Part II - "Sydney - Blue Mountains - Jervis Bay"

Here we go, Blog Part II.

21nd September 2010, 2nd day in Sydney. 

We're leaving our lovely lodge in Kings Cross. It turns out that we did choose the area of Sydney which is the equivalent of the Reeperbahn in Hamburg. But to be honest, in comparison to Hamburg, this is really "Red Light District light" and on the positive side, we felt kind of homy. Great location, in the middle of the city and clean - Jackpot!

 
We're continuing the 2nd part of the very touristy Hop on - Hop Off bus tour which takes us through Sydney and out to Bondi Beach. The sun is shining, maybe 20 degress, quite chilly on top of the bus though. Excuse me, I thought we were in Australia, the land of unbearable heat and Crocodile Dundee!!!  I can't recall having seen him wearing a scarf in any of his movies !!! But hey, I guess this is where knowing your geographie might help a bit. Anyway, the sun is shining and we get a pretty good picture of Sydney.
 

Bondi Beach is about 20 min from the city centre - and amazing city beach. It's about lunch time and you see people in their lunch break coming down the street wearing their swim shorts, being bare feet and carrying a surf board - Man! Life is tough here in Sydney!!!
After having seen the Opera and Sydney Harbour Bridge and everything from the bus, we decide to walk down to the sights the next day to take some proper pictures. (Sydney Harbour Bridge + the Opera)

 It's wednesday night and we're meeting up for drinks with Lennie, a friend of the Johnston Brothers (Nick and Aleks). I met Lennie when I was in Singapore in March this year. Great to go out with people who actually live in the city you're visiting. So he takes us to a very cool bar in the city centre of Sydney with a pool in the middle. Smoooooth! It was great to catch up with him and while talking we had a few drinks.

 
We had so much fun and it turned out to be quite a heavy night ending in a night club called "White Revolver" in Bondi Beach. Great wedensday night - poor Lennie who had to work on thursday!
24/09 - thursday morning, early start for us as well. Getting up, packing our bags, checking out and off we go to pick up the "Wicked" Van. Fully packed and slightly hungover, we leave the lodge at 10 am - I'm telling you, veeeeeeery heavy!!!
 
So we make our way to the Wicked Campers Depot and pick up our black van. A bit rusty the good old car, but hey, am sure she'll manage. "Do you want insurance?" is the stoned french dude asking us behind the counter, and I'm tempted to say "No thanks, we don't need that." BUT considering we're gonna be on the road for 6 weeks in this van it kind of does seem sensible to take the insurance. After checking the inventory of the van and existing damages, we get the key and we hit the road. Fortunately we did buy a TomTom Navi the day before, so Kristof drove and I was in charge for the navigation. First stop: MC Donalds! After getting some food, we left Sydney to drive up to the Blue Mountains about 100 km west of Sydney. The higher we got, the colder it got. Before finding the camping spot for the night, we drove to the Echo Point in Katoomba.
 

On the way we stopped at a supermarket to get some supplies. Baked Beans, Milk, Cup Noodles, Beer, Eggs, Bread, Peanut Butter, Cheese and all these very healthy products. So at dinner time we were well prepared. On the menu: Cup Noodles. Yummi, yummi, yummi...


First night in the van. Great sleeping back, but temperatures dropped to a felt -10 degrees!!! In the morning there was even ice on the windows. Wise move to drive to the mountains ??? Hmmm, not so sure, but we survived and the sun was shining the next morning which made up for the cold night. Breakfast time: Coffee, Eggs and Beans - Awesome!!

What to do next ?? It was definitely Beach time!! As Kristof's friend Jan, who lives in Manly (North Sydney) is only coming back into town on Monday we decide to drive south to Jervis Bay (Huskisson) to spend a few days there before we head north. After a 4 hours drive (only about 240 kilometers, but lots of it through mountains) we arrive in Huskisson which is an amazing place!! Great Beach and the camping side is pretty nice as well. From the spot we're staying we can see the beach. Very cool!!
 
Dinner time: Toinght on the menu, pasta bolognese with wholegrain pasta. As our possibilities as to what we can cook is quite limited, we had to buy a sauce from the glass. But once I found the following in the supermarket, I was not worried:

Bon Appetite!
 

25/09 – the next day. Despite for being quite a small town, Huskinsson does have quite a bit that they are famous for. For example Dolphin and Whale watching tours. Of course we wanted to try that so we walk to the city center to get some tickets. We get the tickets and have to wait for 1 hour before the boat takes off. So we go for proper Fish & Chips. Definitely the freshest Fish & Chips I have ever had !! Sooo delicious – amazing. You basically walk into the fish shop and you can choose the kind of fish you want to have, so they take it from the counter, and 20 minutes later, freshly prepared, you can dig in - best Fish & Chips ever!

The boat tour takes 3 hours and we actually get to see dolphins and whales. Very cool.

The scenery is amazing and the skippers announces that on our starboard side we the beach called „Hyams Beach“ which acutally made it into the Guiness Book of Records for being the whitest beach in the world !! No doubt, we had to go there !!!

So the next day we make our way to Hyams Beach which is awesome! Really really white, brilliant water. Ice cold, but very very clean. Definitely worth a visit.

On 27/09 we leave the camping spot and Huskinsson to head up north to Manly (North Sydney).  
I would have loved to post more pictures but it really takes ages to upload them, so am afraid these will have to do for now.
 
Big hug and lots of kisses to all of you,
xoxo, Janne
(It's the 28/09 now, and we're in Newcastle, heading up to Port Stephens later today)