Blogs from Mona Vale, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania

I am the one Who always goes Away with my home Which can only stay inside in my blood – my home which does not fit with any geography. " The One Who Goes Away, Sujhata Bhatt With just four weeks to go I am feeling the pressure of actually getting my things together. The thought of seven months overseas felt so surreal that I haden't really kicked my bum into gear and mustered up the initiation to book and plan the finer details of my trip. But now I can actually see the date looming and it is becoming less a dream and more of a reality. I used to think travelling was a simple as rocking up to the airport, purchasing a ticket and then going along on your merry way. But now ... read more

I'm sitting at home trying to work out this blog thing before I take off tomorrow. Very excited!... read more

8 - 28 November 2011 What a whirlwind! I needed to get back from my holiday from my holiday so I could have a rest! We flew home this month for our very good mates' wedding - Em and Benny. It was such a fun and very cool wedding - what other bride does the worm on the dance floor and goes crowd surfing a number of times??!! We had a great time catching up with as many people as we could in a short time and it was good for Alex to know he had finished up work for a little while again. The boys loved catching up with all their family and friends but it was certainly a busy three weeks. Don't think I've ever crammed so much into that time frame before..... By ... read more

Day 94 This morning we packed up the camper van and headed onto the M4 motorway which goes straight into Sydney. We travelled for approximately 40km from Penrith to an area south west of the city called Belmore, to drop off camper van at the depot. Along the way we saw the Olympic Park and the city skyline in the distance. The train station was 10 minutes walk from the depot and it felt strange to be backpackers again carrying all our belongings. It took us half an hour to get to Central Station where Oliver's uncle David was picking us up. We drove north over the Sydney harbour bridge towards Mona Vale where David and Oliver's aunty Eleanor have a luxury penthouse apartment overlooking the Bayview golf course. In the afternoon we went for a ... read more

Day 83 We had every intention of going to Sydney today, our plan was to get the bus in to Manley, then the Fast Cat ferry over to Circular key. Once we had some breakfast and by the time we got ourselves together we looked at the bus time table and found that we would have to wait another 45 minutes for a bus, so we drove directly to Manley parked in the Australian equivalent of an NCP carpark and jumped on the fast cat from there. The Ferry ride is only half an hour, really pleasant in the sunshine, we sat at the front of the boat as if we were on a school outing. . I had heard on the radio this morning about a cruise liner that was in or coming in at ... read more