Hello Sydney

Leaving the Blue Mountains
Even though it’s a gorgeous place, we were glad to leave the Blue Mountains. One week is more than enough of nature, we needed a cityfix fast and we needed some good beds to sleep on. Our Roadmonster was healed, hopefully it wouldn’t brake down on the highway, that would be embarrassing.

Welcome to Sydney
We didn’t knew much about Sydney before we arrived. The Lonely Planet took us to Kings Cross where some of the cheaper hostels are. We didn’t picked the cheapest one because that’s where cockroaches walk over your face when you’re sleeping (tnx for the heads up Tatz) But there was another problem. Having Roadmonster to take us from A to B gives us a lot of freedom, in Sydney it didn’t. No parking spots, no cheap carparks,… and leaving it somewhere on the street in this big bad city… no way. So after calling some hostels we headed towards Glebe, one of the western suburbs of Sydney.

Glebe?
We arrived at the Glebe Village hostel, the first hostel without a bar or a pooltable. What the hell are we going to do? There’s only one main road in Glebe, creatively called Glebe Point Road, and it’s full with coffeehouses, small shops, BYO restaurants,… no pubs though. This is going to be fun.
But we still had some beers and decided to chill out on our first day in Sydney. Tomorrow the Sydney Aquarium and the world famous Opera House.

Sydney… the sights
Yup, when in Rome…
A visit to Sydney would be incomplete if we didn’t see the Opera House or the Sydney Aquarium hoping to catch a glimpse of Nemo.
Sydney Aquarium is really a great experience, struggling past a zillion tourists all of them located near the sharks… Hoping some of the loud kids would get smacked, by either the parents or us… And, hoping the saltwater crocodile would burst through its cage and eat someone while we’re taping it all.
On to the Opera House. Near Harbour Bridge our goal was spending some quality time on the steps in front of the Opera House. And it was meant to be, a huge screen was put in front of the steps with live coverage of the Australian Open. Quickly take some pictures, than sat our asses on the steps while watching the game. Nice and relax.

Next up… Cronulla Beach… Home of the famous 2005 Cronulla Beach riots.

The Blue Mountains, part II

Our poor little Roadmonster 

Having a car in Australia is somewhat of a luxury, but you have so much freedom it’s well worth it.  We paid about 3,500 $ for the Suzuki Carryvan, it had 149,000 kilometers on the teller and looked like it was maintained excellent.  We paid another 500 $ for insurance and registration, so it seemed like a good deal.  A visit to the garage in Blackheat learned us a lot. (remember that we had to go to the mechanic because it seemed like we were leaking fuel)  First of all he said that Roadmonster was in an excellent condition, the mechanic assured us we made a good deal with this car (smiley faces), but some things were worn out and needed to be repaired.  Repairs would set us back about a 1,000 $ (sad faces), but we had some things to visit, some sights to see, so we decided to stay in Blackheat for a few more days before heading towards Sydney.  Besides, we had fun at the campingsite, the two owners or managers threw out people on a daily basis.  Great fun to watch ‘em do it. 

Evan’s Lookout

A new day, a new lookout…  Basically the Blue Mountains have a canyon and every point where you can look at the canyon has its own lookout.  They basically all look the same, but are always breathtaking if you stand in front of the cliff.  So Evan’s Lookout it is for today.
We took our Roadmonster to the lookout and about 1 kilometer before we arrive… *BANG* followed by *PSSSSHHHH*.  Our first thought was that we had a flat tyre, but after checking all four and dropping to our knees the real problem was far more serious.  The waterpump broke down and was lying broken on the floor.  So our mechanic was right all along, it was worn out.  Good thing we weren’t on our way to Sydney, it would be fun pushing the Roadmonster to the side on the Great Western Highway.  We called a towtruck, he told us it would last at least 3 hours before he could come and get us…  Luckily it was hot and the only refreshments we had were beer… hey, we wouldn’t be driving that day so who cares…?
We took the extra kilometer to Evan’s Lookout and allthough we were still down by the bad news of our car that had broken down, we still enjoyed the lookout.  We even trailed a few steps down to the canyon to see what all the fuss is about…  Great hikingtrail, really wonderfull.
Back at our car, we waited to be towed to the garage where we would have to leave our Roadmonster for the weekend…  that would hurt… Another few days in Blackheat… charming place, but enough is enough, we want to go to Sydney…

Hopefully not another setback during the week…  we’ll probably won’t take the highway to Sydney, just to make sure.

The Blue Mountains

Munmorah National Park

A few days sleeping in our tents, waking up too early because of the scorching heat, hoping there is a shower and if there is one, hope it has hot water, the experience will teach you some valuable lessons.
Our next stop during the big roadtrip to Sydney was the Munmorah National Park.  Clever naturepersons as we are, we put up our tent right in the middle of what seemed like a million ant nests.  Even de red ones that bite like hell.  Heroes and brave men like we are we chose to spend the night in our Roadmonster untill we wanted to go to sleep and hurry up to our tents.  So a night of watching standup comedy on the laptop was the event of the evening.
In the morning we were glad to notice nothing had bitten us and our tents where still bugfree.  (we purchased another tent ’cause we both snore like crazy when we had some drinks).  The Munmorah National Parkranger came to visit and collect some money while he was childishly enthousiastic about our Roadmonster, and by that I mean short of an orgasm.  Good thing he wasn’t a dog or he would be humping our legs while we’re telling about our Roadmonster.  So before he asked us out for a date, we headed for the Blue Mountains baby.

Blue Mountains

So guess why they call the Blue Mountains blue?  Because they are… if you wake up veeeery early and you go to some of the amazing sights they have, than you can see a blueish haze over the canyon.  We decided to go to the Blue Mountains because we weren’t mentally ready for Sydney yet and because we, as you all know, are nature-enthousiasts.
Anyway, we arrived at the Blue Mountains whilst driving through a series of really small towns and decided to stop at Blackheat, the Lonely Planet guide told us there are a few things worth visiting in the region, so why not…?
Fun fact about the Blue Mountains, the early convicts who lived in the region around Sydney thought when they would cross the mountains that on the other end was China.  Little did they know…

Blackheat

Try to imagine camping in a place where during the day it’s so hot that we’re sweating like two tourists in Singapore and by night it gets so cold that we need to wear socks and a coat (a coat that we sent back to Belgium because we thought we didn’t need it again, that was smart…).
Allthough the most entertainment you can get in Blackheat is watching grass grow, we’re charmed by this little place.  It’s a mountain village that lives of it’s tourist attractions, Govett’s Leap, Pulpit Rock, Perry’s Lookdown, Evan’s Lookout,…
Arrived at the caravanpark, we noticed something leaking out of our Roadmonster… the next day we would bring it to the garage in Blackheat.  In a day or three, we would go to Sydney, in the meantime we would visit some of the Leaps, Looks and Rocks.  We notice that at our campingsite we’re surrounded by Dutch people… just our luck, we would rather be surrounded by fierce red ants…  Why are they always camping and not going to a 5 stars-resort?

Govett’s Leap

First attempt to visit some real Blue Mountains, Govett’s Leap.  All the views are either named after the one who discovered it or after a person who had the most money in town to become a politician.  So Govett’s Leap is named after William Govett, the first one to discover this spot in 1831.
And honestly, the view was amazing, you lookdown on a canyon knowing that 500 meters back there’s a town and you wouldn’t have guessed this.  You’re struck with an amazing sence of silence when you look down the canyon and enjoy the view.
We couldn’t get enough of it and decided to visit Perry’s Lookdown, a similar view probably, but nonetheless… We couldn’t get through with our Roadmonster because of the unsealed road so we went on foot.  3 kilometers further on we read that the road to Perry’s Lookdown is closed because of a recent bushfire.  And if you watch the forest around you, you can see that everything is black and charred.  Really uncanny.  Our spirits were still in the mood for some more views, so Pulpit Rock it is… but same story, road closed after 1 kilometer.  Owkay, fuck this, let’s go back to our tents and drink some beers…  there’s a limit to our enthousiasm, and that limit seemed to be walking 4 kilometers in a scorching heat.

Tomorrow is a new day…

Back on the Road

Celebrating Christmas at the Gold Coast

Once again, Kelly, our guardian angel came to us in time of need. Instead of celebrating Christmas Day at a local pub (what we would do in Belgium) we were invited to celebrate it at the Gold Coast where Kelly’s grandparents have a sub-penthouse.
We were still at Forrie Hill when the call came and the thought of going to a luxury place was enough to make our mouths water.
The Gold Coast is situated on the far south of Queensland and is about 60 km long with beautiful beaches. We were at the 33rd floor, so the view was better than what we had at Forrie Hill, on the 1st floor (made of wood by the way). We had a entertainment room, there were four bathrooms (that we could discover) and enough bedrooms to house the local boyscouts. We were poor backpackers, we ate lobster (as a snack) and ham and turkey (because it’s a tradition and all Australians are trying to make turkey’s extinct).
Thanks so much to Kelly, Bill and Pam for the invitation and sorry we clogged the toilet…

Surfers Paradise

Even though we were friendly invited to celebrate Christmas at Kelly’s, we were brutally kicked out the 26th of December, maybe because we clogged the toilet or because Tom ran around naked screaming: “I am the other white meat”, who will ever know?
So we were on our way to Surfers Paradise, still a suburb of the Gold Coast, but more in tune to young people. We stayed at the Surfers Paradise Backpackers Resort, a nice place with a lot of friendly people. And with friendly, we mean totally of the hook. Our six bed dorm was filled with 3 friends, a Croatian, a Serb and a Bosnian. It sounded like the start of a bad joke (or a new civil war) but the guys where great. We would spend the last days of 2006 partying like it was 2006 (bad joke…)

Byron Bay and New Years Eve

Another day, another place. Since we arrived in Brisbane (and even in Singapore and Thailand) people were telling us how amazing Byron Bay is. It’s a town about 80 km south from Surfers Paradise and was founded by hippies. Surfers Paradise is all about luxury and big skyscrapers and the tallest thing in Byron Bay was the ferris wheel at the beach. Small shops and a real laid back athmosphere.
In the meantime, Filip, someone we pretend to know, joined us for New Years Eve. In the spirit of Byron Bay, we had a very relaxed New Years Eve, even though we kept on trying to ditch a dentist from Adelaide that just kept on talking through the countdown, annoying as hell. Afterwards we moved from the hostel to the beach where a huge bonfire was attracting people from all over the beach. One guy who started the bonfire, Rasmus, seemed to have a lot of friends. Explanation: he had a HUGE bag of weed and therefore much friends. 40 years old, stuck on a beach while other people are smoking your money…

Our Roadmonster

In Surfers Paradise we met Ryan, Ryan was trying to sell his Suzuki van. We were looking for a van, so it all came together. No more waiting for busses, no more carrying huge loads of bags, only freedom and a free place to sleep if we run out of money.
Downside, the tank fits about 32 liters of fuel and the tyres are smaller than on a mountainbike, so uphill is a real challenge. But look how happy Johan is…
Finally on the road.

Hat Head National Park

With the freedom of our Roadmonster, we went to Big W (an Australian hypermarket or whatever) and bought a shitload of campinggear and stuff we probably will never need. On the road to Sydney, stopping at National Parks to camp during the night. First stop, Hat Head National Park, uphill (so a real challenge) and near the biggest sanddune in the region… really weird to see a little desert in the middle of a forest.
We pretended to be experts in the art of making fire, it did help that it was dry as a desert and that there was wood chopped for us, but we had a lighter to actually make the fire… so we made fire, we real men. For the both of us, it was a real experience camping again, but as long as we have an esky (frigobox) full of beer we weren’t worried about a bad night sleep. We even met Shortie and Benny, a Bavarian (don’t call him German or he goes medieval on your ass) and a imported German (call him whatever you like). Too little sleep, a headache and the promise of more beer in Sydney (where they live) was what we had left the following morning.

Still a long way from Sydney, but our Roadmonster will take us there…