It's been a good start to the year for us - it's now the end of Feb and we've both finished work and are just wrapping things up for the big trip and looking forward to Charl's parents arriving next week.
(Rock wallaby by the side of the track on our trip)
Towards the end of January we thought we'd give our car and our camping gear a test run so headed down to Mittagong way to do a well known 4x4 trek running between two sets of caves - the wombeyan and the Jenolan. This was supposed to be a bit of a test for us so Charl picked a trek out the book that was of moderate difficulty and we spent one of the nights "bushcamping" (i.e. in the bush - no nice hot showers & kitchen blocks etc..)
Our new camping set-up. Nissan Patrol now comes with homemade awning for sun and rain protection. We're getting pretty handy with this stuff now
Waterfall within the blue mountains national park
It's a great area - highly recommmend visiting it for anyone coming this way. Our route took us from the Southern Highlands into the Blue Mountains. The route into Wombeyan is a two drive down a single lane track which hugs the cliff face, blind corners aplenty. Few heart stopping moments but fantastic scenery.
Grey Kangaroos' on the first site
Our first stop was great - there were heaps of grey kangaroos on site and we also saw a red bellied blacksnake (venomous apparantly - Australia has more venomous than non-venomous snakes & is the only place in the world with this dubious honour)
Charl making use of our shower tent - "shower tent" you say, "surely they're turning into camping geeks" (you'd probably be right
The second day we got into the proper 4x4 tracks. We now know when the book says things like "steep rocky slopes where careful wheel placement is required to avoid damaging the undercarrage" and "the entry and exits to this creek crossing are steep, rutted and often washed out" that this actually means the track is really quite difficult and "moderate" is just another classic australian understatement. We now also know thanks to Charl's first river crossing if we go through rivers higher than the doors then substantial amounts of water come into the passenger side of the car.
one of the various creeks to cross
the aforementioned "steep rutted" creek entrance (worse than it looks)
Kanangra Walls - the best Blue Mountains viewpoint
Anway was a top weekend and other than our front number plate which disappeared somewhere along the way the were no real casualties. The highlight of February was undoubtedly the Good Vibrations festival. 40 thousand people turned up with Cypress Hill and Kanye West headlining. It wasn't quite homelands as it finishes early at ten but it was a long day nonetheless. We finished the day watching the excellent High Contrast along with a couple of thousand of the more discerning australian crowds, best set I've seen in ages - loved the cheeky drop in of their own remix of "goldigga" whilst Kanye was playing it outside.
some random climbing the tent -they're always one eh?
We've also turned into masters of accomodation hopping on gumtree - if you're ever visiting somewhere and want something a normal rent level for a couple of weeks look it up -there's loads of people advertising their pads to cover their rent whilst they're away. We got this one place for three weeks that was right on Manly Beach - couldn't be any closer. It was amazing, could've lived there forever. Didn't even have to switch the internet on the check the surf in the morning - just rolled over and lifted the blind up!
Sunset over Manly from our flat
Our next leg now see's us heading down to Melborne with Charl's folks in tow. Should be amazing. Work is over and the adventure begins so the blog should get a bit more exciting again
Cheers
Si & Charl
The Queen Vic in at circular quay - Big old boat.
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