Our first stop down under....Sydney!

'It just looks like Australia doesn't it?'

 These were the first words Louise said when she saw the ocean crashing onto the sandstone cliffs as we landed at Sydney airport.  It is true that the image of golden sands with sapphire blue water does have a certain association with the land down under.  It was also evidence that the coast of Australia was just one giant beach!

Our Hosts

Northern Beaches

After we passed through the airport in separate queue's (Louise has an Australian Passport) we made our way into Sydney with the comfort of the knowing how to speak the local language for the first time in 9 months.  We had our first taste of food without a fried egg on top (quite a common thing in Asia) for some time, decent coffee and bought mobile sim cards.  All this before we met our hosts in Sydney,  Catz and James.  We were very pleased to see our old friends from Glasgow, for their generous hospitality and to be able to sleep in a real bed without a sleeping bag liner.  We are glad to say they managed to keep Larry under control and took us on a great drive up to the northern beaches (Louise's favourites, she likes beaches a lot). 

Fun on the Harbour

Sydney is a beautiful city, with the jewel being it's harbour.  It just goes on for miles and almost every inch of it is sought after with millionaire pads fighting for the best view, marina's instead of car parks and little yellow water taxi's buzzing around.  We enjoyed walking around the city, taking the famous ferry to Manly, paddling along some of the many beaches and taking in the sights.  All of this was interspersed with coffee, ice cream and fish and chips!

We also happened to be in Sydney at the time of sculptures by the sea, a massive art exhibition on the path between Bondi and Coogee beaches.  It was quite surreal walking along and finding a Buddha in a Hawaiian shirt!

On our travels on several occasions people told us that we would not believe how expensive Australia was.  We were well prepared for this, making sandwiches in the morning and being able to drink tap water was a big help.  We did this not entirely to save money but so we could treat ourselves every now and then and after a particular successful day of money saving techniques we decide to have a nice slice of cake...........what followed has now been renamed 'Cakegate'.  A slice of cake that was so expensive that I had to pay it before I told Louise, hoping that would contain the fury that would ensue once that knowledge had been passed on........it didn't.  We can laugh about it now, but it was almost £10 a slice......enough said.

We were fortunate enough to be taken on a trip to the blue mountains by friends of Louise's parents and got our first of many views of the local wildlife.  Kangaroo's, Wombat's and wallabies were found but

alas no Koalas but we really enjoyed getting off the beaten track and going for walks through the bush.

Our time in Sydney came to a close and we waved goodbye to our friends and made our way up the coast to Myall Lakes national park to begin the next leg of our Ozzie adventure.