Katrien, my second oldest sister, joined me in Australia flying into Sydney!
Originally she would fly into Perth at the beginning of April but due to changes in both our schedules she ended up flying in a month earlier and to the other side of Australia, Sydney.
Oh and I have to add here, I'm writing about all these things we did and saw which happened over a month ago. so things might be a bit vague or not really in detail ...
So there started chapter three;
The Pumba tour
First up, Sydney.
reunited, YAY!
And it went a little something like,
dinner in the park
We parked and slept in Ruchcutters bay, the exact same place I slept almost a month before.
A beautiful park with huge trees ( -->)
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| The royal botanical gardens |
We did Sydney in one day. not seeing everything (of course) but doing our best. We walked from Kings Cross through Woolloomooloo (yes that's right, the one and only word with 8 o's) to the Royal botanical gardens of Sydney.
As you walk toward the CBD you are greeted ever so kindly with this great view. (above)
After Sydney we drove west to the Blue Mountains. Pure nature.
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| The famous three sisters |
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| Katoomba Falls |
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| the Giant stairway |
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| Wentworth Falls |
The Blue mountains where absolutely beautiful. After a great drive through the mountains to Katoomba we stopped at Echo point where the view point for the Three sisters view point. What an incredible view.
By the time we had found a place to sleep and went to the store and back most of the day had passed already so the following day we went out for a hike. From the Katoomba falls to Echo point and the three sisters descending via the Giant stairway 300m into the Jamison Valley. So approximately 800 steps later we walked all the way back over the Valley floor to Katoomba Scenic World where we did the broad walk and took the cable railway back up.
!! Fun Fact according to Wikipedia: "The Scenic Railway is the steepest cable-driven funicular railway in the world, the steepest incline of 52 degrees contained within a total incline distance of 310 metres. It was originally constructed for a coal and oil shale mining operation in the Jamison Valley in the 1880s, in order to haul the coal and shale from the valley floor up to the escarpment above." !!
From the Blue mountains we headed back East toward the coast. The following couple of days we drove down the east coast into Victoria, heading for Melbourne.
The next days we drove through little towns, slept on campings next to a bunch of kangaroos, beaches and rivers.
The most Southern point of mainland Aussie, CHECK
A long winding road led to the very hart of the national park,
Welcome to The Prom
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| Squeaky beach |
After The Prom we drove to Phillip Island.
Phillip Island is famous for its penguin parade. So that was obviously our next destination!
Seeing about a hundred 33cm tall penguins waddle up the beach at twilight was absolutely awesome to see. It's an awesome thing to be able to contribute to the organisation who builds new little burrows for the penguins in the dunes.
All the penguins are counted every evening when they arrive back on the beach, this way they can easily see keep count of their population of the Little Penguin.
Because we only stayed on the Island for a day and you're not allowed to take pictures of the penguins at the parade we barely have pictures of those few days. We walked from the camping all the way to the township of Cowes. Where we had a milkshake and a raspberry cheesecake as treat for walking about 2 hours. We thought better of walking all the way back so hitched a lift back to our camping area.
(the picture is taken from the Internet as you weren't allowed to take pictures at the parade it self.)
After having seen these little wonders waddle up the beach we headed on up the coast line to the Mornington peninsula.
As we had no real success in finding a place to sleep in Melbourne we decided to bypass it.
We slept in and visited Mornington and Sorrento (Portsea).
Two charming towns with just as charming views of Port Phillip.
We bought some fabulous sunnies in a little shop in Mornington (which I sat on... but that's a whole different story ;) ) and in Sorrento, the next day, we had a coffee and a muffin in the cutest little cafe where you could sit in an actual open train compartment! In Portsea we took the ferry over to Queenscliff. A big ferry brought us across the Rip in barely 45min, but what an amazing 45min those were!
Whilst the boat swayed over the waves suddenly a pair of dolphins appear!
It's was so wonderful to see them playing around, taking advantage of the boat and swimming along in it's wake.
It didn't take long or the whole boat had tilted slightly to one side where the dolphins were splashing in and out of the water. It's seemed like they were quite enjoying the attention because when they started playing around by swimming underneath the boat back and forth the entire boat started rocking from side to side a bit as the nearly 20 people on the top deck went running from one side to the other as to not lose the dolphins out of sight!
What a grand sight!
I must say, this country never ceases to amaze me every day again.
Next post will be about the Great Ocean road, Adelaide and so much more!
talk to you soon,
xoxo Lizzie
ALSO: Go check out my awesome sister's blog; travelwithtweenie.blogspot.com
AND for more information on the penguin conservation reserve in Phillip Island please visit; http://www.penguins.org.au
