Sydney: Hawkesbury River houseboat adventure

Woman at the Helm!

In February last year, we experienced an amazing houseboat adventure up the Hawkesbury River from Brooklyn to Wisemans Ferry to celebrate our anniversary. An area not only rich in spectacular natural beauty, but early Settlement and Aboriginal history as well ... and continuing mystique.

We booked the two-berth Budget 28’ from one of the many houseboat rental companies at Brooklyn, for a cost of Au$495 from Friday 2pm to Sunday 4pm, with fuel, gas, insurance, effluent pumpout and gas (stove, bbq, fridge & hotwater) extra, bringing the total costs closer to Au$600, but worth every cent.

Our wee budget 28’ was comfortable and clean (supply own linen, towels etc) with a fully-equipped small galley and small bathroom with shower (and a huge window so none of the views are missed) and a covered backdeck that doubled as sitting/dining area. And of our vintage, so in need of renovation but eminently serviceable! No TV or oven (tg!) but a recently-installed CD player that wafted soft blues to accompany our sundowners.
Most of the houseboat rental companies – there are quite a few in Brooklyn – seem to tell their customers that the mouth of the Hawkesbury (‘ocean side’) is much better, with its mooring buoys, restaurants and beaches. The young bloke giving all instructions was quite taken aback when we said we wanted to go in the other direction, up to Wisemans Ferry, which drew the comment “There’s not much to see up there.” He was wrong in spades! Actually he admitted later that he’d never travelled up the river that far and didn’t know of any mooring buoys in that direction, so we’d have to use the anchor if “we thought we could manage that.” We did.

First night at anchor - Sentry Point Reach

This houseboat passed us going upriver, and had us laughing as loud as the kookaburras - how to take your dogs on a houseboat: sit them in their own doggydinghy and tow as far behind as required to muffle the yipps and barks!

At anchor for lunch, we wondered if this could be Aboriginal
rockart depicting a wombat?

The scenery is quite breathtaking, with high pristine sandstone hills on both sides cloaked in Sydney redgums that seem to be growing on top of and out of the rocks.

Birdlife is amazing, especially the bellbirds and whipbirds early in the morning, and dozens of fish jumping high out of the water at sunset.

Champagne bubbles in our wake as well as cooling in ice under the seat!

Sunset at anchor, Sentry Point Reach

But oh, beware the jellyfish. We enjoyed just one swim when we anchored for a coffee break – but when we continued our journey I saw dozens of what looked like tops of tree branches. I was having a grumble at the destruction of this truly wonderful habitat when I saw they were in fact giant jellyfish with stubby, gnarled tentacles gently floating just below the surface on the incoming tide. Big as serving platters – no more swims for us!

Occasional small villages dotted the feet of the cliffs, usually just a dozen houses, but for the most part we seemed to have the river to ourselves, with just the odd dinghy checking crabpots and a few families fishing. We saw just three other houseboats during our entire trip, but so much natural beauty and peaceful seclusion that it was mindboggling to know we were just 1 hour from Sydney’s CBD. Cohens Creek shoreline village

Contented locals browsing the banks

At left: Wiseman's Ferry at work

Tranquil village at Milsons Passage

The only negative aspect was the mozzies after sunset – as we were probably the only available foodsource, there were thousands and we decked ourselves in mozzie repellent as it was so hot all windows and doors had to be open all night. We didn’t turn on any lights (apart from the anchor light), just using a small solar-powered lantern we had with us (soft-glow Zenbu)

Zenbu over water

but in our celebrations, we both neglected to slather our feet in repellent and woke in the early morning mist with two sets of polkadotted feet with hundreds of bites per foot. The kookaburras laughed.

The sunsets and sunrises were magnificent, especially drifting 360 degrees at anchor and having the moving feast slowly rotate around you.

Second night at anchor, Berowra Creek - stormclouds fore ....

.... sunset aft!

We didn’t leave our wee Budget for any riverfront restaurant visits, so no reviews there – but all the food we brought with us and grilled on the small bbq on the foredeck tasted better than ever in the ambiance of the open-air beauty and tranquillity around us. As did the champagne.



Early morning mist Berowra Creek with a chorus of birdsong; bellbirds

on the high notes, whipbirds on the melody and kookaburras

on the lyrical sabotage.

A highly-recommended Sydney adventure with a difference, for those who enjoy spectacular nature and seclusion and ever-changing vistas, at an affordable price.

The Riverboat Postman also does this trip - with wharf right next to Hawkesbury River Train Station, a half day trip departing 9:30 am and returning at 1:15 pm.

City rail timetable website:

http://www.cityrail.info/timetable/ttable.jsp?line=nc&day=wd&dir=dn&page=03

Recommended reading:

*****Kate Grenville's award-winning The Secret River (which has such lyrical descriptions of the Hawkesbury in the days of early settlement). So much of this amazing habitat seems unchanged over the intervening centuries - a thumbnail of our past in the present, as the trigger for this novel was Kate Grenville's great-great-great grandfather, Solomon Wiseman of Wisemans Ferry fame and details the early interactions with local Aboriginal tribes.

***A great article (10Jan07) in the 'Sydney Morning Herald' titled River of Life, written by Bruce Elder, which details life today on the river, it's eccentrics, the Riverboat Postman, a bit of history, and extolling it's unspoiled beauty.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/01/10/1168105026710.html

Now on to the next treasure hunt for another hidden gem.

TravelBug