We’re in Sydney!

In the past few days we’ve covered a fair amount of kilometres, avoided a couple of hopping marsupials and stayed in a couple of nice motel rooms. Now we’re staying in Hornsby with our friends M and N and baby A. It’s really good to see them again: last time we met was over in Horsham and N had only recently discovered that she was pregnant, now they have a lovely little girl. It’s fun playing with little A. It’s also going to be nice to be in one place for a few days, I can tell you!

The trip from Port Augusta has been pretty uneventful, to be honest with you. We stopped off in Wilcania for the first night, and in Bathurst the second night. From Bathurst, the journey to Hornsby was to be an easy one, so we made time to stop off and see some Big Things, drive around a motor racing circuit and take in some scenic views.

Mount Panorama in Bathurst is a public road, but is home to a 1000km race every October. We took The (fully laden) Beast around the circuit at 60km/h, which enabled K to take some snaps of the beautiful views as we went around, but also enabled me to keep my driving licence. I shall have to pay a visit to Bathurst next time the V8 Supercars are exercising their muscles around the track as it looks like one heck of a race circuit!

We saw The Big Gold Panner on the outskirts of Bathurst. We didn’t get out of the car to photograph him as we were on the wrong side of a busy road. By the time we got to The Big Trout in Oberon the rain had started to fall. Rain, we have learned, will fall every time I put shorts on and cover my legs in factor

1. Our scenic route to The Blue Mountains was not as scenic as it may have been. Visibility was practically nil as we entered the clouds. This is where I discovered that The Beast is not fitted with fog lights! We stopped off briefly in Bilpin to snap The Big Fruit Bowl, again staying in the dry car. But we made it to our destination with no dramas. I did miss the car I had in the UK, though. The roads in the Blue Mountains would have been a lot more fun with bigger wheels and more power to pull us up the steep inclines.

That’s about all I have for you. Later on I shall borrow some of M’s bandwidth and upload a stack of photographs for you to marvel at. That should keep you busy!

A few moments ago I received a text message from my cousin who’s recently landed in Sydney from Dublin. I suspect that this will lead to us having a few beers in the City later on this week. I’m looking forward to that.