Day 5 – My 1 week trip to Australia

If you just landed up here somehow, checkout my older posts here:

1. My 7 day Solo Trip to Sydney from Bengaluru! – Part 1
2. My 7 day Solo Trip to Sydney from Bengaluru! – Part 2
   –  Day 0 and 1 – My 1 week trip to Australia
   –  Day 2 – My 1 week trip to Australia
   – Day 3 – My 1 week trip to Australia
   – Day 4 – My 1 week Trip to Australia

DAY 5:  15th November 2019, Friday

Since Blue Mountains tour was a very tiring one and Day 6 was also planned to start from 5:00 AM, I planned Day 5 to be a relaxed one.

There are couple of Wildlife National Parks in Sydney. The most famous is Taronga Zoo. But I was advised by locals that if you have kids then only you should visit this place. They further advised me to go to FeatherDale Wildlife Park in Blacktown for getting a unique experience of feeding Kangaroos.

I left my hostel at 11 AM and went to Redfern station and from there I caught a 40 minute ride by train to Blacktown station. Blacktown station is on the way to Katoomba Station.

I reached Blacktown station at 11:52 AM. From here one needs to go to WestPoint Shopping Centre basement to catch the bus.

This is me taking a selfie.

This selfie is important because it represents one of my mistakes.

If you see the above photo, there are three exits – two having orange “Blacktown” station labels and I had to take the third exit. WestPoint Shopping Centre was in the opposite direction.

That is why we should not trust Google Maps all the time. Talk to the local people also.

As soon as you reach the basement, your networks may stop working because of low signal. So, it’s important to see the bus timings when you are on the street and then get into WestPoint Shopping Centre basement which will look like this:

If you can see the numbers on the top in Blue boxes and Yellow coloured numbers. They are the stand numbers. Google Maps will tell you the stand number as well but just to reconfirm the information about bus stop, the same information is mentioned near stand exits as well. I went to Bus Stand 9 and had to wait for 20 minutes here. My bus was at 12:16 PM but it came at 12:22 PM.

Featherdale Wildlife Park is around 3 km away from WestPoint Shopping Centre. I was following Google Maps but I got the location of the bus stop, where I had to get down, completely wrong. As a result, I had to walk back 600 metres:

This is the bus stop right outside Featherdale where we will return back to Blacktown station in the evening:

The entrance of Featherdale Wildlife Park:

It has a large parking area.

Can you see the green arrow in the above picture? You have to enter from here:

Now, there’s a fee to enter this park:

For adults it was 34 AUD. This time, I opened Klook App and found out that tickets were selling for 25 AUD online for today. So, I confirmed it from the counter and got my ticket for 25 AUD instead of 34 AUD.

Once you book tickets with Klook App, you will get confirmation within 5-10 minutes and you need to show that to the counter. They will give you tickets.

There a place next to counter where you can put in 3 AUD in coins and pick up food for Kangaroos in a cup. It’s nowhere written that you need to pick up only one cup. I suggest you to pick up at-least two cups per person.

There are various shows which happen every hour here. You need to check whether you are interested in those shows. They are free of cost and included in your ticket price. Ask around volunteers for locations of those shows.

Time was now 1 PM. As soon I entered, I saw a small enclosure with Kangaroos and I started feeding them:

There are lot of pigeons as well around the Kangaroos, do not feed them.

Tip

After feeding, I immediately felt kind of disappointed “Is this it? Is this only what I have come so far for?

So I asked around and the staff informed me there’s a bigger enclosure of Kangaroos at the very end. I started exploring around:

You can find Koala’s sleeping; they sleep 18-20 hours a day:

At the very end, you will reach the Kangaroo enclosure. What you have to do here is take the stuff out of your cup and put it on to your hands; Kangaroos will come themselves and eat/lick it off your hand.

Closeup of Kangaroo:

By the time I emptied all the contents into my hand, another one came around to eat:

I was scared of their claws and teeth but Kangaroos use their tongue to pick up food from your hand. Time was now 1:30 PM.

Featherdale Wildlife Park allows you to go really close to animals and birds:

If you are not sure whether you should go close to animals, you can always ask around the people working there.

There are a lot of birds as well:

Then, there’s “Reptile Pavillion”:

It has lot of snakes/reptiles in glass enclosure:

There was a bat section as well:

You can also take photos with Kuala if you want. You have to visit the section down below:

But since they were charging for 25 AUD for a single 18X12 photo with a Koala, I felt this to be too expensive. If you are visiting with a family, then 25 AUD would be good amount to spend to get a memorable photo.

FeatherDale has a good collection of species of animals and you can really interact and see them closely.

By 2:40 PM, I was done exploring the park.

I went to the food court inside and ordered a 13 AUD vegetarian burger from the food court. They gave me a device which lit up when my order was ready:

There a big shop where you can purchase some soft toys and other stuff near to exit:

I left the park at 3:05 PM.

At the bus stop I met an Indian family who were from Ahmedabad and we had a good discussion when I told them I am on a solo trip.

The bus was a bit late and they offered me some small snacks which I could not refuse. At 3:20 PM bus came and I reached Blacktown station at around 3:35 PM. I was able to catch 3:38 PM train to Sydney Central.

I arrived at Central at 4:30 PM. Now, I had to check one thing at Sydney Central. Since my next day’s plan was to go to Canberra, Australia’s Capital, I had to make bus reservations.

I opted for bus service because the train for Canberra from Sydney leaves at 7 AM and will make you reach at 11 AM which was too late for me.

So, through my research, I was able to find out that there’s a bus service from Sydney Central – Murray’s – which goes to Canberra at 5 AM and make you reach there by 8:30 AM. For Sydney, from Canberra, there was a bus at 6 PM. You need to report 30 minutes before and here 5 AM means 5 AM.

The bus will leave without you if you are not on time.

Tip for people who are usually late!

Also, the route was something like Sydney Central >> Sydney Airport >>>Canberra. No stopping in-between. The bus is fully AC and there’s free wifi and toilet on the bus.

Murray’s office was at Sydney Central. I went to their office to enquire for two things. First, are the timings correct? Second, is there a difference in cost if I booked online? The prices they quoted were matching with the online prices. I told the person on the counter to book my tickets from there itself. Sydney to Canberra: 23 AUD and Canberra to Sydney: 39 AUD. Total 62 AUD paid via Forex Card.

They took my passport, checked and gave back to me. After booking they will give you a print out, keep it with you.

From here, I decided it’s time to have another famous dessert: The Strawberry and Watermelon Pastry at Black Star, Level 2/500 George St, Sydney.

This is next to Queen Victoria Building. At around 4:45 PM I reached there.

I even saw a Sushi train restaurant (did not go inside):

Black Star Pastry is on the 2^nd floor. Again there was a queue.

There was a place to sit but it was already crowded. I decided to stand and eat. Pastry cost me 9 AUD, but it was very delicious to eat:

After eating this, I decided to go to Bondi beach, which is a very large and popular beach. I caught 5:33 PM train for Bondi Junction from Townhall station (located in front of QVB):

At 5:45 PM I reached Bondi Jn. From here you need to take a bus to Bondi Beach. Mobile network will stop working if you are underground, so it’s recommended to see the route and take a screenshot of the bus number.

Buses were frequent but still I had to stand in queue to wait for next bus since there are lot of people who wanted to go first. I boarded the bus at 5:55 PM. At 6 PM I reached Bondi Beach.

The view was amazing:

This selfie I took here required a lot of time to take. I had to position it above the dustbins and hope that it does not fall because of the wind. People usually do Bondi to Coogee beach walk here but I reserved it for Day 7. I decided to explore the beach, have some food and call it a day.

There was a skating area as well, where I spent some time: [This guy’s name is Adam.]

There were even kids who were pros at skating. Time was now around 7 PM. There was a place named “Lush on Bondi” where people were having drinks and loud music was playing:

From here, I searched for vegetarian food again and found a place: “Nalini’s Wholesome Food” which same as “Chacha’s Icecream”. I reached here after 10 minutes of walking at 7:15 PM.
The ambience was perfect and hindi soft music was playing at the background:

I ordered a plate which had 6 different tastes of food, this cost me around 15 AUD:

I left from Bondi beach at 7:30 PM and followed the same route back. From Bondi Beach, took bus to Bondi Jn. From there I took train to Martin’s Place. From Martin’s Place I took a bus to hostel. I reached back at 9 PM.

I slept early that day after ironing my clothes. Next day I needed to start at 4 AM!

Expense Sheet for the day:

1. Bus to Central and train to Blacktown and bus to Feather Dale- 10 AUD – 500 INR deducted from OPAL card.
2. Entry ticket to FeatherDale – 25 AUD – 1250 INR. [Book it via Klook App]
3. Food for Kangaroos – 3 AUD for a cup – 150 INR.[Pick multiple of them, no one is watching strictly]
4. Vegetarian Burger at FeatherDale – 13 AUD – 650 INR.
5. Bus from FeatherDale to Blacktown and train back to Sydney Central – 7 AUD – 350 INR deducted from OPAL card.
6. Next day’s Canberra bus ticket both ways: 62 AUD – 3100 INR.
7. Black Star’s Pastry – 9 AUD – 450 INR.
8. Train and bus to Bondi Beach – 4 AUD – 200 INR – deducted from OPAL card.
9. Dinner: Nalini’s Food – 15 AUD – 750 INR.
10. Bus back to hostel – 2.5 AUD – 125 INR deducted from OPAL card.

When I calculate expenses, I do not include money deducted from OPAL card.
Total cost for the day: Rs 6350.

Day 6 was going to be a hectic one….Read about it!

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