What the hell is it with me and death defying drives? Last Blog from Australia.
When we got back from Fiji, I FINALLY got to go to the exhibition where Emily's photos were being featured. I have to admit that I was grateful for the seating just opposite her photos, as I was able to sit for a while and just have a little Proud Mumma cry.
Emily still had the weekend off as part of her anual leave, and we decided we were not quite ready for our adventures to end. What else could we do? Of course we hired a camper-van and set off for another adventure!
We had talked about going to Warrumbungle, which is Australia's first Dark Sky Park and is the Observatory Capital of Australia - so off we went. The journey was estimated at 6 hours.....
Highlight of the drive was that I got to drive over the Sydney Harbour Bridge!
I was delighted, if a little nervous - the driving lanes in Australia are very narrow - especially when you are driving a campervan...
Lowlight of the drive was driving through mobs of kamikaze kangaroos! They have absolutely no road sense at all, and although I slowed right down (as per the guidance!) other people clearly did not care and just overtook us - I could mentally hear them shouting 'bloody tourists' as they sped past.
The drive took us 11 hours in total - not just because of the kangaroos, but a lot of it was down to them. As soon as the sun went down and the shadows came out, so did the roos. They are so well camouflaged too, you cannot see them until you are right next to them. I don't know how there are so many of them in Australia as we saw dozens of them that had been hit by vehicles. There was one huge one standing in the middle of the road, so I slowed right down to safely pass him - just as I got alongside him, he charged the van and head-butted it! I did think that was our security deposit down the swannee, but thankfully the damage (to us) was minimal. He also lived to fight another day.
Emily did find the 'pickle of the trip' in the form of pickle flavoured cucumber crisps - what will they think of next? Actually, I rather liked them!
We finally got to the campsite, (what3words recognition.kneeling.wipers) which was pitch black (dark sky park, so no lighting) and it was almost 11pm so everyone else was snuggled up asleep.... Of course on an 11 hour drive, neither of us had thought to read the manual for the van - so we were there, trying to connect to the power outlet and set up the bedding, as well as cook supper. But we did and then went out to look at the stars, and realised it was all worth it.
I could not get the interior light to go off in the van and it was spoiling the 'dark sky' vibe, so I locked it, and that did the trick...... until I opened the back door to turn the gas off and set the car alarm off...... oh our neighbours must have loved us!
This is one of very many pics of the vast sky - if you cannot see it, try turning your brightness up on your phone/tablet.... the stars are there - promise!
The next morning we called in at the visitor centre to find out what were the 'must sees' of the area and they recommended a couple of easy walks (I am a pensioner now!) as well as the Observatory which we had passed on the way into the park and Em had already earmarked for a visit.
Our 'easy walk' was very nice (not easy at all) and we got a good sense of the geography of the national park - the pics just do not do it justice at all - everything was so HUGE!
It was very much like the Lake District National Park - just a lot bigger, and with much fewer people in it. We got some lovely pics, mainly of cool rock formations that I would like to have a go at painting now I have the time. Here are a couple of other pics I took,
After the marathon trek - aka easy walk - we headed up to the Observatory
The observatory was really cool (what3words unopposed.autocratic.lightness)
as was the museum/exhibition attached, and we got to have a look at the telescope
They must be some really clever people who work there - it is manned 24 hours a day, but I do question their maths skills if they cannot hang a sign on the level.... I really wanted to fix it
We also saw an interesting sign on the door
In case you cannot zoom in - it says in big letters 'watch for snakes' and then in teenny tiny writing it says 'do not go near them'......well, there is book smart and street smart I guess.
To be fair, we made that 11 hour trip for the view of the stars, and they were definitely the star of the show - unapologetic pun intended.
We spent 3 nights at Warrumbungle, and were up and ready early doors on the Sunday to drive back home - hopefully kangaroo free as we were driving during the day, so should be a much easier drive (I am missing out any 'incidents' we may have had trying to empty the toilet cassette and grey water - some things just don't need to be shared).
Of course that is the point that Emily looked at the map and realised we were only 2 and a half hours away from Tamworth, which is where the giant Golden guitar is housed. You might remember that we have been there on our last Oz adventure in 2023, just so EM could see the giant guitar, but she was so sick that she stayed in bed hallucinating for 2 days, and only got to view it from the car park.
Well we closed that circle, and not only did we get up close and personal to the giant golden guitar, we even had a meal and listed to some live country music.
Of course that did add extra time on to our trip, so it was another 11 hour journey home.... But at least she got to see the giant golden guitar!
Back in Sydney we closed another loop when we went for dinner at the harbour and ate in the same restaurant as the very first time we visited in 2023 (what3words crest.modest.rate) - we also had the same meal of lasagne - and it tasted just as it did in my memory.
There is a light show on at the harbour called VIVID - the Harbour Bridge, Opera House and several other buildings had light shows playing on them - it was pretty cool to watch, even if it was raining.
For my last night in Sydney Em took me to a Mexican Restaurant that we had tried to visit earlier in the trip, but it was booked solid. Called Maiz (what3words pizza.retain.riders) and it was absolutely delicious - especially the corn soup! Emily had told them I was flying back to the UK, and not only did that come printed on the bill, but they gave me a free desert!
On the walk back from the restaurant we also boxed off another thing that we had meant to do, and got ice cream at Yo-Chi. Now this was something to see - I have never queued so long for ice cream in my life (correction, it is not ice cream as the staff member told me, it is much healthier, she said - well it might be, but you self serve and you pay by weight at the end, so by the time I got to the till, mine was not that healthy!)
What a great business model though - all of the toppings were laid out and it was a like a pick and mix at Woollies, and we all know how much they ended up costing by the time you came to pay. I did try and be a bit healthy with strawberries and bananas on mine, as well as the chocolate sauce and multitude of sweeties.....
It was sad to leave Em, and I was even sadder to be sandwiched between two men on the flight, both of whom suffered from manspread and they BOTH claimed the armrests! No plane etiquette at all!
That being said, I have had a fabulous time, with lots of stand out moments, and am already planning my next trip.
One huge stand out was going to the Ballet at the SOH, so I will finish with a pic of that iconic building - you can never have too many pics of the Sydney Opera House!
By the way - what the hell is with the weather in the UK??
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