Nepean Belle Paddlewheeler
Today we celebrated my Uncle and Auntie’s 50th Wedding Anniversary. It’s an amazing milestone to achieve. It seems these days it’s kind of rare to see this kind of milestone being reached. As the couple resides out west, their children, my cousins organised a lunch on the Nepean Belle Paddlewheeler. I haven’t heard of this before, if I go out west, it is either to visit family or go to the Blue Mountains. I had never been near the river before so it was an experience for both Kelly and I.
It was a nice area, there seemed to be plenty of parking around. There’s a cafe, restaurant, playground and a lot of grass to just sit on and enjoy the view. We did see quite a few people just on their camping chairs looking out at the river. The boat was already at the wharf and we saw a few people start boarding it. With Kelly and I being both very punctual people, we waited a bit for the rest of the family to arrive. Once they did we boarded the boat too. It was a very hot day, there are trees around to provide shade, but the steps to the leading down the to wharf didn’t have any shade at all and I could already feel myself burning. So we were one of the first ones out of the family to climb on board.
Because we were a large group (37 people) we had pretty much the whole front area to ourselves. I did feel a little bad as there were 2 couples who were seated in the same area as us and my family, along with kids can be a bit loud. As we waited to start sailing, we watched the boat ramp as several cars arrived with jet ski’s and boats, launching them into the water. As soon as we started sailing, they brought out the food which was great as I was pretty hungry. The food was bread rolls, a salad, pesto pasta, baked potatoes, gravy and chicken.
Most tables were catered for 4 people. There were 2 tables right up the front which only fit 2 people. Then there was a very long table in the middle which was great to fit all the Aunties and Uncles together. A note on drinks, there is a bar but it is cash only. We were made aware of this in the invitation so we came prepared. However some of the other passengers weren’t aware of this. I’m not sure how they were going to sort the payment out, the bartender was very nice to them saying we’ll work it out at the end ensuring it will be fine.
Once we finished eating, we headed up to the upper deck (there are 2 decks) as were seated in the bottom deck. There are tables upstairs inside the upper deck where some of the other passengers were. You can access a door to go outside on the upper deck and enjoy the ride and view up there. We spent a bit of time up there enjoying the view, seeing some boats, jet skis and people swimming in the river. We were curious as to what the water temperature would be considering how hot it was. The upper deck is all shaded and there are some seats scattered around for passengers to utilise. As we were moving there was a nice breeze so it didn’t feel hot at all. The toilets are also located on the upper deck outside. Males on one side and females on the other side.
We were scared of missing out on the second course which is dessert, so we headed back down to our table. They brought out 2 desserts. One was a muffin and the other was meringue. Both were nice but I found the meringue to be a bit sweet. It worked out well as Kelly preferred he meringue. It was a 2.5hr cruise. Once dessert was finished it was photo time. There was a nice Christmas reef hanging towards the front of the boat so there were a lot of photos taken in front of it. Soon enough we had reached the wharf and started disembarking.
It was a good experience and since some family members won’t be able to attend our family Christmas lunch it was a nice to be able to see everyone before the end of the year. As mentioned, I don’t travel much out west to that area, but if you do have to travel out that way, I would recommend it. It may be a little tame depending on your taste. Most of the passengers on board were a bit older. But it was definitely a peaceful and relaxing atmosphere (pending how many kids on board).
As this will be my last entry for the year, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays. I hope you all enjoy some time off and spend it doing the things that you love and enjoy with the people that you love and enjoy. I look forward to the new year and the new adventures that await us and I can’t wait to tell you all about them.
