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Downunder....Our first week or so was spent in Sydney. We checked into our hotel (the Jolly Swagman), along with a couple of the dodgiest people on earth, and spent a few days organising our itinerary for our time in Australia. We visited the Opera House and saw the bridge and the Rocks area and also went to Bondi Beach. We were lucky as it was the middle of the week, so we had the beach pretty much to ourselves, with a surfer or two thrown in! Matt braved the water but I opted for the warm sand! The weather was beautiful in Sydney, but the crispness of Spring was still in the air. On the Friday we went to Manly beach and werent as lucky with the crowds...it was the first day of the school holidays and everybody was enjoying the sunshine! We walked along the beach paths though and picnicked along the way...it really was beautiful! The we headed back to the city and walked through the botanical gardens which were stunning. The Spring Gardens were on show and everything smelt incredible!
On Saturday morning, we got on a train to the Northshore area and went to stay with Matt's friends from Zimbabwe, John and Karen (and their beautiful dog, Sabi). They live in a beautiful suburb, about 45 mins from the city, with a forest just behind their house! We went for a long walk in the afternoon with them and enjoyed being out of the city - it felt a lot like Cape Town. We happened to be in Sydney for the biggest sporting weekend in the year for Australia..the Grand Finals for Aussie Rules and Rugby League, so we were taught the rules of Aussie Rules and we watched the game between Port Adelaide and Geelong. Geelong won very comfortably but it was fun to watch the game we had heard so much about!
On Sunday morning we went to church with J&K and then they took us out for the day, down to the coastal area...the scenery on the way was beautiful and we ended up at a lovely beach where we had a picnic and Matt, once again, braved the freezing water! After a walk along the rocks we got down to some beach frisbee and then headed back home to catch the Rugby League Grand Final.
On Monday Karen and John dropped us back in town and we collected our hired car for our trip down to Melbourne. We had decided to drive to Melbourne, stopping off at a few of the coastal towns along the way. As we werent going to be able to do the Great Ocean Road, this was the next best thing!! Our first stop was a place called Wollongong, a small beach town with a long stretch of beautiful, white sand beach. We arrived and headed straight for the beach and went for a long walk and saw the sunset. Our hostel was of the dodgier variety (it smelt unbelievably like Body Odour constantly) - we really didnt want to spend a moment more than we had to there so we were up at the crack of dawn and made our way down to Batemans Bay as soon as we could!! Along the way we stopped at Shelly Point for some breakfast and saw some beautiful birds in the National Park...there are parrots, cockatoos and budgie like birds everywhere, with the most amazing colours. Once we reached Batemans Bay, Matt went and did some fishing and I hit the shops! We had a fantastic braai (barbie) with boerewors and kangaroo steaks!!
Wednesday saw us heading down to Mallacoota, another coastal town, just in Victoria. We had 2 nights there so we spent time walking, fishing and enjoying the sights, before our marathon drive to Melbourne!
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