It has been a while since my last update as we have been out of Sydney for most of last week. We wanted to do a bit of visiting and also leave Aurelie and Shane some space during the week (they have had guests non-stop since mid December! I guess it's bound to happen when you live in such a nice place).
On Monday last week, we drove down South of Sydney to Jervis Bay and stayed there for one night. We went for a swim and a walk on Hyams Beach, which is - according to the Guiness Book of Records - the beach with the whitest sand in the world. It was indeed very white and looked like one of the pictures you see on holiday brochures. We were swimming along, enjoying the landscape, when we stopped to spare a thought to all our friends back home who were a) at work and b) freezing their backsides off... we might not have many friends left when we go back if I keep on writing comments like that ;)
After Jervis Bay, we drove back up North into the land towards the Blue Mountains, and stayed two nights in a town called Katoomba (I do love these names... Katoomba, Kirri Kirri, Kirribili, Wagga Wagga... I assume they are Arboriginal in origin... ooh that sounds quite poetic!). We went out for a lovely walk from a place called Echo Point - you go down (and I mean down, vertically so) 902 steps, then end up in a sort of tropical forest. There were lots of lizards, birds singing nice exotic songs (our favorite one so far in the whole of the Australia trip has been the Kookaburra - Aurelie makes a brilliant impression of it, I wish I'd been able to record and share it... Aurelie, a tes micros!). To go back up I couldn't face 900 steps up (I'm not lazy, it's just all this running we've been doing :) so we took a little cart back up. It was set up on what they claim to be the steepest railway in the world, at an angle of 52 degrees. Looked pretty steep from where we were sitting, and we thought it was better to be going up on it rather than down!
We got back to Sydney in time for the week end, and on Friday Gary and Shane went out to watch the cricket (Australia vs. South Africa) at the S.C.G., while Aurelie and I had a girly night out in King's Cross.
On Saturday, we were all slightly worse for wear and didn't get up as early as planned, but eventually managed to hit the road towards Nelson Bay (about 2 hours' North of Sydney) in the late morning. Shane had organised a three nights stay in a three bedroom appartment just off the seaside, and their friends Adam and Amanda (who are British but have lived in Australia for a couple of years) spent the week end there with us. It was great: lots of going to the beach, having barbecues, drinking beer and sleeping in. We also drove down to Hunters Valley and tasted some Aussie wine. Yesterday I had a go at bodyboard surfing on the Mile Long Beach, it was really good fun.
We are now back in Sydney - after a tearful goodbye to Aurelie (and a manly handshake to Shane), it's time to hit the road again. We are going to try and get a flight to Singapore this afternoon. It is standby, so if we don't get on we might actually be visiting Aurelie and Shane a hell of a lot sooner than anticipated! If there is no room on the Singapore flight, we will try to go for the Bangkok one. Not sure where we will be in 24 hours' time...
Watch this space!
C.
P.S. Our highlight of the week - took this photo on Shane and Aurelie's street. Shane told us that the first time he saw this, there was a ticket right next to it!
(You should be able to read what it says if you click on the photo to maximize it)
1 comment:
Hi to you both!
Sounds like you've been having a wonderful time in Australia - hope you managed to get your flight to Singapore.
You are right - we are all here working and freezing are arses off - although today is lovely and sunny (but cold)! fiona
ps just realised all my immediate family is abroad in some hot place - what am I doing wrong?!!
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