Good evening! Its been not much time since this mornings post, that actually covered yesterdays doings. Now, time to catch up with the rest of today.
This morning, we bid farewell to the Amora hotel in Sydney that has been our base for the last few days. Time for one last brekkie down at the quayside - but, not on our own. This time we were joined by Rosie! It's been a while since we saw each other last. A couple of years at least, and crikey has she made the most of her like. I wont go into detail. Its simply not my place to, but we are both so pleased the way everything is going for her. It was fantastic to catch up on all the gossip and goings on from the last couple of years. I only wish we had more time, but that isnt something that we are blessed with on this journey unfortunatley. Rosie, you are a legend, and we really hope everything keeps getting better and better for you!
After spotting what could have been hundreds of jellyfish in the harbour, briefly deciding that jumping in the water to find out if they would hurt you or not, and then saying our farewells to Rosie, it was time to catch the train to Mascot and the pick up point for our trusty chariot, and home for the next 8 nights.
Mascot is quite a quiet suburb south of the city. The Britz depot (which is the name of our hire company) is shared with all the other hire companies. This time, we have gone for a small, more compact camper compared to our 2011 machine that we had to drive around New Zealand. However, its only got 6000km on the clock and is virtualy brand new. Bonus!
Our first stop is in the Hunter valley, which meant having the negotiate Sydney, and we got to drive over the Harbour bridge! A big tick in the box there, but with 6 lanes of traffic and no barriers between traffic running in opposite directions, there wasnt much time for site seeing. Leaving Sydney behind, and starting out on the highway, we started to put some miles on the clock. Turning off the highway in search of a supermarket, we took the chance to stop for dinner in the supermarket carpark, because we could. :-)
Then, came the good driving. The country roads heading all over the place, past an observatory just before we got to Bucketty (population 150), we started winding our way through the bush, with the occasional sighting of Skippy having a munch in the fields and scrub either sid of the road. I would have loved to have stopped in the obsie, but time was getting on.
It is at this point that I make my next comparison with campervans in Oz and vans in NZ. Nobody waves in Oz! Too laid back maybe? I shall monitor closely. We also drove past a shop that sold hats. I didnt buy one.
We are now pitched up in Hunter Valley at the Big 4 campsite, and bedded down for the evening. To welcome us to the site, we have already had a belter of an electric storm. No photos unfortunatly. DSLR ran out of batteries.
So, not many amusing things happened today. But still really pleased we met up with Rosie.
Tomorrow, there may be wine and beer involved..... Breweries, vineyards.... When will the madness end?
