Royal National Park.

G'day!!

Update time on our trip to the RNP! Which happened 10 days ago. Slight delay!!...

The park is about 1hr 15 mins drive south of Sydney, it's quite rural with only a few service roads and one campsite accessible by road, so we stayed there, Bonnie Vale, on the fringe of a small town called Bundeena on the north east coast of the park.
We arrived on the saturday in the pouring rain, so instead of whipping out our new stove we decided to head out for dinner! We started off at Club Bundee, a local bar for local people, really nice locals though, and quite relaxing so we watched a spot of the simpsons! We then moved on to Bundeena RSL (RSL's are social clubs found all around NSW if not the whole of Oz) for some dinner, which was equally as amusing as Club Bundee.
On the Sunday we went for two walks, firstly on short walk to a town called Mainabar 5km north of the campsite. Really nice stroll through mangrove swamps over a lagoon then though some quite impressive forest.
In the afternoon we went East to a place called Jibbon point to see Aboriginal carvings which again was a really nice stroll along a beautiful beach then in to a wooded area towards the headland where there had been an Aboriginal settlement for about 5000 years up until 200 years ago... In the evening we cooked skippy fillets on the stove. Mmmm Really nice slightly gamey red meat! Far far nicer than croc!!! (see pics)
On the monday we left the campsite and drove to Watamolla (again see pics) Stunning beach with a sandbank locked lagoon at low tides. Stunning!! see pics again, you can pick jude out having a dip! Slightly deceptive pic as we had to wait for three bus loads of screaming schoolkids to leave before you could appreciate how stunning it was. We then stopped by Garie beach (we decided to name it Gary beach;) v-popular with surfers but not when we were there due to the jellyfish (Blue bottles- not deadly but painful! Apparently) before heading out on a rainforest walk which was probably the highlight of the weekend, quite magical. They had bad fires in 1999 which was evident but never the less it really was beautifull. Then back to the mighty Sydney on monday eve and that was the RNP done! Hoping to head back though as there is so much more to do there... Didn't see any snakes though, just lots of water dragons!!

Anyway a few swifter posts coming soon!

Love to one and all xx

Jude's Birthday

Hi All...

Been a while since our last post as we have been really busy. More post to follow to let you know what we have been up to..

Two reasons to celebrate, firstly was jude's Birthday, which was fun! We went to Taronga zoo (check out the photos in the link) and then for posh cocktails and the Blue Horizon bar at the top of the Shangri-La hotel, awesome views over the city! And secondly the elusive Judith nelson actually appearing in some photo's. She had been on a par with the Yeti's elusiveness up until this post, so please marvel at the wonderous Judith in her natural habitat;)
It is also Soph's birthday on Monday 11th, so Jude and Soph had joint birthday celebrations last Friday at the Italian Village, on the harbour with views of the Opera house, stunning. There was also an impromptu laser and firework display over the harbour, but we don't think that was especially for Jude and Soph!

Only one week left with Helen and Al before we move back to Collaroy to house sit for Soph Rich and Joel. (A Massive thanks to Helen and Al for being great hosts. Thanks!)
Finally watch this space for VAN "after shots" It's been a while coming but a lot of work has been done and we are going to take him to an exotic location for his first photo shoot very soon. His name is Flipper by the way after the colour of blue that he is - a whole story there in trying to find a paint supplier that could create the colour!!! Anyway, hope you are all well and dont forget to post comments and let us know how/what you are up to.

Lots of love

J&J xx