Part 2 - Bairnsdale to Sydney

Bairnsdale was one of the bigger towns we stopped in on the way to Sydney. Mitchell Gardens Caravan Park was 5 minutes walk to the town centre and even had a pool! Luxury after the free sights we'd been staying in! We spent 2 nights there before heading inland to the tiny town of Buchan, famous for its caves. We took a guided tour around the Royal Cave, 60m below sea level and over 30 million years old. We saw some amazing rock formations and water features, the pictures don't do them justice! That evening, we has decided to spend the night at a campsite in the middle of Snowy River National Park, a couple of hours drive North-East of Buchan. However, the roads were a more hilly than we expected (everywhere in Australia is hilly!), and it soon became apparent that Alma's engine was about to overheat. So we pulled over (in the middle of nowhere!), and waited for the engine to cool before checking the coolant....turns out there was nothing in the cooling system at all!! Fortunately for us, before panic set in we were rescued by a nice Aussie who pulled over and refilled our system for us - phew! We then had to make a decision...turn back, or carry on....so we decided to carry on - BIG MISTAKE! Snowy River National Park is described in the guide book as one of the "less developed" national parks...this basically means you are driving down a mountain side on a dirt track ONLY JUST big enough for the car, with a huge gorge one side hundreds of feet deep...don't get us wrong, the views from up there were spectacular! But unfortunately, there was no way we were going to get out the car to attempt to take a photo! It's very lucky Dave is such a good driver! We finally reached the campsite....and it was completely desserted! With the car playing up, we decided it wasn't a good idea to stay there alone, so we carried on through the park (on some slightly better roads!) and headed for the nearest town of Orbost....130km away! It was a long drive, and somewhere along the way Alma's steering started playing up....so we were extremely relieved to get to Orbost and check into Orbost Caravan Park.

Fours days later and we finally left Orbost, with Alma all fixed up. Orbost was not the biggest place, and we managed to make our way through several books in the four days, as there was nothing else to do! At least it was hot and sunny! We drove on through to the busy coastal town of Merimbula, our first stop in New South Wales. We stayed here a couple of nights (believe it or not, Alma needed a bit more work done!!), and then headed back inland again to check out the nations capital, Canberra. We spent the evening drinking in an Irish Pub in the town centre, waiting for the live band to start...their first song was a cheesy cover of "stuck in the middle with you"...we left soon after that! Not really a lot else to write about Canberra....we thought we would be safe for things to do in a city on a Sunday....turns out we were wrong! So we did a lot of walking...we have some nice pictures of the Molonglo River, which runs though the city. We stayed at a campsite within walking distance of the city centre....one of the many victims of the ongoing drought in Australia, check out the pictures to see what we mean!

After leaving Canberra, we had a brief stop in Wollongong, and that night experienced the worst rain since arriving in Australia! At one point, our poor little tent was actually floating!! And then it was on to good ol' Sydney (just a little advice....don't drive a car in Sydney city centre!), where we are currently job/room hunting!

More from us to come soon!

Lots of Love

Rach and Dave xxx