The Hawkesbury, N.S.W.

It was 6 o’clock on the second evening when twilight fell and we thought we’d better find a park for the night. Twenty four hours before it was 7 o’clock, supposedly. The end of daylight saving had given us an extra hour of this beautiful day. Our accommodation was not on the road but on water. The road on which we were travelling was not bitumen, but the magnificent Hawkesbury River just north of Sydney. We were joining our dear friends Mike and Denise on a four day adventure in a hired cabin cruiser (crossing another one off the Bucket List).

Breakfast on the Hawkesbury.

As darkness announced the end of our sailing day, we hooked up to a mooring in a little bay off the main river. Turning off the gentle hum of the engine left us in total silence – until we stood outside on the bow and witnessed nature going on around us. We heard the melodies of frogs and birds, fish jumping and trees rustling in a gentle breeze, while our eyes became accustomed to the half-light from a setting sun and a risen crescent moon. It was hard to imagine that just a few kilometres away, over the forested hills that surround us, was the busy Pacific Highway carrying thousands of scrambling Sydney vehicles. For us, however, we were in another world, actually the Kuringai National Park.

The next morning we had a swim off the back of the boat, a hot shower and then breakfast before heading off once again. There are certain places that the hire company will not allow us to enter (coloured red on the map), but that didn’t diminish the large expanse of water we had to explore. Going at a gentle pace, we dawdled along with eucalypt forests all around us, growing down to the waterline. Trees seem to be growing out of solid rock, and faces of stone peer out from the bush as if watching us go by. There are no houses, roads, telegraph poles, only the occasional boat on the river. Rounding each headland gave a new vista, revealing more headlands in the distance. We didn’t mind the boat’s slow pace, because we wanted to take in the view. We are kept entertained by a passing parade of eagles, sea eagles, osprey, pelicans and wading birds. We watch as rain squalls come up the river and pass over us, depositing a healthy shower of rain. Then the sun comes out to enable us to have lunch on the top deck of the boat, and a quick swim. It’s a lifestyle that we could get used to.

Our floating home on the Hawkesbury.

When our four days were up, we headed back to the boat’s home port and drove to Mike and Denise’s home in Narrabeen before returning to Rylstone to pick up the caravan and continue heading north. How far north we get may depend on the recovery and clean-up from the devastation left by Cyclone Debbie. Our plans may need to be flexible.