Sydney to Brisbane

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First stop after leaving Sydney was Palm Beach, better known as Summer Bay. Del wanted to dip her toe in the same sea that Alf Stewart has been in. It was really weird seeing the tracks down to the beach, they were instantly recognisable.

From Palm Beach we headed west towards the Blue Mountains. We had one day of glorious sunshine when we did a walk around the Three Sisters which included 900 steps (luckily we only had to walk down them) and saw a lyrebird (imagine a small peacock), the next day, it poured down and didn't stop for three days. Helen is not the best vehicle to be in when it's raining - she's a bit leaky - and it was even worse when we were on the dirt roads - she nearly slid sideways into a tree!

We did drive-through visits of both Aberdare and Cardiff - the rain made it feel just like home.

Further north we paid a visit to the Big Banana - a banana theme park. It was rubbish. We visited a tea tree plantation and paddled in a lake stained brown by the tea tree oil leaching in to it and then continued on to Byron Bay, where we saw a humpback whale! Byron Bay was a bit too full of backpackers for our liking so we didn't stay long.

After crossing the border into Queensland we drove in to the tourist trap that is Surfers Paradise. Not our kind of place at all so it was onwards to Brisbane.

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Photos

The Surf Club
If you look closely you'll be able to see that Alf Stewart is president

Summer Bay
Just like Sally Fletcher, Del had had a hard day and some serious thinking to do

Aberdare
We were actually in Aberdare we just couldn't find the sign...the best we could do was Aberdare Road

Cardiff
Not so far away from home

Sufers Paradise
Paradise is not the word I'd use