I happened to notice a house sit just for the weekend on route so I emailed the family and we were accepted to care for their 3 pets while they went to Melbourne for the weekend. As we were not staying at the house on Thursday night we went to the camp site at Lane Cove National Park. The home was in Thornleigh, a Sydney suburb and we were caring for a little Kelpie called Milly and two cats called Princess and Sammy. Sammy was an outdoors cat so didn't see her much, only at feeding time, Princess like her name was one and only stayed indoors. Milly was a lovely kelpie who didn't need much care but I did get a cuddle from her. Thursday night we drove to Thornleigh to meet the family and their pets, Ian advised us of their routine and then we left to allow them to get on with their packing. We arrived at the home Friday morning and made friends with the pets and stayed and played with Milly awhile before we went out for a couple of hours. We were told of a really nice place called Berowra Waters and Galston Gorge, nice drive out and a short ferry crossing to get to the gorge.
As we were that close to Sydney we jumped on the train for the 50 minute journey, like when we were here 7 months ago it was raining. Luckily we were only going to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art where there was a exhibition from the British artist Grayson Perry. An unusual display of pottery and tapestries by the artist, I believe they portray his outlook on life.
Didn't do much on Sunday but we walked Milly for an hour, tidied the house and done some washing. We left the home at 5.30pm and headed back to the Lane Cove camp site for the night.
Monday was a really nice day so we walked through the park along the river for a couple of hours then headed for the Royal Park. We got to the park but as it was ANZAC day it was still busy and we couldn't find a camp site so we got back in the van and headed south. Our final destination is Batemans Bay so we are heading there now and will visit the park on our way back to Sydney before we sell the van back to Travel Wheels.
That night we stayed in a large site on the beach called Corrimal, a pretty coastal town with a few shops and a gorgeous beach. Finally arrived at Batemans Bay to find the camp sites expensive so we drove 6km on to Sunshine Bay and booked into Caseys Beach for 3 nights. This site had a great kitchen and TV room which nobody used so it was like having our own little lounge for 3 nights. This area has some great bays and lots of islands off shore so we headed a bit further south to Mossy Point and Broulee. Broulee Beach has an island which you can walk around and if the tide is right sit and watch the blow hole. From here we then drove down to a place called Moruya to an ice cream parlour for some heavenly ice cream.
Batemans Bay has a bat colony which has taken over a park area which the local residents are complaining about the noise and the smell. There is now 250,000 bats but they are protected so the council cannot touch them. We sat and watched them for awhile as I find bats fascinating.
Had a walk around the harbour while eating liquorice flavoured ice cream. So after 3 restful days here we started the drive back towards Sydney and the National Park. On the route out we had one last look at the bats and against the blue sky they looked even more amazing.
We took a slight detour to the Boorderee National Park, the park charges but you can camp and entry fee all for $21 which is great value. The park is along the coast line and the camp was a bush camp with showers but still a nice place to stay. We had wallabies run through our camp, parrots on the roof of the car but also leaches to watch out for. While out on a walk right across our pathway was a Red Bellied Black Snake, we managed to get a photo before it slid off into the bush. Also a black frog with yellow strips was spotted but don't know what it was and Google never found it either. We did some nice walking around the park and yet again the rugged coastline made for a great unexpected 2 days.
Back on the road we stopped at Kiama to watch the sea at its best and the towns famous blowhole. Australia has some amazing lighthouses and Kiama was no exception but I think this one had just been painted as it was blinding in the sunlight.
Berry is another one drive through cowboy street with shops along the sides which I imagine in their day were everyday household shops but now they are coffee and ice cream shops.
Before we got to the park we drove over the Sea Cliff Bridge which is about 1km long over the sea, a nice walk over and back on quite a windy day.
Finally make it back to Royal National Park, second oldest park in the world, the first being Yellowstone in the States. We parked just outside the park to avoid paying the entry fee of $12, every little saving helps. We wanted to walk to the figure of eight rock formation on the coast line that you can sit in and the waves come up over you. In the past people have been sweep away by some huge waves so they advise you not to go there. We did the 12km walk but maybe fortunately we couldn't fine the path down to the coast. It was a great walk through some really thick bush and the views were great of a large pod of dolphins we spotted. We drove back over the sea cliff bridge to the camp site on the beach at Coledale and watched an amazing sunset.
After leaving Coledale and our beautiful beach setting we headed back through the park and back to Sydney and as Lane Cove is really the only camp site in Sydney we booked into there for 4 nights.
I found a new house sit in Ryde another Sydney suburb, this is only for 3 nights and it's to care for another rescue dog called Tilley. The family wanted to meet us so after a lovely swim in the Sydney 2000 Olympic pool we went and met them. Once back at Lane Cove we had some dinner and stayed in the TV room and watched Netflix on our iPads.
We spent the day in Sydney and had a nice meal at Circluar Quay, it was a very warm day and was lovely just to sit and people watch. The house sit we are doing in Sydney said it was ok to leave a bag with them while we were in Fiji as half the kit we had was not needed there. We had agreed to take the van back to Travel Wheels in Botany Bay on Friday as we were flying out early Saturday morning. We agreed a buy back figure so just waiting for the money transfer to take place. Due to the time of our flight to Melbourne we stayed at the airport Friday night in some armchairs but didn't get much sleep.
Landed back at Sydney Airport at 9pm and had a short train journey to central where we are booked into the Railway Square YHA. We were sharing a train carriage with two young girls who were the messiest people I have ever seen. Climbed into our top bunk about 1am only to be woken up at 3am with one of the girls coming into the room. Then at 5am I could hear all the station announcements so no more sleep for me so headed for the shower. Spent the day in Sydney as we could leave our bags at the hostel and also we didn't need to be in Gerringong until 6pm
Bonny and Clyde are brother and sister and are a cross Maltese/Shin Zu. They are the cutest pups I've ever known, all they wanted is human company and cuddles. The house is right in the center of Gerringong and we had lovely walks to the beach and the cliff tops. The next town heading north is Kiama and there is a costal walk path to there, although it said it was 6km we ended up walking 17km that day including the dog walks. The town has a town hall where you can pick up free wifi so we managed to get our flights, tours and accommodation all booked for Vietnam. Prior to getting this house sit we had booked up a whale watching tour back in Sydney but I was a bit worried about leaving the dogs all day. We headed back to Sydney for our trip and we had an amazing time, a female hump back and her two calfs spent about two hours along side our boat. We had great views of them all as they came so close to the boat and it was their choice to do so, the skipper did not hassle them in anyway. Got back to the pups and they were very happy to see us and they were fine being on their own all day.
We jumped on the train and went to another town south of Gerringong called Berry where we had a lovely afternoon tea and a walk around the the town. Back at the house we started to sort our stuff out getting ready for the off and back to Sydney. It was sad to leave our little pups but their mummy is coming home and we have a train to catch.
We have booked into a serviced studio apartment for the week in Brookvale just north of Sydney. Our little studio is brilliant, has everything that you need and its opposite one of NSW's biggest shopping mall. We had 5 good busy days here, we did a lot of research on Vietnam as we had unlimited wifi. Jumped on a bus and went into Manly for the day and on another day we went into Sydney for the Great Explorers exhibition at the Australian Museum. While at the museum they had a David Attenborough 360* show, this was based on his recent visit to the Great Barrier Reef.
We are now at our final house sit, caring for Tilly in Ryde which is a Sydney suburb. She is another rescue dog but again so loveable. We are only here for 3 days and then we fly to Vietnam so wanted to make the most of our last few days here. I booked for us to have a Elegant High Tea at one of Sydney's oldest hotel, Sir Stamford overlooking Circular Quay. Really nice snacks, cakes tea and a glass of champagne to wash it all down. That night at 6pm Sydney stated its Vivid light show, this is where they have light shows on famous land marks. We stayed and watched some of it but felt we needed to get back to Tilly. Our friends we met up at Cairns who live in Newcastle came down to spend the day with us before we leave Australia. Went out for a really nice meal and drive to Palm Beach, hopefully we will all see each other again. Our family arrive home and Tilly was very happy to see them. After a chat and a drink they took us to the airport which took about an hour so was very nice of them to do that.
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