Day Five - July 11th 2013 Port Stephens Waking up to the sounds of nature is amazing. But not as soothing as Hollywood portrays. The squawks of the many many birds in the trees surrounding us led to a rather disheveled rising this morning - but wonderful all the same. Some porridge and a cup of tea later, we headed out of the campsite to explore. I leave most (ok, all) of the navigating to Elliot, so it was a nice relaxing walk. The beaches are beautiful white...

Day Four - Wednesday 10th July Katoomba to Soldier's Point via Cessnock The rain started last night. Always it starts when I need to dash out to brush my teeth. Luckily though, the cloud cover kept in some heat, and it only dropped to 0•, positively balmy compared to the previous night. We slept well and woke at 7.30 to situate the car and have some brekie. We weren't the maddest people at the campsite - there was a couple sleeping in just their hatchback. T...

Day Three - Tuesday 9th July Katoomba Well, we survived the night. But only by the skin of our (chattered) teeth. Even Elly had to admit he had woken up several times in the night due to the cold. One more night to get through, and then off to the warmer climate of the Hunter Valley. We were woken early by our annoyingly noisy neighbours - I will never understand people who cannot comprehend the notion of sharing space. We hoped for an quick start but everythi...

Day Two - Monday 8th July Katoomba We woke early to make full use of the motel breakfast and weren't disappointed! Plenty of my favourites on offer, including hash browns, mini pancakes and cheesy fried tomatoes. After (reluctantly on my part) leaving the motel, we visited a chemist to re-stock our depleted first-aid kit (due to Elly's malfunctioning finger) and then drove a little way out of the town to Katoomba Falls Tourist Park. I was more than a little du...

Day One - Sunday 7th July 2013 Manly - Katoomba After attending an electric ANZ stadium last night with 84,000 crazed Lions and Wallabies fans, the last thing we needed before packing up our little studio apartment in Manly today was a bad night of sleep. However, the fire alarm system in our building has been somewhat sensitive lately and we were woken twice in the wee hours of the night with false alarms. Elliot and I struggled to get up and feel excited abo...