Flight Home
My flight was at 9.15pm. The first stage from Sydney to Dubai , approx 14 hours, then Dubai to Heathrow, 7 hours...tried sleeping on th plane but not that successful..watched a few movies..took it easy...
Landed 12:15pm, 12th July.
Chilled out at home a while before going up mum and dads - Leaving my house which had looked so tidy looking like a bomb had hit it!
Still rushing around I drove up to Hammesmith to met Karen, from Melbourne and her friend Ava, both of whom I'd last seen in Melbourne. I started flagging at about 10:30pm whilst sat in the pub, infact I could have just fallen asleep there. The weirdest thing with being back in the UK was that it didn't get dark until gone 9pm - Of course in Oz I'd been watching sunsets at about 5-5.30pm each day as it was Winter.
..it looks like I also have no worries with time differencies as not really suffered at all! In fact I'm feeling great (well apart from the fact I'm now in the UK jobhunting!!
So I suppose this should be my last post - I can't express enough how fantastic the last 3 months have been and especially the last 5 weeks whilst travelling - I've met some really terrific people and hope that I will at least keep in touch with a few of them and hopefully sometime in the future maybe met some of them again...
Tues 11th July, Last Day
Well up fairly earlier - Packed my suitcase for one last time then went for breakfast with Kelly, my room mate I went to the AFL with. It was also Kellys last day as she was off back to Melbourne. Then caught a bus down to Circular Quay to do the pylon climb on the Bridge - My last views of the Harbour and the Opera House on a lovely sunny day - How much did I not want to go home..really wanted to stay another week..then mabe another...
Mon 10th July, Blue Mountains
I caught the bus for my trip to the Blue Mountains at 7.20am, No hangover! I was able to catch up on some of my sleep with the 2 hour journey to the Mountains. When we first go there we went kangaroo hunting, so I saw my last wild kangaroos before returning home – Again it was another fine day with blue skies and great views. We went for a walk with a Park Ranger in the morning and then in the afternoon went and saw the “Three Sisters” – the 3 turrets on the photos and had a ride on the Katoomba Light Railway “the steepest incline railway in the world”, steepest incline 52 degrees and a length of 450m with a vertical drop of 250m.
When I got back to the hostel I caught up with Rocky and we went out for a meal at a German Restaurant in The Rocks – A great way to spend my last evening in Australia..
Sun 9th July, AFL Game
We met down in the Side Bar for the Aussie Rules game Sydney Swans V Adelaide. There seemed to be lots of people I knew! Kelly my new room mate had joined me, Michael and David from Chicago, Ted and Sara from Cork, Leaza (Meeting me at the SCG) and then there were Amy and Nick who’d just arrived from England and Rocky from the States. It was a really good afternoon with great weather even though the Sydney Swans lost. Afterwards we made our way back to our hostel were we spent the rest of the evening drinking cocktails. It was a great way of spending my last Sunday evening tough I had an early start on Monday.
Sat 8th July, Richard & Janes
Today I went to visit Richard and Jane who made me feel really welcome. Their children are great fun. We had a BBQ (cooked by Richard of course). We then went for a drive to Bradleys Head and then Balmoral Beach which was really good. After which I caught a train back to Town Hall and went uo the Sydney Tower and the Oztrek – Though it was dark which was a bit of a shame so I never got the benefit of seeing the city from 270m up in daylight it was the only way I was going to fit in the experience! It’s also school holidays was very busy with long queues and meant that I missed any chance of catching the tail end of the evenings sunset.
Fri 7th July, Opera House Tour & Bridgeclimb
I went on the tour of the Opera House at 10am this morning was quite interesting. Then ambled around the shops for a while before going to the Bridgeclimb, I had intended climbing the pylon prior to the Bridge but had to leave it as was probably cutting my timing a bit too fine. My climb was at 3.55pm and counted as a Night Climb - It was the first one after the late dusk climbs so it meant that I did actually get to see the sunset over Sydney as well. The photos on here aren’t great as I never got them in digital format so I had to try to take photos of photos indoors using the flash – Hence my distorted face, honest I don’t look quite that bad! I did enjoy the climb but would have been disappointed if I’d paid the extra for an early or late dusk – As advised by a couple of people the last dusk group was just in front of us and had paid about and extra 60 dollars for the privilege.
Thurs 6th July, Beaches
Yet another late start after organising myself for the rest of the week. Also visited the post office to send some bits’n’pieces back, how expensive?? I debated not sending it and just paying excessive luggage but it’s done now. After that went to the train station to get a travel day pass. Finally got to Bondi Beach – The sunny pics are Bondi. As everyone had told me it was a let down it was actually a pleasant surprise, however I can imagine it in Summer without an inch of space to move on the sand. Started my walk round to Coogee Beach and bumped into Leaza from the very first part of my trip!! How weird is that – I knew she was in Sydney but never expected to bump into her! Once I got to Coogee it was then a quick dash to the bus to get back to Circular Quay and catch the ferry to Manly Beach. Manly Beach looked nice but the sun was going down so I never saw it at its best, they were also doing a lot of construction work in the high street. Caught the ferry back at twilight to see the skyline at night.
Darren Hayes
The concert was excellent; the Concert Hall isn’t actually that big so it meant that even though I was in the circle (front row) it felt really close. He sang all the well known Savage Garden songs and a couple of new ones. I’m definitely going to be buying the DVD though I’m sure I won’t be on it!!Not very good pics!
Wed 5th July, Zoo
I walked to circular Quay to catch a ferry to the zoo. Lovely dry crisp day. There were lots of different animals. I had a good day and caught the last ferry back to the Quay, 5pm. I then had to dash back to my hostel to get ready for the Darren Hayes Concert at the Opera House. Thankfully there were regular buses back to the quay as I was running late. I still managed to have dinner at one of the restaurants overlooking the Harbour Bridge.
Look carefully and you can see the Opera House behind the giraffes....
Tues 4th July, First Day in Sydney
Woke up to rain so took decided to have a relaxing day, I went to breakfast with the 2 girls I was sharing my room with, though they have now moved on to a different hostel and off to Melbourne! Then caught the monorail to go and get my new camera sorted out. Took it to the Pentax repairers – Of course now when I didn’t want it to work it worked just perfectly, In the end however he agreed to replace the camera though I know he never believed me when I said it was faulty! Well the rain cleared up in the afternoon so walked from hostel to the Botanical Gardens then round to The Opera House where I collected my ticket for Darren Hayes tomorrow night. He is performing in the main Concert Hall so it should be pretty amazing.
Monday 3rd July, Barrington Tops to Sydney
Well last day of travelling for over a week. However before leaving I decided to take up the option of Abseiling – I don’t think one of my favourite activities though I’m pleased that I gave it a go, I did get a bit better with each attempt! Arrived in Sydney at about 4.30pm and booked into a 4 bed dorm at www.wakeup.com.au ..
Sunday 2nd July, Surf Camp to Barrington Tops
Another morning of surfing then we on the road again to Barrington Tops, a type of outward bound hostel in the middle of the national park. After making my own pizza and it being cooked on a stone fire, Michael, David and I went Night Kayaking which was terrific fun! They took photos of us which will be on www.barringtonriverbackpackers.com under the 2/7/06 though I don’t think that you will find them there for quite a while! Dan and Ryan decided not to join us on this activities.
Saturday 1st July, Surfing
Today we headed straight down the coast to surf at Arrahead with Mojo Surf. Great fun and some great waves, the photos are of the beach.
