17 April 2009

We decided fairly quickly that the Blue Mountains was a top spot among our travels and definitely a place we will visit again. The spectacular scenery, beautiful walks and waterfalls were pretty amazing to see after a dry and dusty trip across WA and SA. After having such a beautiful camping spot all to ourselves for most of the week, we were shocked on a Saturday afternoon to see it inundated with Sydneysiders up for the night – the place was packed. This was enough to get us out of our camping chairs and packed up to head to quieter pastures.

We drove south towards Ulladulla through some beautiful countryside and down some pretty hairy 4WD tracks to get to Lake Conjolla. Our neighbours at the caravan park in Cowra had very kindly let us stay at their permanent van there and it was just fabulous. I would have thought Ruby stealing all their cheese and salami as well as going through their tent would have been enough to put them off us staying, but lucky for us they thought she was cute and handed over the keys.

We had torrential downpour for the first few days which seems to happen to us in every state, however this made for some tricky 4wding for Nath and Gerard, be sure to check out the photos. We were also glad to be out of the camper during the rain, the three of us in a tiny space like that for an extended period of time usually results in Ruby turning in to a chimp with ADD, about to scratch our eyes out.

We again caught up with out mates Nick and Gerard who live nearby and spent a couple of evenings at our favourite establishments in NSW so far….the RSL. We love them. Nath got some much needed work done on the boat and car and it was time to hit the road again.

So where to spend Easter? Well, the obvious choice was Penrith. We scored a stellar site at the Penrith caravan park about 3.5 meters from Sydneys major railway track. We had the commuter trains all day and night and the added bonus of the coal trains screaming past every night – what a hole. Luckily we had some friends nearby who made the location more bearable, a barbie with Bello and Bec and day out wakeboarding with Waz and Lowey – thanks everyone!

We did plenty of sightseeing in Sydney….I squeezed in a bridge climb which was unbelievable and Nath and Ruby spent hours wandering around after getting a bum steer to Darling Harbour. He did however score some free tickets to the Aquarium and the Australian Wildlife Park which took care of the afternoon’s activities. Good Friday was spent at Taronga Park Zoo along with every other person on the entire planet who owned a stroller, the place was packed. They were turning away people from the Seal show and the staff were being screamed at to be let in – lucky we got there early. Despite the crowds we were pretty impressed with the Zoo and would love to say that Ruby enjoyed it but she seemed more preoccupied with what was on the menu for lunch. The afternoon was spent cruising around Manly and calling in to see Finno and Lucy for a well deserved sundowner.

We were pretty keen to get out of Sydney and back to the coast so we headed north to Seal Rocks. This was such a beautiful spot, we were amazed to see it wasn’t absolutely packed out. The first night we met a couple of Euro backpackers, Sandy from Germany and Andreas from Italy who were stoked to use our fridge to cool down their cask of fruity lexia. They were lovely and very enthusiastic about seeing Australia, good on them. We spent a couple of days exploring the local beaches, Nath got plenty of surfs in and we managed to skip the ranger every morning and avoid the fees. In return, Nath spent a couple of days cleaning up the entire camp ground which was littered with rubbish after the easter long week end.

We left Seal Rocks this morning and headed north towards Port Maquarie where we got the ferry across the river and headed north to Point Plomer. This place is about 15 kms south of Crescent Head and it was a pretty heavy drive in due to the recent rains. The beach and headland are stunning, however the place is pretty packed due to the school holidays. The regulars tell us it is no where near busy but seems like Yallingup at Christmas time to us. We plan on staying here a few days to do a bit more surfing, lazing on the beach and taking in the amazing sights……just until we have to head off and do it all again.

Love us……xxxxxxx