Sydney

This is going to be a big, maybe long blog, so put the kettle on now and don't try to read this at work unless your boss is out for the day.
Before we start we have to say thanks for your responses to our previous couple of blogs. We really enjoyed catching up with news from England this morning when we read some of your e-mails. So now we have to say "WELL DONE KATE". Our very good friend from Beverley, Kate Snowden, has landed a dream job. It just goes to show even in the current economic climate there can be some very positive things happen. Once again "well done Kate" we'll be in touch soon, in the meantime have a celebration drink on us. We'll certainly have one for you tonight.
So on to our time in Sydney.

As mentioned in a previous blog, we had a few challenges finding reasonable accommodation in Sydney. Thanks Pat, for putting up with less than ideal digs.
We did lots of tourist things and the above is Pat on the ferry from Manly to Sydney. Great views of the harbour, the Opera House and the Bridge etc.

As above, great views of the Opera House. It is as stunning in real life as it is in the pictures. Pat even managed to see "The Alchemist" at the Opera House.
We did a tour of the Opera House including the loos, as above, pretty swanky heh?

Our accommodation was out in the "bush", as they call it. The nearest town was Windsor with very old buildings, dating from 1850's!! On Saturday night, we popped into town. There was live music in the form of a young dude singing and playing guitar. Alison had to get up and dance with the town drunk (no, not Garry). Above is Alison enjoying herself, before her partner was evicted from the pub.

Have you guessed what this is yet (as a famous bearded ozzie would say)? We did all actually climb to the top of the bridge, to where the flags are.

On the Bridge you are not allowed to carry your camera or even a hanky in case we dropped them on the cars underneath, so we couldn't take pictures. This is Pat outside the Bridge Climb office.

This is the official Bridge Climb photo. Not many places in the world, you'd get a view like this! On the way up a train literally ran over us on the tracks on the bridge. It's a tough climb and Pat managed it without a problem. Perhaps yours truly need more training.


On one of our shopping trips, we encountered this colourful character, can you guess who it is stood with her/him.

After climbing the Bridge, we decided we hadn't done enough exercise, so we hiked round the Botannical Gardens to Mrs Macclairie's Chair. Mr Macclairie was a former Governor and created a walkway and viewing seat for his wife. This was long before the Bridge and the Opera House were built so it doesn't have the best views anymore as it looks over a navel dockyard. If we had been there a week before, we would have seen the shark attack.

Sydney by night. We met up again with Mark, from Cambodia, and Alison and walked over the Bridge for a beer, whilst Pat was at the Opera House.

We travelled from Sydney up to the Blue Mountains. Remember a couple of blogs ago, we took Pat down a man made crystals cave, well that was just training for this, the real thing. We went to the Genolan Caves and went down the Imperial Cave (the deepest cave there), just to make sure Pat got the exercise she needed. This is one of the columns in the cave - Lady Lot for anyone familiar with biblical characters.

This is nothing to do with our trip round Australia, but was a pretty cool trike. The technical amongst you may be able to spot that it is fitted with not one, but two turbos. How much fun would this be? Be honest!

We went to Katoomba (great name) in the Blue Mountains. This is a big gorge, kind of like the Grand Canyon. Lots more walking up and down steps to make sure Pat got her daily fix. This is a view of the "Three Sisters". We later walked up and over to them. Garry had to run back so we didn't get a parking ticket. It only took him 2 days to recover. We had already paid 2 fines in New Zealand so didn't want any more. (Paul if you're reading this please send my fines to somebody else).

Another view of this amazing canyon.

Pat and Garry when he had got his breath back.

In the canyon there were loads of great waterfalls and Pat insisted on walking to them all. Worth the effort though, as you can see.

We saw loads of weddings but how about this for a wedding car?

The guy that had this house built made his money making under felt! A true Art Deco house with bathrooms that would look great even today. Orange and turquoise tiles.

Guess where we went? A koala sanctuary with tonnes of these cute creatures asleep everywhere. There are loads more pictures of these but we thought one would do!

You cannot go to Oz and not see one of these.

We even fed the roos.

Like we said, we even fed the roos.

We did manage to see one in the wild but this picture was a bit closer up.

This was an Echinada, although we did struggle with the name - enchillada kept coming to mind. Very cute and Mark and Alison saw one in the wild.

Ever wondered what a wombat looks like?

This little joey was whispering in his mum's ear "Mum, why are those people taking our picture?"

Our last night in Sydney and Pat's last night in Australia. We did manage to find some decent digs in Hunter Valley, the wine making region. Mark and Alison came to join us for dinner. See below.

We had a great dinner, wonderful food and wine, then went back to the digs for a night cap.

The wheels came off and it all went horribly wrong. It's not Alison, Alison or Garry, but Mark the morning after.

There was one more photo of an advert for safety footwear but technology got the better of us and it got deleted. Apologies to the Arco people who it may have been of interest to. It was placed by BOC gas and gear.

Bye for now, just Melbourne to come.