Heading south, camping?!?!

Well, after having picked up numerous speeding fines before leaving the UK I didn't leave it too long before the boys in blue were on my case again. Having pulled out of the Hertz car park and literally only 500m from where I got into the car I was breathalised! It was only a routine stop though and I was quickly moved on! phew!

Back on the road I to grips with the automatic transmission (almost putting Angela through the windscreen in the process!) and the city's roads and tolls.

With a wealth of camping knowledge picked up at XXIV Harlow Scout's Cobra Patrol, and from Sundays spent watching Ray Mears on the box I was ready for everything the bush could throw at me, including brown snakes, redbacks and psychopathic 'Wolf Creek' inspired locals. Angela though - with only a couple of nights spent under canvas in her back garden - was in for a shock.

To ease the pain we spent the first night at a hotel. We immediately swore we wouldn't do it again, at least not until we got back to Sydney.

We headed to K-mart to pick up the final bits of our camping equipment and got back on the road.

The scenery was fantastic and so much greener than we had both expected. All the way down the south coast of NSW and most of the way along the south of Victoria, Australia looks very much like parts of England and Scotland - except the water is a brilliant shade of turquoise and the sun is (mostly) out.

The driving was fantastic too, long, mostly empty highways, steer you through small villages and towns with names such as...

Australian road trip...chapter 1

Well after a month of avoiding blogging and general communication like the plague (and being aided by Australia's generally poor transmitter coverage and colossal size), I thought I better give you a downunder rundown...

After panicking about getting accommodation before we arrived we hit the jackpot with the Elite Private Hotel in Kirribilli. On my first morning here I was blown away, walking down to the harbour only to see the bridge looming up next to me and the Opera House gleaming at me from across the harbour. Fantastic and relatively cheap too.

New Year's Eve was good. Although the whole week we were there was spent drinking too much, eating too much and spending too much as we caught up with friends and family from back home.

For the fireworks we camped out in the blazing sun at Bradfield Plaza, on the bridge's north side and opposite the Opera House and Sydney CBD, for the 9pm show, before heading to Observatory Hill on the bridge's south side for the midnight celebrations. The fireworks were spectacular and I will try and get some pix up here or on flickr soon.

By January 4th and with considerably less money, we picked up our 1st hire car from Hertz. The plan being to buy a tent and some camping equipment and drive south along the NSW coastline, then down to Melbourne before heading along the Great Ocean Road, up to Adelaide and back to Sydney cross country.

I had been hoping for a jet-black, nitrous-equipped Interceptor used in Mad Max but made do with our air-conditioned Toyota Camry. With wheels, shades and sunburnt noses we hit the road...