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Published: April 23rd 2006
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Sarah's got a big mouth...
View from on top of one of Sydney Harbour Bridge's lookout pylons... Cheaper than the bridge climb! Australia is great. We’ve been having a ball since we arrived. It’s really funny because we feel like we’re just on holiday for a couple of weeks, not scummy travelers. It has been amazing having Stu's friend Scott’s apartment to ourselves while he’s off doing his traveler thing too in South America - thanks a lot mate! I think we have been getting into the creature comforts a bit much though. We almost feel like we live here now. American hostels might be a bit of a shock after all this comparative luxury.
(Stu’s been to Australia before but I didn’t come to Sydney with any expectations or plans really and have been very pleasantly surprised! - I was thinking it would just be like England, but with better weather, but it really isn’t. There is loads to do and I could totally see myself living here; the lifestyle is soooo cool! Get you butts to Aus, you’ll love it!!!! - Sarah).
The weather has been really good since we arrived. After Bangkok’s hot and humid weather, we have been enjoying temperatures of between 20-30°C, with only one day of rain! Beach weather everyday, which is very convenient for
Sunset at Sydney Harbour...
View from Mrs MacQuarie's Chair - We just made it after guzzling a beer in the Rocks and running round the harbour... checking Sydney’s many, many beaches!
So what have we been doing with ourselves? Well, once we had recovered from the flight our first real outing was a good old Aussie barbee. Scott took us to meet some mates and it was our first real taste of Sydney and also being called ‘Poms’. Scott was our tour guide for the first few days before he jetted off and took us to visit Palm beach aka Summer Bay. (I got very over excited getting my picture taken outside the surf club, where they had just finished filming a scene - Sarah). It’s actually a real place, not just a set and looks exactly like it does on the tv. (Actually Scott’s mates live just down the road from ‘Sally’s’ real house, hee hee… - Sarah) So check out the pics we took, they’re really freaky! On the way back we went for a swim at one of the near-by beaches, which was quite warm and the surf very strong. Stu managed to great a crab stuck in his shorts which gave him a nasty pinch!
(Scott reckoned it was sand rubbing but I know sand and that wasn’t sand! I
Flamin' Galars!
At Alf Stewart's place in Summer Bay (Palm Beach) found the beaches much more interesting than Thailand - the surf is so powerful and I now know properly what rip-currents are! We had a great time just body surfing. - Stu).
Then we got the ferry into Sydney harbour from Manly. (I was most impressed to see that some Sydneysiders actually commute to work by ferry and get to see the opera house and harbour bridge views every day, what a way to commute!!! - Sarah). For the next few days we explored Sydney by foot. Following some of our guide books walking tours (well they’re cheap!!) When you see the opera house and bridge they really are beautiful! Stu took so many pictures, everything is so photogenic! We also walked through the Royal Botanical Gardens and were amazed to see flying fox bats hanging out in the trees and real live cockatoo’s and pelicans strolling around the place. Sydney’s answer to pigeons!?! We’ve also checked out Darling harbour, the trendy ‘Rocks’ area, the harbourside, climbed up the Sydney harbour bridge pylon for gorgeous views of the harbour, went to the Australia museum and even saw a didgeridoo show!! So we have been keeping busy.
Of course,
Cheers Mate!
Pub lunch with Scott our Australian saviour... we had to check out famous Bondi beach and afraid of looking very uncool on Sydney’s trendiest beach, we opted to bodyboard instead of surf!
(I think I was a bit better than Stu, hee hee!. And I was very happy when a dishy surfer gave me a wink, but unfortunately managed to shame myself two seconds later when I wiped out big style and a ‘surfer boy’ (he was like 14) started cracking up and saying that my accident had been hilarious to watch, great!!! - Sarah).
Later we walked along the coast path to Coogee beach which is right near where we’re staying, feeling very jealous we don’t live by such amazing beaches at home!
Must tell you quickly about our visit to Featherdale wildlife park. We decided we needed to see all the random Australian animals and Sarah was very excited that you could play with the animals. Obviously most people know Kangaroos and Koalas but there are so many other unique animals that we'd heard of but never seen. We now know what a Dingo, Wombat, Bilbie, Tasmanian devil and Kookaburra look like!! We also got to feed and pet Koala bears, kangaroos
Bonza Bondi!
Looking down on amazing Bondi beach after body boarding for the day... and Emus. (Koalas are so cute!!!! Yes I got very over excited and squealed a lot!!! - Sarah)
Our last big adventure was a three day ‘bush walking’ trip to the Blue Mountains. (I am now the proud owner of a tent, sleeping bag and camping stove, OH MY GOD!!!! - Sarah) We arrived at the visitor centre with 2 stone backpacks containing our food and equipment for the three days. So began our first days walking - 7 hours of climbing hills and descending steep steps later and we realized we might have taken on too much! 25km in total!!! The route was stunning though and we walked through the Aussies’ answer to the Grand Canyon, aptly called the Grand Canyon, lovely! To say the legs were feeling tired by the end of the day was an understatement; we could barely walk! When we arrived at the camp site it was very basic! A compost toilet and grass really. We cooked our food on the new stove and were so tired we were asleep by 7pm! (Well I say sleep, but Stu tossed and turned all night. Maybe we should have tested the size of our tent before
Bats!
We stubbled upon thousands of these flying foxes in the Royal Botantical gardens... we left! It was about 6 inches too small for Stu to lay in comfortably, so I got squished in the corner, with my ruined legs going into painful spasms, aahh! - Sarah). Not to mention the thieving Dingo which scratched around outside our tent all night and ran off with anything that wasn’t hidden away!
Day two. We really started to get into the wilderness now and we ony saw two people all day. We walked along a track which we hadn’t realized required ‘good navigational skills, for experienced Blue Mountain hikers only’. Oh dear!!!! We got a little lost after the path ended and we followed some footprints for a way, but fortunately ran into some other hikers (who’d made the footprints!) who had a compass and we combined forces to find the path again. Got to the campsite just before it got dark with just time to dunk ourselves in the freeeeezing river (the only shower we were to get in three days), cook some disgusting super noodles and boil some drinking water from the creek to drink for the next day, yummy!
Day three. Return to civilization. Just a 13km hike out of the
Daring to stroke this ferocious beast...
We had fun at Feathedale wildlife park stroking Koalas and wallabies and wambats and bilbies and frogmouths and lots of things... canyon up to Mount Victoria between us and a comfy bed. Fortunately the views were beautiful and did something to take you mind off the pain!! We realized we had covered in excess of 50km over the three days and felt pretty proud. Though we probably looked pretty haggard by the time we crawled into a pub in Mount Victoria town. We both had stiff limps, greasy hair and wild stares by this point. Three days later we have finally got rid of the stiffness in our legs, ow!!
So we've got just a day left in Australia now. We've had a great time and are now looking forward to Hawaii on Tuesday!! More surfing!
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Rosie
non-member comment
sooo!!!! jealous
just read your whole blog, from start to finish and am soo!!! jealous sounds like you are having a great time!!!! love seeing what you are up to and looking forward to the next installment talk soon and take care of yourself Rosie