We are on our annual road trip up north, fleeing Melbourne’s cold weather for a while. We left early Saturday morning and drove pretty much straight though to Sydney with a short lunch/brunch stop at The Ten Mile Cafe in Holbrook. I had homemade baked beans, G had an eggs benedict version. They were both good. This is the first time we’ve been to that cafe, we have picked up pies at the Holbrook bakery which usually has a decent queue at lunchtime. This time we wanted a solid meal to get us through to dinner.

We arrived in Sydney at about 4:30 pm and checked into our hotel—the Hughenden in Paddington. This is the first time we’ve stayed in that area. I was keen to try a different food scene and the hotel is almost opposite Centennial Park which is a popular running spot. The hotel was a great location, and had a nice lounge (important to us because we worked in there on Monday) but need a bit of maintenance. The back door near us had to be pulled hard to shut it, which most people didn’t do. That meant it was often not locked. We pulled it shut with a slam one night (you had to slam it to get it to shut properly) and the lady in the room next to us yelled at us. Through her door, she didn’t come out and accost us in the hallway. I wonder if she would have been embarrassed that I could hear her loud talking on the phone the next morning.

We wandered down the street to pick up some groceries, then chilled until dinner time. G watching the footy and me reading my book. At about 6 pm we headed out to Nori Table Paddington, a little Japanese restaurant a few hundred metres down the road. We had a couple of different sushi type dishes and yakidon and it was all really good and reasonably priced. Satisfied we headed back to our room for an early night.

Sunday morning G and I both had runs (G 30K and just 50 mins and some strides for me). The weather started off fine and then, Sydney being Sydney, it had to pour down for ten minutes while I was trying to get back to the hotel. I stopped off for a protein smoothie from Old Mates Deli and then got into a nice warm shower. Once G was back we headed back to Old Mates for coffee and some sandwiches. We were sitting and waiting for them when I decided to check what time our booking was for our dinner that night. Oops – it was for lunch at 12:30 and it was now 11:30. We drank our coffees and got them to pack our sandwiches to go, they could wait in the fridge for dinner. We got changed and walked the 200 m around the corner to the restaurant—Il Maccheroni. There seemed to be a lot of good Italian restaurants in the area and I decided to go with this one. I had wild boar ravioli and it was yummy. I also had a limoncello spritz and a glass of red wine. I had decided this would be my last hurrah until after the race on Saturday.

Afterwards we walked the streets. The back streets are a warren of tiny roads and cute Victorian terraces with a smattering of art deco buildings. It rained off and on for the day so after our short walk we just hung out in the room or lounge with our feet up.

The next morning we both had runs again and afterwards we went to Zozo’s for breakfast. Then it was time for us to do some work. We set up in lounge area which was nice and worked until lunchtime. G kept working in the afternoon while I decided to go exploring. I love all the narrow terraces in this area. I also found a bit of street art.

Monday night a lot of local restaurants are closed so we walked down the street a few hundred metres to the Woollahra Hotel. I was desperate for something green so I had the green goddess salad and it hit the spot. The dining room had beautiful art deco decorations and gorgeous wood panelling. I really liked this place except for the fact that a patron came in with truly awful BO. He left a strong smell in his wake that made me want to gag so we left quickly after that. It made me think of the cloud around Pig Pen in the Peanuts cartoons.

Tuesday morning we woke up bright and early, G to do his run and me to walk down to the Labyrinth in Centennial Park for my quiet time. The park was stunning in the early morning light, with mist sitting in the hollows. Unlike the Labyrinth at Chartres (which was super busy) this one was empty so I could walk in and back out again. A lovely way to start the day.

Once back at the hotel we packed up, checked out and went across to Zozo’s for breakfast again. This time I had the fresh breakfast which had avocado, edamame, fresh tomatoes and radishes which satisfied my need for fresh veggies. Our destination today was Port Maquarie which is just over 4 hours drive from Sydney. It was pretty uneventful and we got there around 3 pm. We were staying at Rydges which is right on the port area. We’d stayed there before and it was still very clean and comfortable. Four dinner we walked to TwoTripleFour by Bill’s. This was fresh, modern food. I had barramundi and we had some bread and roast carrots. In the morning we both had runs to do again. I chose to go out along the coast path which has some small steep sections but is really beautiful.

After showers we packed up and drove to a little cafe called the Sandbox on Flynn’s Beach. The morning was perfect for sitting out with our coffee and breakfast rolls which were excellent. On the way out of the carpark G spotted a whale so we pulled over and watched it for a while.

The drive to Main Beach on the Gold Coast from there was about 5.5 hours. We’re staying at the same place we did last year but in a different apartment which has an amazing living area with lots of windows to enjoy the ocean views.