Melbourne to Sydney....on the road again!

---

On the 4^thof January 2012 we went to pick up the camper van in preparation for the road trip up to Sydney. She was a beaut, a long wheelbase Toyota Hilux 2.7 flatbed that had been converted to a motor home with a massive fibreglass lump stuck on the back. She was ours for 2 nights only and our preferred form of transport to cover the 1000km to Sydney. On the road again!!!!!

We felt like two hermits as we set off from Melbourne with our house on our back heading for Lakes Entrance on the south coast of Victoria. It was late when we arrived but we managed to find a nice spot right in the harbour car park. The next day was a long one with 700 eventful kilometres chewed up before dusk. We saw 2 Wallabies by the side of the road.... alive and a massive black snake crossing the road right in front of us. En route we stopped at Narooma, Batemans Bay and Cronulla but guess what........it was RAINING, so we decided to push on to Coogie Beach just south of Sydney. After a lengthy search we found yet another parking spot right next to the surf club, just up the steps from the beach. The following morning was our first taste of the Sydney beach scene, on our 7am morning stroll we noticed the sea and seapools were full of dedicated swimmers. Seapools are swimming pools built at the sea level cliff side and when the tide hits the side of the pool it fills the pool with sea water......Why are these not at Scarborough? After our beach side breakie we were on our way to Bondi beach to find our accommodation, check in, dump our bags, drop off the campervan and then explore Sydney. Bondi Beach Backpackers offered us a free upgrade to a sleep 5 family room for our only planned night. The place was packed to the rafters and we had been double booked, hence the upgrade. Oh, we also needed to book another campervan for tomorrow (Saturday) for our 2^nd leg, Sydney to Brisbane and another 1000km.

The drop off for the campervan was just outside Sydney so we spent all day and evening in the city. We tried everywhere online whilst in Sydney for a campervan, most places were fully booked and the ones that weren’t had a minimum 14 day lease, we decided to try again tomorrow and explore Sydney. The Oprah house in all its glory was basked in a late afternoon glow as the sun was just setting behind the harbour bridge..... it’s a hard life! We found a cracking little Italian not far from the harbour and had dinner before returning to the harbour once it was dark for some more fights with tripod using photographers!

Bondi beach is a busy sight on a Saturday morning whilst people are still on their summer holidays, they get 40,000 here on a good day. We went to the beach and spent most of our time trying to body surf, but we were just in fact getting smashed by the surf.

We decided to book a car for the 2^nd leg, Sydney to Brisbane and camp along the way, which meant we needed to book one more nights accommodation. The backpackers was full apart from 1 single upper bunk in the male dorm......this was our only option. Nat decided that she needed some Dutch courage before we returned so we went out for some wine and returned before everyone else arrived back. As expected there was no one in the dorm apart from some French dude who had been in his bed since I got in there that morning, he could have been dead for all I knew. I was hoping that there was not a repeat of Nat’s shenanigans like last time we stayed in a dorm; the wine must have been good because there was not a peep out of her.

---