The biggest city of Australia was our destination for three nights. It’s expensive to stay there overnight, but luckily there are some budget options.

We got to see most of the main sights. We started from the place the whole city has started: The Rocks. we took part in free walking tour (they collet tips in the end), http://www.imfree.com.au/sydney/rocksat6/. It was really good way to get the overview of the area, even Jukka lost the group at some stage (don’t ask).

Tip! As soon as in Sydney, buy yourself “Opal”-card, it’s the only way to use public transportation. Just load the card, the maximum you can spend a day is 15 AUD.

There are good happy hour offers both in food and drinks, that’s how we avoided to spend too much. Keep your eyes open! The city is easy to even walk around, it’s small enough, and on the other hand public transportation works out fine.

In Darling Harbour there is Maritime Museum, many ships are seen in the harbour even you wouldn’t pay the entrance to the museum itself.

Chinatown with its markets (Paddy market) is place to see, and there is good (and cheap) food.

 

One morning we went for a run to Botanical Garden and its surroundings. From there it was great to see the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Another morning we went to swim in Andrew (Boy) Charlton Pool, which was cheap (6 AUD per person), and definitely worth to visit, we really liked the place. Water is filtered sea water and you can both bath and sun bath the same time in a great scenery.

 

For one evening Tony, the fan of Scandinavia, came to show us places around. It was so nice to spend time with other people than just hanging two of us. He introduced us also Thai Riffic (http://thairifficrandwick.com.au/thairifficrandwick.html) restaurant, where we used “BYO” for the first time, and brought our own bottle of wine to the restaurant. The restaurant was excellent, very tasty food!

 

On a drive, we saw also the famous Bondi Beach, and another lovely beach called Coogee beach.

Tony also took us to the other side of the bridge, from where the view towards the bridge and opera house was really beautiful! Without him we wouldn’t have found or reached this perfect spot! Tack så mycket Tony, we will meet again in Finland!

Our last day in Sydney we took the ferry to Manly village, and to its famous beach. The ferry trip is worth, you can even use the same Opal card for the transportation (about 14 AUD return). The scenery of the harbor is great and the village itself really pretty.

 

 

The supposedly very good and nice zoo was left for the next time. The weather in Sydney wasn’t too hot (now in the end of November), not as hot as in the Gold Coast for example, so high time for us to head to the tropics, Cairns, here we come!

 

We left the coast line of New South Wales to take Jycy camper van up to the mountains for its last two nights with us. It’s the Blue Mountains, probably one of the most famous national parks of Australia.

The journey took a whole lot longer than we expected (started from Hawk’s Nest near Nelson Bay), basically the whole day. To pass Sydney from the northern side was quite time taking. On the way, we bought fresh fruits from village of Bilpin, and once in the national park area we had a look on the Mt. Tomah Botanical Garden (https://www.bluemountainsbotanicgarden.com.au/). That was a nice stop, and you get plenty of information of the area.

The village of Blackheath is less touristy than Katoomba. We stayed the night in Govetts Leap lookout, there were toilets and chance to eat our own food.

Tip! Note that in the forests there are the mosquitoes! Quite annoying only. And you feel like at home.

The sunrise was at 5.44. We parked Jucy just on the edge of the cliff, and woke up for the sunrise, and yes, it was simply amazing! We were there just us, in totally unbelievable scenery and most beautiful sunrise.

The most touristic part of the Blue Mountains is the Scenic World in Katoomba (http://www.scenicworld.com.au/). There are few cable ways and one train to reach the bottom of the valley and the next cliff. You can see the most without this “amusement park” (39 AUD per person the whole day, no chance for cheaper two way tickets), but we took it anyway, the train was good fun as it’s really steep, and it was easier and fast to reach the places, no need to drive the car.

We walked Prince Henry Cliff Walk to the famous Three Sisters, and decided to make a longer walk by going down the Giant Stairway. On the way down we happened to meet Tony (going up all these stairs!), who ended up showing us around in Sydney in following weekend!

We stayed over in Katoomba Caravan park, and ate all our remaining food, sold the boogie board and had a good last sleep in Jucy.

On our drive to Sydney we stopped at Wentworth Falls. Luckily we were there quite early, as it gets touristy during the day (like all the famous spots in Blue Mountains). The walk along the ridge towards the falls was really nice!

All in all, we recommend to visit the Blue Mountains!

It was time to leave the camping life behind and drive to Sydney to return the car. We can really recommend the camping and sleeping in a car to everybody, it was the greatest way to explore the country, you can choose the route, there is some adventure in it, and it’s quite cost efficient. The rental is something between 25-35 AUD per day, and campsites 20-40 AUD per night (sure save is to sleep without camping, we did this twice). The traffic is really easy going and smooth, nobody is behind your back or pushing even you are slow. So, go for it!

Driving down the New South Wales east coast brought us to Coffs Harbour, a town organizing the World Rally Championship competition on 17.- 20.11.2016. We stayed there two nights, and the first Finnish we met through our whole journey by far was the driver Jari-Matti Latvala! The first evening there was the opening ceremony of the event, and there we met so many cool people and beautiful cars. Marja’s favourite was the police car which was there because of the security of the event.

For the rally itself we got a three-day pass from lovely people from Tasmania, who drove Volvo Amazon in classic car series! We are really grateful and wait them to catch us up in Finland!

We checked altogether four stages, one of those was super special stage at the seaside.

Besides we checked the service area. The Skoda team is our favourite! A car from our favourite country (if we don’t count Australia), Finnish driving to victory in WRC2 class, and friendly service team we got to say “Ahoj!”.

There are not so many spectators in the rally event than in Finland and it was really easy to move from point to another, no problems with parking etc. Also, in every spot there were proper toilets (similar to those in airplanes) and small stand of local Lions Club selling rally sausages and drinks. No drunken people, no rush. We got the whole idea of the rally from Tuomas from Finland, and we got to meet him for a short while at one of the stages!

 

 

 

We visited a market in a village called Eumundi. We liked it a lot, there were local products, handicrafts, vegetables and fruits, clothes, fortune tellers, massagers… You name it. What was (luckily) missing were the “made in China” products, and that made the market really worth to visit! We had a lovely coffee (in a stall which played Above&Beyond) and delicious pizza (in a stall which played Nora en Pure). Great!

The Hinterlands are just on the other side of the motorway M1 than the coastline. The view to the Pacific is amazing and the villages are really pretty with their old buildings.

Tip! Be prepared to BBQ all the time! There are free and open BBQ places all over.