Yesterday we visited another of the nearby national parks, this time to the south of Sydney - Royal National Park, the oldest in the country. Armed with food for a BBQ and toys for the beach we set off to explore the area. However, when we arrived at the information centre we were told that all of the walking trails were closed due to the extreme risk of bush fires, so we headed straight around to the beach.

It's quite strange to think that less than an hour's drive from the biggest city in the country, you can be lying on the sand with the sea to swim in to one side and a calmer lagoon on the other to splash around in as well. After working up an appetite in the water, we hunted around for a BBQ that was available - it's a brilliant idea out here to have so many places with free gas BBQ's for people to use - and even had a friendly two metre Goanna (Lace Monitor to most of us) as a companion for our lunch. Although we're not sure how friendly it would have been had we not fed it??

After lunch it was back into the lagoon as we progressed up onto the rock outcrops to hurl ourselves into the murky water a few metres below. We didn't quite make it up to the highest leap some six metres above the water, as the smell around the bottom of the rocks was getting progressively stronger due to the floor getting repeatedly churned up by all the people jumping in. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it was so damn high!!!

This morning we intended to spend the day in Watson's Bay, but the whole of Sydney clearly had the same idea, so after an hour of driving around looking for somewhere to park, we decided it wasn't going to happen, and instead we headed off to Ku-Ring-Gai Chase national park again. Once again, we were almost the only people around as we swam in the basin and enjoyed the sun until the early evening. Alan has definitely found his water wings again, and it took some persuading to get him out of the water in time for us to get back up the mammoth hill, before the park shut and locked us in!

After the last few days of walking and swimming and turkey for breakfast, lunch and dinner we did what every self respecting person would do in the same position and ordered Pizza Hut to be delivered!!

Tomorrow we intend to find out what exactly is happening for New Year, and may even take a cruise around the harbour. After all, we've not got many photos of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge yet.