Dolphins...

Didnt have enough time on the itnernet to upload this video for my dolphin post, so here it is now!

From Bushfire to Wetlands

Two and half hours in the air landed us in Cairns, home of course to the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef. As we approached the view of the water from the sky was incredible.

We picked up our new wheels for the next journey along the Queensland coast, a nice silver Toyota Corolla to deliver us into Brisbane, Surfers Paradise and a bunch of roller coasters.

36,000 feet with a bang...

I think I’ve finally discovered the REAL reason that bottled water isn’t allowed on planes. You see over here it transpires that you can take a half empty 2 liter bottle of water through security and onto a domestic flight say from Sydney to Cairns in this case.

Flipper & Co.

The town of Newcastle is predominately associated with shipping of mined materials, mostly coal, out from Australia. That’s it…nothing else to see here. What the half a million people that live here do I have absolutely no idea.

So we headed further up the coast, attracted by a place referred to as “The Dolphin Capital of Australia”, Port Nelson. Who doesn’t like dolphins? 

Our Humble Abode...

Head north away from the fires...

We’d been “Freedom Camping” (otherwise referred to as slumming it) for the past 4 nights as every camping park we tried to book into was fully booked. So in search of showers and a stove to cook a meal we headed north of Sydney in the direction of Newcastle (fingers crossed its not a homage town to Alan shearer, jimmy nail and ant and dec) to the town of Belmont on the beautiful Lake Macquarie where we finally found a nice campsite for a few nights. The lake is stunning and caught some lovely shots of the boats resting in the sunset after we arrived.

The Blue Mountains

We’d been repeatedly told that one of the “must do’s” in around the Sydney area of New South Wales is to visit the area of the Blue Mountains about an hour west of the city.

We headed up there on the back roads from Canberra via a small town called Oberon. Probably the closest we are going to get to driving in the outback on our trip as we’re mostly sticking to the coastline. Along the way we stopped of at one of the services areas on the main road. As you can see from the picture below they leave a lot to be desired…

Bridging the gap to Capital Country

New Years Day marked the start of what we're hoping will be an awesome 2013, and we could think of no better way to commemorate it than by climbing the Sydney Harbour bridge just a few hours after it had been set alight. 

Realities of the road

A refreshing dose of reality follows, for all those who think we are currently "living the dream", which is not meant to be, nor should be perceived as unappreciative - we know we're lucky.

Home life has routine, it has a level of comfort that you can control. To live life on the road however you must embrace unpredictability, risk, sometimes danger, massive exhaustion and all too frequently for my liking times of massive hunger. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wow. What a show.