Days 179 - 186 our farewell to Sydney

So this week has been as eventful as ever! On Thursday we took the walk from the Sydney Opera House through Botanical Gardens to Kings Cross. Seeing the opera house still makes us look up at the sails and wonder, it really is a very beautiful icon. As I love flowers and trees, being in the botanic gardens for a picnic on a sunny day is very appealing. That is, until I looked up into the trees and saw hundreds of fruit bats. Yep that's right, bats in the middle of the day in the middle of Sydney. Could this be a bad dream? Nope, they inhabit many of the trees in the gardens & amuse the many school children on a visit to the park. We made a quick exit from there, after taking a few pics to show you the bats (ah, the lengths I will go to for our blog!!) Next stop was Kings Cross for a trusty VB!

Coogee Beach was another place on our 'Sydney list' so off we went on Sunday. It's a great spot with a nice beach & some great ice cream!! Sad to think twenty Coogee residents died in the Bali bombing in 2002. Seeing the memorials in both Bali & here was sobering.

We are proud of our wee country, so when we heard the Ireland vs Wales rugby game was being played we decided to stay up & watch the game! Come on the boys! Unfortunately our bad luck at trying to watch the game spread to the rugby too! Claire & Kieran came over to ours to share a box of wine (Yep we have become scabby backpackers & drink boxes of wine!! - actually we only drink the posh stuff that is at least $15!!) So anyway, as the boys were so engrossed in watching 'The Dukes of Hassard' - guess why?! Nothing to do with a certain busty blonde by the name of Jessica Simpson, we only left our place at 11.50pm. By the time we got to the pub in 'County Bondi' they weren't letting anyone else in! ARGHHHHH, even the guy on the door, who had a noticable Northern Irish accent was being very unfriendly. Eventually we managed to get into a private Jewish club in Bondi. The atmosphere was great, with other renegades, and a few Welsh supporters :-( As you will already know we were beaten & less said about that the better.

This week we also caught up with Kerry & Jon. They are on their 'Australian Roadtrip' and have made it over the Nullabor & Great Ocean Road so they had loads of advice & tips for us. Lunch was lovely & we hope to meet up with them again somewhere in Queensland.

So today we leave Paul's place. After six weeks and more walks to the beach than we can count, we have packed up our rucksacks & surf boards. We will arrive in Melbourne tomorrow morning & plan to collect our campervan & hit the Great Ocean Road. Sydney has been a great experience for us & somewhere we have been able to relax before the next action packed six months. We've met some great people in this fabulous city & caught up with friends so we will look back on Sydney with a BIG smile!

Till next week, Sarah & Mike xxx

PS. I managed to get a pair of sandals to replace the ones the bumless guy ruined!!

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