Thursday 7 March 2013

Week 65

A time for reflection.

Interesting thoughts.

Distance travelled. 50,147 kilometres
Pairs of flip flops/thongs. 4
Number of photographs. 3945
Number of campsites. 150
Visits to the cinema. 6
Favourite meal. Lunch at the Pearl Farm Broome
Best tourist trip. Horizontal Falls
Favourite towns. Armidale and Bendigo
Best coffee shop. Karumba. Far North Queensland
Favourite camp site. Munroe Station. WA
Worst thing. The wind
Best thing. No ironing
Place I would like to revisit Australia
Most annoying. Getting Ross River Virus
Most challenging. Walking Hancock Gorge. Karrinjini
Biggest disappointment. Not going to Cape York and Airlie beach
Overall impression. Totally awesome.
Favourite photo. I have to look through quite a few to decide, might take some time.

Sunday 3 March 2013

Eden

We wanted to stay in Eden as it finishes off the Sydney to Hobart saga. Eden is where yachts come into if they hit problems in the race. Lovely town and the wharf is a great place to have coffee.

It started to rain while we were having coffee so we moved on. By the time we got to Batemans Bay it was torrential rain and strong winds.

We decided to cut our losses and head home via Goulburn and not the Pacific Highway.
This was truly a very big mistake.

In Goulburn it is still torrential rain and strong winds but all accommodation was full, it was the 150th anniversary of the founding of the town.

Not to worry, head for Sydney. After the most horrendous drive we get to Hornsby and find that all the accommodation is full here as well. We sit in a garage for court and phone hotels, motels and camp sites from Sydney to Newcastle, as it was 10pm most had gone to bed or where full. Finally we found a hotel in Newcastle, 3 hours up the road. Arrived at 1 am in the morning. That bed was orgasmic.

The following day on the news, pictures of Sydney showed the devastation caused by the rain and winds, and we drove through it all. The Pacific Highway had been closed at Port Macquarie so we couldn't have used that road anyway.

Eden wharf
Misty Mountains. Road from Batemans bay to Golbourn
We find Sydney
We leave Sydney