Road Trippin' - Sydney to Brisbane

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Quick flight from Uluru to Sydney and got a good last aerial view of fabulous Ayers Rock. Ventured out into cold and rainy Sydney city and checked into to central Wake Up! backpackers, which was like living in Hollyoaks (rowdy drunkards throwing pizza boxes!). Next day, the weather was terrible but we still went out with our matching anoraks on to see the botanic gardens, opera house and bridge, which hadn't changed much since we visited in 2000. Sheltered from the rain in the observatory musuem and Sydney Aquarium (saw fab sharks and rays). The weather was much better the next day so we got the bus to Bondi and went for a walk along the beach (no life guards on show unfortunately) and along the cliffs. That night we stayed with our travel mate Jules (we'd met in Vietnam and hung out in Laos) and her Aussie boyfriend Damo. They told us about their recent road trip to Darwin in a Jucy Campervan and said how good it was so we got on the blower and booked ourselves one.

Picked up our bright green and purple campervan (a converted Toyota MPV) with all mod cons (DVD player, camp stove and kitchen sink!) and set off inland to see the Blue Mountains. Stayed in freezing Katoomba and walked along the cliffs of the huge eucaliptus tree fillled canyon to see the The Three Sisters rock formation. Then we drove to Lithgow and took a ride on the historic Zig Zag Railway. We were the only tourists on board the old diesel train so we got a very personal tour. They let us change the signals and track in the signal box and everything! All good fun. Next stop on our road trip was Port Stephens, a nice beachy town with huge Sahara-like sand dunes that we spent a very enjoyable morning running up and down. We stayed in a cute seaside village called Tea Gardens full of bungalows and old people. Campervan was really comfortable to sleep in, much better than staying in shared dorm rooms.

We drove inland to beautiful but quite deserted Barrington Tops National Park. The only facilities there was one compost toilet, no electricity or water or anything but we were allowed to have a camp fire, so that's exactly what we did. We collected dry firewood (difficult in the rainforest) and Dee made the fire with his fire stick and cotton wool (Bear Gryls won't be without cotton wool!). Drank our goon and toasted marshmallows but it did get really errie after dark being totally alone in the wilderness.

Back to civilisation and up to Byron Bay. Spent a long time there, such a lovely place. Beautiful sweeping bays, beaches and a lighthouse. Cool shops and cafes. We stayed at the hippy Arts Factory Backpackers in their car park and used the facilities. Dee bought a didgeridoo. We both did a surfing lesson. Water was a bit cold but Holly managed to stand up in the white water...well her board was 12'' and like a boat. Saw loads of humpback whales and dolphins around the bay. Sadly, our time in Australia was rapidly coming to an end. We had a fantastic 5 weeks travelling up the east coast. We were surprised how vast and beautiful the country was and how lovely the people were. Great to be free of bus timetables and have freedom by renting the car and campervan, had a lot of fun. It did shock us how expensive food, drink and accomodation was. Cost of living is very high here but so are wages (you could earn $20/hr making sarnies in Subway = 12 pounds/hr). Can see why so many people want to live out here! We spent our last few days back in Brisbane before catching our flight to Auckland. New Zealand here we come..........

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Photos

Shrimp?
Throw another shrimp on the barbie