Anniversary Special Stop 4: Rydalmere

How exciting, a Tuesday post. Tuesday is, for me anyway, the longest day of the week. Hopefully this next addition in my Carlingford Line Special helps the day go by a little quicker.

Rydalmere

If, for some reason, you're in Camellia like I was, Rydalmere is the suburb immediately to the north. To get here, you can drive, take a 2 minute train, or even swim across Parramatta River, but by far the coolest way to get in is by crossing this industrial-chic pedestrian bridge.

The bridge dropped me off at a lush and green riverside park.

This park forms part of a long and wide walking and cycle path along the northern bank of the Parramatta River which runs from Parramatta all the way to Putney. Naturally, I started on that path, heading westbound, under the bridge and along the river.

This part of Rydalmere is mainly an industrial area,

but the pathway runs through a strip of thick foliage, parallel to the river, so you don't actually notice it that much, save for the occasional clearing.

The path even elevates in places, which doesn't give a view, but it feels fun.

The Rydalmere portion of this pathway is actually quite lovely. I imagine if you were to take the train to Rhodes or Meadowbank, ride your bike through the parkland pathway to Parramatta, and have a meal over at the Church St "eat street", that would be a pretty swell day.

Anyway, here's one last picture of the tree-lined path.

Being that this is the Carlingford Line Special, I departed the pathway to go head towards the train station,

passing through more industry in the process.

Rough neighbourhood.

This led to an entirely uninteresting, small strip of shops.

which is across the road from Rydalmere station.

As we now know, these stations are unique in that they have a single track and half a platform.

They also don't have any digital boards indicating when the train is coming. Instead, they sticky-tape the timetable on the wall, like a bus stop.

Anyway, off I continued.

One thing I didn't mention about Rydalmere is that, being on the river, it actually has a ferry wharf. I'd covered 4/7 of the Carlingford Line stations on this day, and was planning on doing the rest next weekend, so what better way to head out than on a river cruise?

This meant making my way back to where I started. Rather than using the "nice" way and boring you with more pictures of a path, I was out walking the streets. This briefly had me on Victoria Road, one of Sydney's most important arteries.

Walking on main roads is rather unpleasant, so I turned back into the industrial park that is southern Rydalmere

but not before passing this highly suspicious creek.

There really isn't too much else to say about this bit of Rydalmere, so I'll call out a few of my personal selections:

Firstly, this nondescript building labeled for "Mumu Life" (also known as Mumuso), a Chinese variety store that pretends to be Korean for street cred. I don't know what this building is actually for, but it's for lease if you're in the market.

Secondly, this paint shop's logo looks suspiciously like the NBC logo.

And finally, USB smash repairs, for when you need to charge your fitbit but you've crashed your car.

Getting warmer.

Here I am back at the riverside park.

This park contains the ferry station where I had the pleasure of boarding my sunset river cruise. This sounds nicer than it was, due to the freezing cold weather meaning I had to stay inside with the foggy windows and screaming children. Ah well, can't win 'em all.

*Disclaimer: There's a whole residential bit of Rydalmere to the north of Victoria road which I skipped. Don't be too sad, the next few posts are more residential and less warehouse. 

Rydalmere: Excellent, but stay on the beaten path.