Australia

Kangaroos at the campsite

A quick swim stop where the lizard joined us

Nic enjoys the view whilst David has a spot of fresh air from all the driving!

Cave Beach where we stopped one night

Nic in the rainforest

Pebbly Beach - we camped near here for one of our nights.

A quick game of golf - Nic won!!!! Ha ha ha!!!

So we left beautiful Sydney, said our goodbyes to Les and Lorraine and got into our rental car to begin the next leg of our journey. Our plan is to spend the next two weeks heading from Sydney to Melbourne, taking in all the National Parks along the way.

For the first five night we camped in National Parks and saw an abundance of wildlife. We saw a 2m snake crossing the road, an echidna (spikey anteater) walking along a track, a 1.5m lizard who joined us for lunch one day and have had kangaroos bouncing through our campsites! Not to mention all the various creepy crawlies!!!

We've visited gorgeous lagoons, waterfalls and beaches and have seen Aboriginal rock engravings and done plenty of walking. Our stay in Canberra will be a short one before we head off into the National Parks again. Hopefully taking in some of the mountains and maybe even squeezing in a quick hike up Australia's tallest mountain at 2228m (Mt Kosciusko - over double the height of Snowdon and with no train......) then it's onward to Melbourne...

Enjoying our belated birthday meals at the world's largest revolving restaurant

Our Hotel room and scrummy hamper over looking the bridge

This is my gaff

Great view from our last fine dining experience on the rocks

So we left lovely misty Katoomba and took the two hour train journey into Sydney. We were so excited to be there and meet up with Les and Lorraine! We checked into the lovely Hotel Intercontinental and gawped at the bridge from our hotel room!!!

Over the next few days the four of us enjoyed Sydney. We went on a jet boat ride, saw the Opera House and had a closer inspection of the bridge. We went to the Aquarium, an Ice Bar (we all looked like eskimos in our big coats!) and ate at the world's largest revolving restaurant. We saw the excellent fireworks on New Year's Eve whislt enjoying Champagne and a picnic hamper. We finished our magnificent stay by eating lobster at a restaurant on the Rocks with a clear view of the Opera House! It was just magical. Thank you so much Les and Lorraine!

We will be returning to Sydney at the end of February - yippee!!!

Brown pants time!!! Heading down the valley via the vertical steal ladders

The Orient Cave

We had originally booked a day's abseiling and canyoning at Wentworth Falls which unfortunately fell through due to the Australian Mountaineering Society failing to book themselves in with the National Park. How frustrating!?! We've decided to make up for it in New Zealand.....

So instead of gearing up with ropes and a wet suit we donned our walking shoes and bushman repellent and headed out there ourselves. We ended up doing a fantastic 6 hour hike, along cliff edges, behind, below and through waterfalls, through rainforest and swaps. We descended into the valley via a series near vertical (brown pants time) ladders and boulders with the help of ropes.

We were absolutely shattered by the time we got back to the campsite and happily tucked in to our version of corned beef hash!

With legs slightly stiff from the day before we caught the bus to The Jenolan Caves. With fantastic scenery along the way we arrived by driving through a huge cave and knew we'd arrived! A tight schedule was planned for the day with two cave tours. The Lucus Cave was the first, which was huge and impressive. After a quick bite to eat we began our tour of The Orient Cave. This was stunning, the prettiest rock formations we've ever seen. Pictures to follow soon.....

Ready for our Christmas Eve meal

David carving the chicken on Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!

After a hard day's mountain biking followed by a thunderstorm under canvas we checked into The Carrington Hotel on Christmas Eve. With damp gear, a chiller bag of food (Christmas dinner) we were ready for a cocktail and comfy bed! The room was HUGE complete with King size bed and spa bath - we were in heaven, the first real luxury of our travels!

For dinner we indulged in a three course dinner and a few games of snooker on their 100 year old table (Nic had to use the 7ft rests most of the time - short arse!)We could get used to this...

Christmas Day was slightly different. We had crackers, a pre-cooked chilled chicken, salad, breads, brie, cranberry sauce (for effect) followed by rum truffles (not as nice as Nic's homemade ones), mince pies and the world's tiniest Christmas cake. Quite a feast considering we'd smuggled it in!

So after a few (room-made) rum 'n' cokes and Bloody Mary's on Christmas night we headed out fairly early the next day to Govett's Leap for our Boxing Day walk. Here we were met with the remnants of a recent bush fire. The devastation was massive, many paths were closed and you could still smell the charred ground. We made the best of the day and did a basic walk where we had a picnic (in true tradition, leftover chicken sandwiches)!

The Skyway and David's feet!!!

David's bday meal

So after a great day for Nic's birthday David's had a lot to live up to. David awoke to a big happy birthday banner delicatley selotaped to a fence outside our tent. We gently rose from our slumber and made our way into town for the best breakfast ever... full English why thank you. After downing a fine cup of morning English tea we made our way up to the internet cafe and blitzed the computer (as you may recall!) After 3 hours we were feeling quite happy with ourselves - to make things better we got our snorkelling pics developed which were great! (E-mail went around!) We then took a quiet stroll around Scenicworld to help the breaky go down in anticipation of our meal this evening. After managing to get a free ride on the Skyway (glass bottomed cable car) - last people of the day - we headed back to our campsite for a shit, shave and shower (that includes Nic!) To round off a very relaxing day the meal was fantastic with views over the stunning Jameson valley and our tums were nicely full of wine and top grade meat!!