“Do you have any particular place that you want to visit this time?” My cousins (Omar and his wife, Berra) asked me via Whatsapp when they knew that I have arrived in Sydney. Since it was already my third visit, I kinda felt like I had no specific place that I should put in my itinerary. All I wanted to do was to meet my family who live there and spend a good time with them.
My cousins ended up recommending me some good places for trekking and sight-seeing: Blue Mountains, The Wedding Cake Rock, Barrnejoey Lighthouse, Balmoral Boatshed, Lincolns Rock, Wentworth Falls Lookout, Zigzag Railway and let me decide which one to visit. So, I ended up Google-ing those places and chose the Wedding Cake Rock. It promises a nice view through a short-trekking route. And, since I’m always a fan of going to high places, might as well doing it in a new place like Sydney. Besides, I’ve explored the cityscape quite enough during my last two visits.
The route to the Wedding Cake Rock took about one hour by car from my cousins’ apartment, which was in the Sydney Olympic Park area. We dropped by at McDonald’s to get some soft serve and light bites. The entrance to the wedding cake rock was located within a real estate. We parked our car at the nearest empty parking spot that we could find.
I don’t know what I was thinking when I picked my outfit that day. It’s like I completely forgot that I was about to go for a trekking. I wore the wrong shoes, I wore a three-layers of knitted t-shirt, short-sleeved shirt and a parka (considering that it would be windy and cold), completely ignoring the fact that hiking would make me sweat. While my cousins walked comfortably wearing running shoes, training pants, tee and jacket, I was busy regretting my choice of outfit. Especially the moment I saw the entrance, which was a narrow path of sandy floors. Well, the city was one hour away and I couldn’t order a Gojek to bring the proper outfit for me. So better make it count!
The trekking took about 30-40 minutes depend on how fast you walk. On your way there, you will pass The Balcony, a nice stop for you to enjoy the scenic view while (of course) taking photos.
Wedding Cake Rock (also known as White Rock), is actually a sandstone rock formation located in the Royal National Park, near Bundeena, New South Wales, Australia. The height is only about 25 metres above sea level, but still, falling from it would cause you death. The rock was actually fenced due to safety concerns, because according to a survey, the rock was unstable and it would collapse into the Tasman Sea within the next decade.
However, when we got there, all the tourists were already on the other side of the fence. Apparently they climbed it and already queueing for photo opp. There were even little kids and old people (I wonder how did they climb the fence). Anyway, of course my cousins and I joined the crowd. While at the same time hoping that there will be no security whatsoever.
Trust me, I’ve been on the top of high buildings, volcanoes, hills, etc, but this one is different. It’s a cliff! With an edge, where the only thing that separates you from death is your balance. I started to walk very slowly and cautiously towards the edge, carefully placed my ass until I sat comfortably and couldn’t even dare to look down. We spent quite some time there to get all the beautiful photos we could possible get.
After about half an hour we decided to walk back, this time we walked faster because we were all hungry. On our way back to the car, Berra spotted this swing inside a house. Berra wanted to take a photo with the swing, and insisted that the owner would let us get in. Omar refused the idea, but as always.. happy wife, happy husband. Next thing I knew, we were already inside the front yard, while Omar knocking on the front door. There was an old man showed up and with his permission, we were allowed to take some photos in his property.
What a good day to be remembered indeed!
Write to you later,
HG. (@gersonhenry)
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