Sydney

We are not really city people but thought Sydney was a must. We set of early to get the train with our packed lunch and flask in our back packs. Thanks to Geoff we had a clear plan of what we wanted to see and a day in which to do it. The train ride was ideal, cheap and easy. We walked down to Circular Quay and the Sydney Opera House through Hyde Park. The Opera House was stunning as well as the view of the bridge. We then spent some time looking at the historical old part of Sydney called the Rocks. We saw a great aboriginal group playing Didgeridoos. There was a tribal elder called Uncle Max who was beckoning Ruth over to sit next to him as he played percussion. Ruth laughed nervously and just waved back. There's a very sad history to Sydney with the early Aboriginal tribe the Eora people being completely gone along with most information about the way they lived. We enjoyed learning about the place in a museum before walking over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We then walked to Darling Harbour where we had a look around the maritime museum. In particular we saw an exhibition on Sharks, exploring whether they are predators or prey. Although a little freaked out we came away with more sympathy for the creatures. We had a nice meal in the harbour and a couple of cold beers, before walking back to the station. It was a great day but little did we know our adventure was not to end here.
We were tired from the walking and after our train arrived back at Stanwell Park at 10 pm we were ready for a kip. Unfortunately Cod the van had disgraced himself and had been shouting his mouth off all day (car alarm). We had a flat battery. We were parked on a big hill so eventually and with the help of a passing jogger (who also invited us for food) we pushed the van into a position we could free wheel down the hill and hopefully clutch start it. No Joy! Halfway down the hill we decided it wasn't working so went to call our break down service who came and started us up within the hour. Great! It was now 1 am and we had to drive aimlessly for half an hour to charge up the battery. Of course an out of state van driving around after 1 in the morning soon attracted suspicion and before long we had the police pulling us over. Fortunately they were very relaxed and we were soon parked up again ready for a nights sleep. No dramas mate, she'll be right!

Stanwell Park

From our friend Dan's recommendation we headed further north to Stanwell Park. It has started to get a lot more built up the closer to Sydney we have come but the Park area still has lots of green open space spilling onto the beach. We met a great man, Geoff, who is standing in for the usual park ranger, but he normally climbs trees for a living. He has been giving us some good advise of where to surf and places to see in the area, and even invited us to have a BBQ with him and his wife. It's definitely the people that make the place!

Honeymoon Bay

We pretty much headed back to where we'd left from the coast. We stayed a night in Berry at another lovely show ground. We got chatting to a guy who was travelling with his family and setting up a travel website for Australia as they went. He told us we absolutely had to go to Honeymoon Bay. We had been thinking about going after someone else had recommended it but due to it being surrounded by a Military Weapons Range we weren't sure when you could and couldn't go. We found out it was open most weekends and you can also camp there (very basic bush camping). We went the following day. It really was beautiful! The snorkelling was great, we saw lots of rays. As Friday evening drew in the camp ground started to fill up, and so did the beach. We decided to hike further around the Peninsula to get away from the crowds and the beaches that we came across were as beautiful, if not more so than the first, and they were almost empty. We found a beach with a great wave, and a spectacular cove with a shipwreck. On Saturday evening as the sun was setting we heard the sound of bagpipes coming from the beach. We headed down to have a look and a man (we think he was Italian) was playing the bagpipes on the end of the rocks, and really well. It was a great sight as you got the silhouette of him and the rocks against a beautiful sunset and to the sound the the pipes. It was a great weekend!

Back To The Coast

After a fantastic 10 days in Broken Hill we headed back to the coast. We took our time getting there stopping at some lovely spots. We stopped in Narrandera and had a go at playing the largest playable guitar in the Southern Hemisphere. It's length is 5.8metres and the width is 2metres. It needs 2 people to play and we hit a few bum notes. About 3 quarters of the way back we got pulled over by the police, I (Ruth) was breathalised, and even though I hadn't had a drink in days I'm sure I had guilt written all over me. They explained that they'd stopped us because they'd caught the same model vehicle a few days previous smuggling drugs over the boarder. They looked at how packed full our van was, and you could tell they really couldn't be bothered to go through it so they just asked “Look, do you guys do drugs?”
We replied “No” (I was still flushed) but that was good enough for them. Off we went on with our trip.