Sydney

Sydney Opera House,
originally uploaded by Hol Riz.

We finally arrived in Sydney for a much needed rest from traveling. Holland straight away managed to get a great contract with a cool company doing Flash development (Web design for those non-geeks out there). While Becky was set the task of finding us a great flat. We lived in a youth hostel in central Sydney for the first week expecting to find somewhere fairly quickly, but as the costs mounted up and flats were gobbled up within seconds of going on the market we decided to go back to old faithful – the van. Poor Holland had to suit and boot up everyday in the small space of the van then take a bus for an hour before getting to work whilst Becky traipsed the streets and internet desperately looking for a flat and desperately running out of money. Finally after three weeks we found the perfect place, fully furnished, 3 month lease and right on the beach in the northern suburb of Manly (very trendy).

We have just moved in and we are so pleased to FINALLY have a base (when you have no where to live, 3 weeks seems like a lifetime) we have even put our Christmas decorations up, though the hot weather makes this feel a little strange! Becky has also found a job doing admin with a company that deals with cattle and lamb farmers in Australia so now we both have some money to spend. And spend it we shall… some friends Ben and Bex, who we met in Bolivia have just come to Sydney and we are going to see Kylie Minogue with them this Thursday, we also all had some posh evening drinks at the Opera house bar looking over the harbour bridge (pictures on Flickr). Overall, we are really enjoying the relaxed Sydney lifestyle, with the beaches so close to the nightlife we think Sydney rocks!

Ayers Rock

P1000300.JPG,
originally uploaded by Hol Riz.

We caught the train early from Newcastle to Sydney for the 3.5 hour flight into the centre of Australia. The desert stretched away into the distance in all directions, barren and un-inhabited for the majority of the flight, a side of Australia we hadn't seen before. We landed to that familiar blast of heat at the aeroplane door that one associates with arriving at exotic destinations. Jumping in our a nice hire car, we cranked up the air-con and headed for the campsite. We pitched our tent and then headed straight for the pool to get out of the midday heat. Next morning we headed through the red desert towards Ayers rock (Uluru). Our first sight of the gargantuan stone in the distance was magical. We stopped the car and took photos. As we got closer the rock loomed higher and higher. After a brief stop at the un-inspiring cultural centre, we headed for the rock. We didn't do the climb as the local people request that you don't stomp all over their sacred turf (or rock). Also the rock climb was closed due to high winds at the top. We couldn't feel any wind as we walked around the sheer rust coloured cliffs, just the oppressive heat . The temperature rose and rose as we walked on and when we got back to the car the temperature read 46.5C!! We drove slowly around the rest of the rock taking pictures. We came to another short walk to a sacred water-hole at the bottom of the rock and considering the temperature Becky decided to sit in the Air-Con while Hol marched up there in the searing desert heat with a bottle of water in hand. Added to the heat, flies continually pestered us landing on our ears, lips and noses, never deterred by our attempts at swatting them. After doing a full circuit of the rock we headed back to the resort with it's cool swimming pool and a cold beers. That evening we watched the sunset over the rock with its many changing colours as the sun dipped into the horizon.

The next day we set off early to avoid the mid-day heat. Our destination was the Olgas. 30 or so giant heads of stone sticking out of the desert and rising even higher than Ayers rock. We arrived at the walk by 8am and set out with a backpack full of water. The 3 hour walk took us between and around the giant 130M high red boulders. The last hour was the hardest as we trapesed into temperatures into the high 30s and as we got sweatier the cloud of flies hassling us got bigger and bigger. We got back to the car and the air-con and again headed back to the pool.

By the 3rd day we were happy to leave the intense heat but all in all an amazing experience.

2000kms down the East Coast

DSC02253.JPG,
originally uploaded by Hol Riz.

Our travels along the east coast continued down to the up-market town of Noosa, where we spent an enjoyable afternoon on the beach. The camping lifestyle is great fun, every night we set up our awning, our camp chairs, table and gas stove and it feels like home where ever we are. In this frame of mind we ambled down to our next stop, Australia Zoo and the Glass house mountains enjoying the traveling almost as much as the destination. Australia zoo was cool as all the animals had loads of space to roam about, we saw a giant crocodile show and touched koalas. However the visit was also sad as Steve Irwin the owner had recently died and hundreds of bouquets of flowers had been placed at the entrance. We zoomed on down to Brisbane where we made a brief stop to change our flight tickets and extend our traveling for a few extra months. We didn't stay in the big city of Brisbane opting for a few days on the beaches of Surfers Paradise but finding this to be fairly built up as well moved on down to the restful Bryron bay. We really enjoyed Bryron bay and spend 5 days there hanging out on the beach, playing bat and ball, going out in the evenings with our new friends on the campsite and enjoying the warm weather before heading south again towards the cold.

Disaster struck as we crossed the border into New South Wales and tried to register our van. It turned out the people who sold it to us hadn't bothered to turn up to their public vehicle inspection (a half hour test which they had already paid for) and the years REGO we had bought off them had been canceled and along with it our insurance. We had inadvertently been driving about for the last two months without REGO or insurance and could face heavy fines or lose our licenses. We raced down to Hollands family in Newcastle to stay with them while we sorted out the nightmare which involved a confusing rainbow of pink, green and blue slips, driving all over the state and lots of energy and money!

Staying with Holland's uncle Ed, his girlfriend Ingrid and their house of cats was fantastic as it was the first house we had stayed in for 6 months!! We had a lovely big bed in the spare room and it was really nice to hang out and get ourselves sorted. Ed had a big lounge in the shed where we hung out and watched videos. Ingrid cooked us amazing food (our first home cooked meals for months!!). There was also a litter of kittens too. After a week of getting our van together we got prepared for our trip to the Red Centre of Australia and Ayers Rock.