we were also in Melbourne and I was itching to do this ~700 km road trip in Hume’s Freeway. After many yeses and nos, we finally planned to go there at the end of November 2011 when fortunately weather was also warming up.

We rented a car and we left Melbourne at 5 am. It was necessary to leave early so that we could be there in time. We left towards the North of Melbourne via Coburg and Craigieburne and in the morning, roads in Melbourne were empty. After about 50 km or so, we were on Hume’s freeway which is a historic highway made long back in Australia and goes from Adelaide to Sydney, quite a long drive. The speed limit on this highway is about 110 km/h. After reaching Hume’s Freeway, it was starting to get alight and beautiful landscape of Victoria was quite visible, with lush green lawns, Eucaliptus trees and a landscape with ups and downs. It was all feeling great with nice songs on the radio despite lack of enough sleep due to early morning drive.

On the way to Canberra, a muggy morning.
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