Once we were back in Brisbane, Shane cooked a really tasty meal as a small way of saying thanks to Ivy, Heather and Bob for their hospitality and generosity while we were there. We really did have a great time having a home and some friendly faces for a week after all the time away. After that it was pretty much just a matter of driving down to Sydney over the next couple of days to get the van back. We stopped off in Byron Bay which is a hippie surfer's parad...

It was then back coastward to check out Nambucca Heads, where we decided to stop at Shelly Beach.....Phil decided it was a nice spot for a walk, whilst Shane read the shark warnings and decided on a swim!! Luckily we both survived and then headed off to our next campsite. From there we hit the Waterfall Way, where the most impressive was Ebon Falls, and it was also a lovely drive as at the higher altitude there was evidence of autumn, with some lovely reddy, or...

The Blue Mountains is the national park just outside of Sydney, given its name due to the fine mist of oil exuded by the eucalyptus trees. Despite being sceptical at first, it really is a pretty special area. The view points are pretty amazing. We checked out a couple of view points, Wentworth Falls, before hitting the most known attraction, the Three Sisters. We camped in the middle of all the trees that night, before setting off the next morning to check out ...

From there we kept heading up the east coast, stopping for a spot of fishing in Durrus, well to quote Shane he did a great job feeding the little fish, so maybe not exactly true fishing!!! They were very quick and kept eating his bait!!!! Still it was a lovely spot! Further up we hit Jervis Bay National Park, which is meant to have the whitest sand in the world....and to be fair we have seen some lovely beaches but this one would be right up there. Was a bit co...

So we landed into Sydney Airport still not knowing what we were going to do to get around Oz , or where exactly we were going to go to! Luckily we managed to make it to our hostel very easily which left us just enough time to go for a little walk!! We took in Darling Harbour and headed down to the Quay, where we saw the Opera House, the Bridge and most importantly for Shane, The Quay Restaurant, the best in Australia!!! We could only read the menu wishfully and...