2 months and 20 000km in 4 minutes

Blue Mountains

100 km off Sydney inland you have the Blue Mountains. Do you know why Blue Mountains are blue ? This National Park is mostly covered by a forest of Eucalyptus which release a toxic gas and give the area this blue-like color in the horizon. This also why this area was not crossed for decades by the settlers until the end of the 19th century.

Amazing Sydney

Here we are Sydney. I think we can say we kept the best city for the end of the trip. We stayed 3 days in this vibrant city where I enjoyed a divine view on the Opera and the Harbour Bridge at The Rocks from my hostel.

First, some pictures of the Harbour Bridge:

Then the amazing Darling Harbour, one of the place to be to hang out in Sydney:

The Opera:

Sydney by night:

A creek near to Bondi Beach, on the ocean shore:

Manly, far up North in the bay, this place was for us the chance to take the ferry in which we took amazing pictures during the sunset (see pictures above):

We need also to mention Elodie who helped us to visit Sydney and hosted Pierre for few days. We also saved a lot of money by parking the car in her garage. It is important to consider that parking the car one in Sydney costs between 30 and 40$.. A big thank to Elodie for everything.

Beautiful Byron Bay

We kept driving down from Gold Coast. Our next stop was just off the border of Queensland, in the New South Wales state. We stayed in Byron Bay overnight and enjoyed the beautiful shore along with its excellent waves for surfing (unlike in Surfers Paradise).

It was a great opportunity for Pierre to surf for its very first time. We enjoyed 3 hours surfing in rather calm waters. Well for my part I am not a regular surfer, I tried for my 2nd time to stand on a smaller board, unfortunately without success.

Enjoy

Gold coast

After the wonderful Whitesunday, it was time for us to keep on driving South on our way back to Melbourne. Next stop: Brisbane/ Gold Coast.

Brisbane is a plaisant city, the 3rd Australian most important. We stayed in a hostel for 1 night. We visited the CBD and the botanical garden (there is a botanical garden in every major Australian city)

The next day we drove to Gold Coast. Our planning ? theme park, theme park and theme park. We obtained a 99$ pass for Warner Bros Movie World, Sea World and Wet n Wild. Appart from that ? We enjoyed the wonderful waterfront of Surfers Paradise (or ugle if you are a pure Nature lover). Special mention: Why "Surfers Paradise" if there is no wave actually ? Well enjoy the pictures: