Leaving Sydney

Hey guys.. thought it was time for another blog before we leave Sydney for Byron Bay tomorrow evening (Tuesday evening).

Tuesday was a chill out day for us, so nothing exciting to report on there, apart from a quick shop in Bondi Junction; home to the surf shops.

Wednesday was a bit more eventful. We woke up to beautiful blue skies and so decided it was perfect weather for a recommended coastal walk from Coogee beach to Bondi with many other beach stops on the way. Our first stop during the walk was at Clovelly Cove, which is renowned for snorkeling and popular with the locals. The sea was pretty rough so after being knocked about on the rocks we made our way into the middle of the cove to the calmer water, where we had a go at snorkeling ourselves. Not expecting to see much, we were all pleasantly surprised seeing fish up to four feet long and shoals of tropical fish. This gave us a taster as to what we will experience at the Great Barrier Reef.
We carried on the walk for a further half an hour, and headed off to the next beach which was at Bronte, where we stopped off for a picnic lunch and chilled on the beach for a couple of hours. Another opportunity for some snorkeling, this time in their huge rock pools. This beach was a popular location for professional surfers.
We finished up our walk at the famous Bondi Beach, and were in need for a drink! So stopped off at the Iceberg Bar, on the cliff top, looking over the beach and the swimming pools. We then caught a bus back to the flat to start getting ready for our night out at The Palace, which is supposedly the place to go on a Wednesday night. And you know what girls are like, with one shower and one hair dryer between the four of us, it took longer than an age for us to get ready!!
It was a good night out, with lots of dancing and we carried the night on drinking at the flat afterwards.

Thursday afternoon was spent in the City Centre, doing the “Oz Trek” and we went up the Sydney tower to get a 360 view of the whole of Sydney. We cold see as far as our first location, Mosman (North Sydney) all the way to the Blue Mountains (West Sydney) where we were heading later that day to stay with Jana, an aussie girl who Sarah, Micky and Kim met on their India tour, who lives an hour inland in a town called Penwrith. We arrived there after a horrible train journey at peak time to a full-on Italian slap-up homemade meal. Pasta, meat-balls and Tiramisu all round! Yummy! The evening was spent getting to know the family and catching up on past times spent in India.

Friday. An early start as Jana was kindly taking us up to the Blue Mountains to see, inparticular, the Thee Sisters which are a famous rock formation with a myth behind their existence. We took the worlds steepest mountain train into the bush. It was just like stepping onto the set of “I’m A Celebrity…”, all very cool.
After a quick bite to eat in a town called Katoomba, we went to meet Jana’s friends in her local shopping complex, before catching the train home.

The highlight of the week, has been Kimberley’s birthday weekend! Saturday night was full of birthday celebrations, beginning with pre-drinks at the flat, follow by bars in Bondi and a Club called Cargos in Darling Harbour (Central Sydney). A great place for music and to dance, and our favourite watering hole yet. There was even a live percussionist who played along with the DJ, who experienced a stage invasion by the four of us, desperate for a photo and a bang on the drums!

Sunday. Kimberley’s birthday!!
Unfortumately, the weather wasn’t as good as we had hoped, with it being slightly overcast, so we swapped our morning on Bondi beach for a BBQ cooked by Ben on the balcony. We then took a trip into Bondi to check out its “Camden-esque” market, before heading into the Harbour to join the Bridge’s 75th birthday celebrations. Kim wasn’t the only one celebrating that day! As a last minute thing, we decided to join with the thousands of other people in a celebrateory walk over the bridge. Because we did it in the evening, the atmosphere was awesome with everyone sporting their free caps with a spot light on the front. Admittedly, the hats got a giggle from us at first, however when the sun had completely gone down, a sea of thousands of spot lights plus the aboriginal music and laser show, made it something pretty special. Check out this link for photos which capture the evening better then our own.
We thought it would be apt to push the boat out, and have a special seafood dinner for Kim’s birthday, on the Harbour overlooking the bridge in all its glory at night time. The food was suberb. Barramundi fish for Micky, Szechaun Salmon for Ally, and seafood platter for Kim and Sarah (consisting of a whole crab, oysters, muscles, king prawns and bug). Yum. Ally, Micky and Sarah had a little surprise up their sleeve for Kim… a surprised birthday cake with candles and singing waiters. Kim loved it! The night ended with a nice big ice cream at the harbour.

We leave Coogee and Sydney behind tomorrow  We have all grown attached to Sydney however, we are looking forward to start our journey up the East Coast and becoming true backpackers and experiencing the youth hostel life.
Byron Bay (hippy beach) is our first stop….

Love to all, the girlies xxx

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