Half Way

Exactly halfway our 100 day plan we are now. And we're fine to carry on for a while, still. Our bed in the good old 'Teardrop' gets one hundred points, and we've discovered another option that improves luxury in camping: the 'Ensuite'. It's an ensuite besides the caravan - beautiful... No more muddy shower cabins or half-open toilets. The Ozzies go completely overboard: and yes, we indeed considered moving-in into one of these.

Also, Wifi is coming up and we had one campsite where we were the first using it.

Right, sorted then. … OK so it's time to move on to Perth now and spend 2 weeks in a small tent!!

It's getting quite hot now over here - we had 40 centigrade on the clock yesterday.

Oops - wrong language

Wine tasting in the Hunter Valley ... there is an Upper and a Lower Valley. Lots of vineyards. The trick is to visit two or so vineyards, taste the lot of 'm and then take 'n' of them back to the campsite for consumption on site. 'Cruickshank' was the nicest, John C himself took care of us at the tasting (we ware the only ones) and he lit up the old Barbie for us as well. After lunch we were ready to move on because we had to go and see an airplane that was for sale in the area.

This turned out to be a plane from an old Judge who lost his medical to fly. His buddy (a younger chap in his 70-ties) took care of sales matters for him. They recently flew to Darwin together for fun. Jesus what a long trip! Anyways we decided to put in an offer and let the Judge decide. If all goes well, his buddy will deliver the plane to us in Melbourne (the trooper). If he makes it, that is. We wonder how this will end........

Wijntjes

Wijn proeven in de Hunter Valley ... er is een Upper en een Lower gebied. Veel wijngaarden. De truck is naar twee wijngaarden ofzo op een dag te gaan, alle wijnen proeven en dan een x-aantal flessen meenemen ter consumptie op de camping. 'Cruickshank' was de leukste, John C verzorgde zelf de proeverij (we waren de enige) en stak voor ons de barbie aan. Daarna konden we wel weer verder. We moesten nog naar een vliegtuig gaan kijken dat in de buurt te koop was.

Blijkbaar was dit vliegtuig van een rechter die om medische redenen niet meer mocht vliegen. Zijn maat (die iets jonger was - ergens in de 70) handelde in zijn naam. Samen waren ze nog onlangs naar Darwin gevlogen voor de fun. Jesus, da's een eind!

Enfin we hebben besloten een bod te doen en de rechter moet nog bevestigen. Dan komt zijn maatje het voor ons afleveren in Melbourne (de tijger). Alstie het haalt tenminste.
We zijn benieuwd hoe dit allemaal afloopt........

The Blue Mountains

Campside in Katoomba. The Blue Mountains have the reputation of being very pretty, and indeed, they meet our high expectations. Annet gets nervous from looking into the dense rainforest. The idea of getting lost here… it stretches out as far as you can see. The Teardrop proves to be fantastic again when we had a rainy day (it really beats the old tent).

Wow, what an airport. Not. The local airfield turned out to be an extremely basic sandstrip (short, trees around it, and uneven – hence exciting of course). An old pilot came to us and couldn’t stop telling stories (Ozzie style).

We are unfortunately going to miss the yearly Australian gnome convention (no joke, it’s really here in January!). See link: http://www.australiangnomeconvention.com.au/ It does bring back memories of the ‘garden gnome’ episode of ‘one foot in the grave’ doesn’t it?

Goodby Sydney ...

.. and Blue Mountains here we come!

Happy New Year!

Straight after X-mas we are on our way to Sydney. Angele (Annet’s cousin) lives here on top location – Double Bay. She invites us for a fantastic lunch in a restaurant with perfect view over Sydney harbour. Her sister Edwige, who was visiting her from the Netherlands, joined us as well. Family meeting on the other side of the world…
Angele had booked a table under her name (please note spelling). This would make things easier as we probably wouldn’t recognize her. Well not quite: the waiter sent us to a table that was booked under ‘Angela’. Waiting, waiting. They didn’t seem to turn up. Ah, the two next to us seem to talk Dutch (single). It’s them! Nice one, we joined their table and after 5 minutes the real ‘Angela’ (we presumed) sat down at our former table.

The Ozzies have a pretty relaxed way of spending New Years Eve: they sit down at appointed park locations (23 around Sydney harbour) complete with drinks, food, tents and seats in the morning already, to wait for the spectacular firework display at midnight. Policemen were available for pictures with handcuffs!
We were not allowed to bring in our own booze but apparently everyone and his dog brings in coke bottles filled with rum-coke. They just turn a blind eye at inspection. We had opted for ‘the old Ice Tea trick’. The contents of these bottles were replaced by the same colour wine. Yep, they didn’t even wonder why we brought in so much ‘Ice Tea’. A week later and we’re still drinking the Ice Tea that was replaced by wine.
The firework displays were, indeed, spectacular.
Everybody heads back home after midnight by train. Considering the mass of people all goes smoothly. We fold out our chairs and fall asleep for an hour before embarking – most people are gone by then.
All Sydney boxes are ‘ticked’: Bondi beach, Opera House, Harbour Bridge, the Rocks.

Christmas

Port Macquarie was our X-mas location this year. Campsites were fully booked and every self-respecting Ozzie of course sets up his own self-built tent (inclusive of decoration) and meets up with the entire family at the same caravan park. Location was fantastic: right at the riverside, yet close enough to get a beer or 5 on one of the terraces. And yes … wireless network available just outside our Teardrop!
Christmas dinner at the Chinese restaurant (bit of a relaxed day) and we hired a boat for a picnic somewhere on the river on Boxing Day. Despite the weather being a bit ‘cold’ for this time of year (22 C), it was still hard to get in X-mas mood sitting outside sipping a cold VB (Victorian Bitter) especially because there was no family around.

Learnt a new BBQ trick from an old (aussie) monkey: You gotta pour some beer on it mate. Don’t ever forget! In case of fish you can use wine as well (according to Annet).

Happy New Year!

We are having some problems with updating the blog, but a very happy New Year from Sydney and pictures etc will follow asap.