Camper change, Blue Mountains and liquor

27-1-2010 (Wednesday)

Early coffee, they have a fan with barista that comes into the park and serves good coffee.

Around 10:30 we were on the way, half way stop at Jervis Bay (Hymans Beach) and end destination Kiama. Kiama is 80 Km below Sydney.

We arrived in Jervis Bay around 1:30, our stop was Hymans Beach. They say the whitest sand and bluest sea of the world and indeed AMAZING. We had lunch on the beach and spend there a couple of hours.
Jervis Bay is a big bay they also call bay of plenty due to the huge amount of fish in the bay. There are two villages along the bay, we had fish and chips and an ice-cream in one of them. Else then that was the village nothing special.

We drove further on to Kiama, we passed Nowra. We checked in to the park went out for groceries and were set at our spot around 7.
This is the first park we don’t like that much, no good atmosphere. Also some light rain tonight. We will leave tomorrow, that is the positive thing about a house on wheels.

Tomorrow stop in Sydney at the KEA camper depot to have the airco checked and also the engine, it was leaking oil today and then we’re off to the Blue Mountains.

28-1-2010 (Thursday)

The light rain of yesterday night turned in to a storm during the night and we are wondering how people ‘survive’ in tents. It was pouring rain, and then our house seems pretty small; as if you’re in the rain yourself.

We did the quickest set-up to drive ever. We were on our way at 9:10. Coffee to go in Kiama and then we went up to the KEA depot Milperra, suburb of Sydney. We arrived at 11.

Indeed the airco was broken, we also mentioned that when we got the campervan it was dirty and smelly (especially the restroom).
After some negotiations and intervention by Sharon we got a new campervan and a few days reimbursed. It took some time to change campers and finally at 4 we were on our way to the Blue Mountains.
It started pouring rain, it was a hell of a trip. We had trouble getting up a mountain and finally drove very carefully towards Katoomba. We saw the most beautiful lightening in the storm; up and close. The only positive thing about the storm.

When we arrived at the campsite, small but nice site, the rain stopped. We went shopping and went out for dinner. We had dinner in a Indian Restaurant called Arjuna. The place has a nice view over the Blue Mountains. They are called the Blue Mountains due to the glaze over the mountains caused by the Eucalypts trees.
Back at the site we walked to the edge of a cliff looking at the sun go down. We had the best view and saw already the highlights of the Blue Mountains, the three sisters (a rock formation).

So a difficult day ended with a real highlight.

About liquor:
We had our first BYO (bring your own) restaurant tonight. They don’t have a license selling alcohol, so you are free to bring your own. And because we had our fridge with us, we got a bottle of white wine for Sharon and a beer for Ruben.
One other interesting thing is that alcohol is only sold in specialized shops, called bottle shops. And they have a lot of drive in bottle shops (most famous chain: thirsty camel). We think it’s interesting that a country so active on safety driving and alcohol control have alcohol sold this way.