The flight to Australia (3.5 hrs) seemed so short in comparison with other trips with have taken and we stayed in a hotel for a night before picking up our second van. Again we were upgraded but this one does not have a backup camera nor blindspot alerts – again it is a Mercedes Sprinter van, but a little older we think. There are interesting differences in the equipment but, basically it is very comfortable. Here, too, the washrooms are spotless and there are kitchens, barbecues and communal outside eating areas. We are sharing the sites mainly with couples with preschool families, taking the opportunity for a holiday before the schools break for the holidays at the end of this week. The weekend was very busy, but during the week the campsites tend to be pretty quiet
Our first task was to drive out of Sydney to the Northern Beaches but the GPS served us well, taking us around rather than through Sydney. Even though the countryside is not nearly as lush as New Zealand – gum trees rather than tree ferns and parched grass on the verges – the jacarandas are in full bloom and there is an Oz Christmas tree with red flowers. There are birds everywhere that are very colourful and raucous and lots of kookaburras. We have passed through areas with warnings to watch out for roos and koalas but there were none to be seen. It is the beaches that are amazing with golden sand, blue sea and surf.
We did go a little inland to the Hunter valley for a couple of days and managed to get through some very interesting tastings and have a great tapas lunch. One of the tastings was at a relatively new winery called The Vamp by Lisa McGuigan, a daughter of the original McGuigan wine-making family who is making wine from some uncommon grapes and in some unusual styles . The valley is not typical of most wine areas we have seen as the wineries are quite spread out with large tracts of undeveloped land between vineyards- and coal mining probably brings in more money than the wine industry, although we saw no evidence of any mining.
We have taken the opportunity to visit old friends in Mona Vale and Port Stevens and right now we are in Seal Rock campsite in beautiful surroundings which is as far north as we will be going this time. When we return to Sydney it will be all go, visiting old friends and then joining the family for two weeks over Christmas .
We have been a bit remiss in photo taking – probably due to mostly visiting old haunts. Also some photos are on the phone and not transferable here to the iPad.
