We've been on this train for ten hours now, only two more to go. Luckily it's comfortable, we're well supplied with books and we've been eating our way through the tough times (breakfast, elevenses, lunch, tea (twice) and a tasty dinner is imminent). Oh, and I've taught myself how to crochet.

We're on our way from Sydney to Byron Bay and so this seems like a good time to say what we've been up to in Sydney.

Sydney is a lively city, laid back but metropolitan. Not as funky as Melbourne, but it has bags of character. We've seen the required touristy things - the bridge and the Opera house and had a lovely time wandering round in the sunshine.

On arrival we went for a really good "free" walking tour of the city where we learnt all about the founding orgy, the kidnapping of the first aboriginal translator and where to get a good cheap meal (which is Chinatown, in case you're interested). Then we went to Bondi Beach, where it was so windy Si barely managed to get a surfboard moving and I went bikini shopping; partly because I left my beloved black bikini at the campsite on Wilson's prom and partly to hide from the wind.

The next day (Easter Sunday) we went on a walkabout in the Blue Mountains. This was a truly unique experience which, to be honest, I didn't really enjoy at first. What really put me off was our guide, Evan. He was incredibly spacey - that very rare kind of person who makes me want to shake him and say "oh, snap out of it!". But we'd just given him £125 on the promise that he'd show us a good time, so I hung around and give him a chance. He started off by telling us about aboriginal spirituality and how modern people can't understand it. He told us how to be in "Dreamtime" and impressed on us and how important it was/is to aboriginals and why it would transform our lives for the better.

Like I said I found it all a bit much at first and I refused to caress a single tree, even when he personally told me to. At some point during the morning he prepared us to visit a sacred site. He made us all imagine we were breathing in eucalyptus smoke to clear ourselves of the bad spirit trouble and then made our small group all dance together on a hillside like lunatics while he clapped two traditional sticks together for a beat. Strangely enough, that's around the point that I actually started enjoying myself.

All in all the day turned out to be thoroughly enjoyable - fascinating even - and I was glad I hadn't given up at the first hurdle. Evan, despite his spacey ways, was very knowledgable and showed us aboriginal life by making us live it, or some watered-down semblance of it, for a day. We learnt that a walkabout is actually part of an elaborate coming of age ritual for young aboriginal men. After proving that they were spiritually capable of being seen as adults they would then spend all night in the bush walking to various sacred sites. We learnt about other more shocking bits of the rituals that he wasn't going to put us through too, like being cut to show what food you're not allowed to eat any more now that you're an adult and how you have an incisor slowly bitten out by an elder to show you're an eligible man (seriously). I could see where the aboriginal ideas on spirituality are coming from and their similarities with other cultures. I think some of the things he talked about could actually be worth trying in my normal life.

And Si, to his credit, didn't burst out laughing once.

Yesterday we relaxed in Sydney. Si went to see the Maritime Museum, I went shopping. Loving the stereotype.