Whilst everyone flocks to Bondi, we found the beach overcrowded and a touch overrated. We ventured to Manly and found a quiet cove there…
We thought Manly had the most beautiful beaches in Sydney. The more ‘adventurous’ types were cliff-jumping from this perch
Open top bus tours are perhaps our nerdiest tradition and yet we love them. When you don’t have loads of time to get to know a place, they’ve proved invaluable for giving you a flavour of the different areas, a bit of local history and they generally prove to be quite hilarious in a very Joey ‘I’m in my map’ sort of way.
The tour was pricey (as expected in Sydney), around $40 each, but the tickets could be used for twenty four hours. However, do beware the last ride of the day – it was apparent our driver was keen to get home for his dinner.
So picture the scene: we made it to Sydney in old Alvin, enduring soaring temperatures, travelling through ghost towns, powered across the obscenely remote Nullabor, and we’re finally here… now what?
We were lucky enough to have a hotel for Christmas but that did in fact make moving the three of us back into the van for the next five days leading up to NYE seem slightly traumatic. And as anyone who has visited Syndey around this time will know, we were not the only backpackers in pursuit of the perfect (free) parking spot.
However, during our daily entrapment by Sydney’s one-way system and seeming refusal to allow any right turns, we spotted an entire street filled with campervans…
Ho Ho Ho!
We couldn’t have been more excited for our first Christmas away from home; we were in Sydney, it was a break from tradition, and it was a chance to finally have spectacular weather on Christmas Day.
It of course rained.
We had arrived in our hotel at 1am the night before, tired from traveling for days in our campervan, but this didn’t stop Charlotte from waking early and going on a hunt for some Champagne bright and early! Will and I slept in late, enjoying finally having large cosy beds rather than sharing Alvin’s wooden slats. The hotel staff were slightly concerned about Charlotte wondering around the hotel by herself in her pyjamas, and questioned her over the location of her parents.
We spent four days traveling from Perth to Sydney with the aim of making it in time for Christmas. Here’s the story of our roadtrip…
Meet Alvin.
Now readers, we’ve taken a different approach with this post,
To try make the story more readable of how we journeyed from coast to coast.
Its a strange kind of love poem, as the journey was by no means romantic,
And in fact was littered with incredulous antics,
However Alvin you see, is our trusted campervan,
And he took us 4000km regardless he’s an 80s Nissan.
We bought him from a man called Fred down in South Perth,
Who quick to sell passed him on for less than his worth.
There were some teething problems initially, and getting him into 3rd gear took a while,
But for $800 we weren’t expecting agile.
He has quite a turning circle and a 3-point-turn is exercise
(In fact, just driving round the block again is probably wise).
He’s heard before he’s seen and he makes quite an impression,
And that was before we’d even started renovation.
Two One-Way Flights 