Chapter 11
Yikes! It's now December, we've been on the road for 346 days and covered 44,695kms .... that's definitely a lot more k's than we anticipated. But every detour and every wrong turn has been absolutely worth it. We are sort of edging into familiar territory now on the South Coast of NSW, but this just gives an excuse to explore even harder!
We hope you enjoy the tales of our last month....
The Central Coast
For the third or fourth time this year, we had a friend come and visit us just to make sure we were still sane and not ready to kill one another. My best mate Sammy met us just south of Newcastle and we spent the good part of four days surfing, hiking and talking rubbish. As I think we've said a few times, making new friends this year has been amazing, whilst catching up with old friends offers something special in itself. I don't think there was a silent moment between the three of us as we had plenty to catch up on! Places we visited included Merewether, Frazer Beach, Norah Head, Terrigal & Avoca ..... all offering something unique and charismatic to this great region between Newcastle and Sydney.
In addition to this, our friend Nat now lives on the Central Coast so we parked up at their place for a few days trying our hand at wakeboarding and wakesurfing, whilst also undertaking something more familiar and that is having a few drinks!! Like everyone this year, (and particularly in this chapter!) the generosity shown by her partner and family was overwhelming and we are incredibly thankful for the few days we spent at their place.
Frazer Beach
Wakesurfing
Sunset Session in the Grandstand
The Hunter Valley
What's the point of going to one of Australia's best red wine regions without Australia's best red wine drinking cousin!? Yes that's right another visitor from back home and this time it was my cousin Ash who took it upon himself to responsibly show us around the Hunter ... yeah right, I hear you say!
We had an unreal weekend sampling the best the area has to offer, primarily in the form of shiraz grapes, but also plenty of cheese and cured meats. The best wine was probably the Silkman 2015 Reserve Shiraz which not surprisingly had just won a stack of awards at the Hunter Valley Wine Show; and there was also a delicious 10yr aged Tawny Port from The Little Wine Company that tickled our fancy.
And I'm sure you can imagine that there seemed like so much to catch up on, so much so that Ash's great friend Justine must think we are slightly crazy; I swear we don't normally talk that much Justine! Nevertheless the amazing weekend went far too quickly as has the entirety of this year.....
Tyrell's Winery
The Blue Mountains
The most frequent question that we get asked is "where is your favourite place?". It is a perfectly good question, but it is also incredibly challenging to answer. We both have favourite regions and places we'd like to visit again on holidays, but everywhere is so different. Our answer generally is The Kimberley but I think we can both honestly say that The Blue Mountains is now right up there.
This place honestly blew us away. The landscapes were mind blowing and the area is generally very accessible; yep only about 1hours drive from Sydney. We did some stunning walks including The Grand Canyon and Hanging Rock whereby everything seems to be put before you on a grand scale. The cliffs are huge and the backdrops look printed on a green screen. Similarly, due to my sisters love of native plants, we were able to have a great appreciation for what I would say is the greatest amount of windflowers I have ever seen .... I'll put some photos below.
Finally, we had put some pennies aside all year to have a day canyoning with a guide as we had heard great things. Fortunately we weren't disappointed as we had one of the best days of the trip jumping off waterfalls, swimming through caves and abseiling down wet slippery cliff faces. Sounds like madness, but we were honestly having too much fun to think about how crazy it seemed!
Canyoning
Safety First!!
Walls Lookout
Pierces Pass
Hanging Rock
A nightly occurrence in the Blue Mountains
Sydney
Completing the theme of catchups with family and friends, Maddy's cousin Ben and his wonderful family so very kindly offered us their house as a base to explore Sydney. We had a couple of nights at their place watching Toy Story, playing Star Wars lego, assisting in the kitchen and all sorts of other crazy activities that the minds of children aged 3, 6 and 8 can only offer!
Clancy also parked himself up for a couple of days as we made the most of Sydney's great public transport system and explored the city by ferry, bus, train and by foot! We ticked off all the major sites - Harbour Bridge, Opera House, Bondi, Martin Place, The Rocks, Manly and thought we had done a pretty good job. At first we enjoyed being in a city again, but this quickly wore off as we soon started longing for some isolation!
Funnily enough, we also caught up with some friends in Bronte and crashed at their place after being cooked one of the best BBQ meals all year! Thanks Kiah and Jethro you legends....
Bondi Beach
The House Of Opera
Big Bridge!
Royal National Park
Just south of Sydney is a wonderful paradise of secluded beaches and great bushwalking (except the ticks, yep first one all year!!). We walked from Garie Beach to Figure 8 Pools via Era Beach and were honestly so shocked something as beautiful and tranquil could be so close to Australia's largest city.
Just south in Scarborough we also visited what we considered one of, if not Australia's best beer gardens! It was this massive old pub built up on a huge cliff with striking ocean views - a must visit if you are ever passing through. And just round the corner was one of the coolest stretches of road we have driven on all year called the Sea Cliff Bridge. We are told that a heap of car commercials are filmed there and we did find ourselves with some degree of familiarity driving along it.
Looking towards North & South Era Beaches
Figure 8 Pool - An Instagram Phenomenon
Yellow Tail Black Cockatoo
Not a soul insight
Sea Cliff Bridge
...
So the rains appear to have set in and yesterday we fast tracked a few things to find ourselves in Ulladulla. This was a plan all year to spend a week here with Maddy's Aunty as it is a special place for Mads having spent many childhood holidays here. It's a shame about the rain but as we keep saying all year; you get what you get, you don't get upset!
Next weekend we have a music festival just down the road in Berry and then after that we will work our way south to spend Christmas with my family in Pambula Beach. Not long to go now, so let's keep making the most of it!
Lots of love as always,
Maddy and Luke
(Chapter 11 written by Luke)