7 Feb: First day in Sydney
We landed on time at 6am in Sydney airport.
After eating
breakfast
at the airport, we took
a bus and
then a
train
to
Thornleigh train
station. Then
a
1.3 km
walk with all
our
luggage to the
campervan rental
agency.
Unfortunately there
are
no
cheap tuk-tuks here, we're
going
to
have to
get used
to
walking from
A-B!
The campervan is super; almost brand new, clean, big
and
spacious. We drove
it to a shopping mall,
where we went to
MacDo's
for lunch
much to
the
delight of the girls.
With their free WIFI
access, I expect
we'll
become
regular
customers!
Then a big
food
shop to
fill up the
fridge
and cupboards
before setting off to our
first campsite
in
the suburbs of Sydney,
situated in a
national
park. The
temperature
in
the
afternoon soared to
38
degrees, so the
pool was very
welcome!
When we unpacked our luggage into the campervan, guess what
François
found in his bag... the lost train tickets from Chiang Mai
to
Bangkok...!
As there is a fire ban in the national park, we
used the
campsite
electric BBQs to cook our
steak
burgers for
dinner. We saw
beautiful
coloured
parrots and a possum
whilst eating dinner on
our
camp chairs
and
table.
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| The interior
of the campervan |
Aperitif time
in the National Park campsite |
8 Feb: Sydney
We had a big lie-in this morning, to recover from our jet lag. We
set off
late
morning
into
Sydney
via a
bus 15
mins walk
from the
campsite. The
bus driver
proposed us a special Sunday family
all day
rate of
$2.50 pp
for use
on the buses, trains
and
ferries.
A bargain
as
this ticket
costs
over
$20 on other days
of the week!
First stop Sydney aquarium. After a 30 mins queue to buy
tickets costing $76 (we're beginning to
miss
Thailand already!!),
we
spent 3 hours looking
around this
beautiful
aquarium.
The
shark tanks were
particularly impressive,
with
the big grey
nurse
sharks and string
rays. We
then took a
ferry ride
to Circular
Quay,
motoring under Sydney
Harbour Bridge and past
Sydney Opera House.
From
there we decided to
take another ferry to
Manly to visit the
small
town and
moreover
the
famous
beach. A very
pleasant
half an
hour
later,
we docked in
Manly. The Corso,
main
shopped-lined
street,
leads from
the
ferry
dock to
Manly's surfing beaches.
Unfortunately we'd
not
brought our
swimming
costumes, but with the
wind it was quite
chilly
and
we
weren't
very
motivated to go
swimming
anyway!
Lots of
surfers were in the
water and we sat down
and relaxed for a bit
whilst the girls built
sandcastles. The
journey home took
nearly
two hours -
via
ferry, bus and
on
foot...
François
regretted
not
driving
the
campervan into town,
but
parking
wouldn't have been
easy...
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 |
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| The shark tank
in Sydney
Aquarium |
Sydney Harbour
Bridge and Opera
House |
Manly beach |
BACK
| 
