c-e-d.net:Ced's blog

We woke up at 11am, assuming that the car will not be ready this time! I called, nobody answered, we went then there at 1pm and were surprised to hear that the car was fixed. We exchanged the yens Nozomi brought with to pay the mechanics and came back to the motel. The car was doing a weird noise and water was still coming from the muffler. I went back straight to the mechanic who tried to make some adjustments but nothing changed: he just told me to clean up a part of the carburettor. We loaded the car and left at 6pm from Taree to settle down one hour drive away from the town and camped in Crowdy bay national park. The site was difficult to find but very clean and close to the beach. The air was very humid and everything was flooded on the way to the national park.

We brought the car to the garage where they told us that it could take up to Friday and cost more than $1,000. We looked for another motel close by the repair shop and we went shopping. I started to have stomach ache – I was suspecting the muddy tasted tape water being responsible of it. It was still raining considerably, which explained all the flooding we could see on the way.

We woke up at 11.30am because we did not hear the alarm. We went to see Linda at her workplace close by at 12.30pm and said her bye. We hit the road at 2pm. I drove under the rain and stopped around 6pm for a car check – I lost more than 2L of water. We decided to camp in the Myall Lakes national park close to Tea Garden, just before dawn. We finished to settle down at 9pm and enjoyed a good fire until 1am. We saw a dingo as well as wild turkeys and many transparent spiders.

 Oz way to cook

 Alone in the bush

We woke up at 11am, instead of 9am. It was raining outside, we did not have much incentives to go out. I did not have any back pain anymore in Linda's bed – that was miraculous. It was very generous to give us her bed: it was a well-sized antique bed with a thick mattress. Linda is living with her sister, her niece and her cat in a 5 bedrooms house with two lounges and bathrooms – the house is quite spacious. We left for Sydney by train at 3pm, arrived at 4.20pm, very tired for me. We walked from Central to the botanic garden, through the Hyde park and came back to a block close to Central to meet Nozomi's friend. We had St Valentine's day in a good Japanese restaurant. We went to Darling Harbour first, walked to the Rocks (oldest district of Sydney) and went to Kings Cross (old Red light district) which is now a hype / club street. We had a drink and a bit food and then left at 12.30pm (running under the rain) to get the train at 1am, just on time. Linda picked us up at the Campbell station at 2.30am. We bought her a geisha doll to thank her because she really likes the movie “memoirs of a geisha”.

Opera house

We woke up at 1pm and left at 4pm for the Yarrangobily caves. We stopped on the way to see an abandoned village. The caves were numerous, in the mountains, over a beautiful view: many hills welcoming a small river in the middle. One cave had an opening in its ceiling. Then we walked down to the river and came back to the car in order to head off to Australia's highest town, Tumut. We came back to the camp and had a fire.