Leaving Sydney in the Rear View Mirror

So our last day in Sydney started with a Bondi Beach walk, again, because you can never get sick of a beach walk, but to the South end this time. Probably a total of 4 km round trip. We found a man-made jetty, turned ocean swimming pool, it was cool. There are alot of swimming pools along the beach walk, all made of ocean water of course. In fact, Sydney is pretty good at keeping its people active with free outdoor sports. (swimming, volleyball, basketball, walking, running, boardwalks, exercise stations everywhere, it was crazy awesome!). We all took a swim in the jetty.

Not my best side, but Todd said i owed him since i called him Jules Mooseknuckle!

The afternoon was spent driving around Sydney along the coast area to check out more watery areas.

 

And we decided to stop for a refreshing beverage along the side of a road, at yet another beach.

We decided that we needed to have a fabulous dinner nite out downtown where we had to "dress up". Wanda and I decided we both needed new dresses for the event and pitstopped at the market to purchase said garments. Jules Mooseknuckle googled "O" restaurant which was located on the 47 floor of a round building, and the restaurant rotated so we could see Sydney all lit up at nite. This sounded perfect, away we went. Had a lovely meal.

 By day 6, we were sick of downtown living, the crowds and big city life, we were all looking forward to head north out of the city. Sydney was good, but it was time to move on.

We loaded up the car, red neck style, and moved the wagons north up M-1, Pacific Coast highway (which is the QE1). 

Getting on the highway, we were impressed with a few Australian road works including: rest stops every 10 minutes (with flush toilets! and covered picnic tables), U-turn lanes (U-turn bays), and unimpressed that we couldn't speed due to excessive photo radar on every corner. We had no agenda for the day, other than go north. As we drove through torrential down pours sheets mixed with dry/clear spells, back to blanketing rain, we stumbled on a hidden gem called Seal Rock. This was located on the very far east tip of some national park. It was off the beaten path, off a narrow windy road and dead ended at a lighthouse perched upon a wicked rock cliff. It was pouring rain, so we donned the raincoats and climbed up to see this cool site. The lighthouse still operated a functional conventional turny light. You could rent a room at the lighthouse, if you planned ahead, but we were foot loose. We back tracked a couple of km's to a campground type park, which offered cabins and camping sites. We inquired to see if anything was available and they had a fully equipped cabin with a beach view.

 

We were a little excited about the beach! The sand squeeked when we walked on it.

When we woke up in the morning and looked out the front window, there was a pod of dolphins swimming right there. It was amazing! Todd, Wanda and Brent suited up in snorkel gear and headed out to go swim with them. Epic fail. They could hear the dolphins screaming in the water and saw stingrays instead. An epic fail, but success for swimming in ocean with sea creatures. Much more to come with northern travels....