SYDNEY - Blogabond

Amazing how much you can do in a week, we're loving Australia so far!! We arrived at Sydney airport to be greeted by a friendly face, I love being met at arrivals - thanks Michelle. Fot the first two night we stayed at John, Jan's and Michelle in Campbelltown just outside Sydney. Although still fairly tired, we wanted to crack on with our exploring with Michelle as our invaluable guide.

To start the morning, we had a hearty breakfast of steak, prawns and eggs (yes, thats right, breakfast!) First off we drove to Builli look out with has amazing views over the forrest to Woollengong. Then it as a short drive down into the valley to the beach, one minute we're looking at it from afar and the next minute we're on it!! The weather was really hot so our chief safety officer suggested just 30 minutes lazing on the beach.

Thirroule Beach

We then went to Kiama - which was really beautiful, as was quite rugged (and reminded us slightly of cornwall - on a good day!) The fish and chips weren't bad either! On the way back we stopped off to meet some of Michelles friends - Terri and Craig.

Three sisters

On the second day, nursing a few areas of slight sunburn, we headed up to the blue mountains, the weather was cloudy and threatening rain, but it held off just long enough for us to have a walk around and take some pics.

Michelle & Tim

We went on the worlds steepest railway, which although short, was quite an experience!

Blue Mountains waterfall

After mooching around Leura, Michelle then headed onto Sydney to our next hosts - Sam and Ian.

We spent Friday lazing around Newtown, it has a very chilled out vibe and is quite bohemian. To be honest, we started to struggle as the temperature was above 35 degrees so after a spot of lunch we headed back to the flat to put the air conditioning onto max! Once Ian and Sam arrived back from work we freshened up and headed downtown to meet Michelle and Nat. We went to a couple of bars on the "rocks" in Sydney and ended up in a bar with live music (of sorts). It was a fairly quiet night (not!) - see picture and we got back around 2am Saturday morning.

Quiet night out!

Not to be outdone, we had yet another BBQ breakfast/brunch where I featured as the guest chef. Then we all headed out and wandered various parts of Sydney for the obligatory tourist photo's of Sydney opera house and harbour bridge - nothing prepares you for physically seeing such iconic structures.

Harbour bride backdrop

Also managed to cram in a few drinks at the opera bar directly underneath the opera house - nice!

Harbour bridge at night

So onto Sunday. Sam drove us to Bronte beach, again amazing even though it was drizzling with rain. From there we walked around the cliffs to Bondi for a nice romantic valentine's walk in the sand.

Valentine's walk Bondi

Ian treated us all to Champagne (show off!) which was nice although the walk back was a bit tougher because of it!

Sadly Ian and Sam had to go back to work on Monday so we headed solo over to Manly. We chilled on the beach and watched the surfers and then headed to a bar for an iced coffee. Again, the scenery was stunning (sorry will keep using these sorts of words).

Manly wharf

We ate a good Thai farewell meal with Sam and Ian - the final bit of luxury before picking up our camper van the following day.

Last supper Sydney!

written by

Tim and Em on February 17, 2010 from Sydney, Australia

from the travel blog: Round half the world!

Send a Compliment

Hey Both,

Elizabeth, Sims, Elaine & I were just reading your blogs and are very jealous seeing as it has rained here now for 40 days and 40 nights :0)

Glad to see you are enjoying yourselves and we look forward to seeing more of your updates and wonderful pics.

Sapphira Xxx

written by Sapphira van Niekerk on February 24, 2010

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