Campervans and cities

Canberra was kind of on the way back to the coast from Kosciuszko, so we thought we would drop in and have a look around. We drove up to the Parliament, parked outside (literally, outside) and went for a nosey. It was all quite interesting - some staff told us about their parliamentary system and the left us to wander around. Can't quite imagine doing that in the Houses of Parliament. We stayed until closing time and then went off in search of a campsite. Found one, albeit somewhat uninspiring. We didn't really stay long enough to get a feel for the city, but what we saw was pleasant enough. Next stop was Jervis Bay. unfortunately our visit coincided with the tail end of some pretty big storms that had flooded areas to the north of Sydney, so it all looked a bit damp. We had a nice little walk along the bays though.

We've just had a full-on three days in Sydney. We arrived at the campsite on Saturday afternoon, after (i) a stop off at the Kiama blowholes (they were blowing - a lot), followed by a long and arduous trawl right through the middle of the Sydney - which was a good re-introduction to the world of traffic and traffic jams outside New Zealand. The campsite is in a little bit of National Park in a north west suburb of the city, and is lovely - bush, birds, rabbits, pokey nosed little possum things (eckythumps?). All very nice, but at the same time, doesn't quite set you in the mood for glamming up for a night on the town. As we set off walking through the bush, I felt more than a little conspicuous passing my fellow campers, made-up, wearing pointy shoes and 'smart jeans'. Of course, in the metropolis, where the beautiful people really dress up, I was probably a bit scruffy.

We had a good look around, took more photos of the Opera House and the Bridge to add to the ones we took last August (had to be done - there aren't many views like those in Sydney Harbour), caught a ferry, went up a bit of an underwhelming tower, had dinner and a few drinks, by which time it was well past our usual campervan bedtime, and we still had the whole of the city to negotiate by public transport. In the end, it turned out that the bus that was supposed to 'go to the campsite' actually drops you off about a kilometer the other side of the motorway. Pointy shoes were possibly a mistake.

Day two - Damo went off to a seafood master class (see his post on that), and I set about spending the same amount of money on clothes to make myself look like less of a camper. I made good use of our multi-day travel cards and covered all of the shopping areas the city had to offer. We met up again in the afternoon and caught a ferry to Manley, which was a bit like a livelier Sumner - but with MUCH bigger waves, then we headed back to the city for a drink with Kester (a friend from an old job) who has just moved here and is living in Bondi. It was great to see him - all full of enthusiasm about his future adventures.

So two late nights in a row. We've realised that for the last two weeks, our days have effectively ended at 5:30pm, when the sun goes down and we get into the campervan for an evening of cooking / computing / reading, etc. Turns out that if you go out, you add another 6-7 hours on to your day. Hard work though. Which meant that we had a lie in this morning (as much as the laughing kookaburras would allow) and then a cruisy day walking around Bondi Beach, Watson's Bay and a ferry back again in time for tea in the campervan. Phew, we're back in the camper groove now.