A Beautiful Day in Byron Bay

Byron Bay

Another morning of clear blue skies and no clouds. We really have been lucky with this little road trip. We had our usual lazy morning and then headed out tothe coast around 10. Today we encountered our first traffic jam since leaving Sydney. It is market day and vehicles were queuing to get in - must have taken us a good 10 minutes to drive the 3 km or so to the beach. We then discovered that you have to pay for parking here - big humph! However, we were wise enough not to do so and soon found space on the roadside which was free.

Oh yes, a mammoth has come with us - Baby Otto

Our plan for the morning was to walk around the headland which takes in the most Easterly point of the Australian mainland, the lighthouse and some forest. So we headed off down the well marked route. We came to a cafe pretty early on so sat down for a coffee (Matt) and juice (Tom and I) whilst watching some wonderful looking breakfasts pass our way. The food in cafes and restaurants in Australia really is very very good - fresh, tasty and imaginative. Only problem is that it is quite expensive (but then everything here is expensive).

Family Young at the most Easterly Point on Mainland Australia 

Lighthouse at Byron Bay

We carried on, taking in the sweeping vistas of clear blue sea, golden sands and lumpy forested mountains. Australia really is full of natural beauty. We also managed to spot some dolphins and whales which was great. We got to the most Easterly point and took the customary photo for proof.

One neat little thing they have here are ready set up tripods at favourite viewpoints (we came across another one in Dorrigo National Park), you simply attach your camera, put it on the timer and run. This means we have quite a few family photos from this holiday.

Oh, just want to make a point about surfers, as this being the weekend, there were loads about. You always imagine surfers to be young guys (in their 20s) sun bronzed, wild hair, cool dudes. This is true to an extent, but these 20 year olds do grow old, and as far as I can work out, once you have the bug you can't let it go. I've seen plenty of older men with surfboard in hand: with snow white hair, pot bellies, beards, bald etc etc. I've also seen many Dads in the water with children teaching them how to surf. I am amazed because I tried out surfing when I was here last and I have never been so exhausted in my life - I used up every ounce of energy - I could barely make it back to my hostel and remember collapsing on a chair in the communal area unable to get myself to my room. That was when I was 27 - so how do 50 and 60 year old men do it?

Hand gliding over the sea

We then headed up to the lighthouse took in the amazing view again and then carried on down, pausing to look at the hand gliders who were having a great time in the thermals going round and round - must have been a great view. The rest of the walk was through a coastal forest back to the car. Once again pretty much all the plants were unrecognisable to us and looking beautiful in the dappled sunlight. We even came across another Brush Turkey - once again not standing still for the camera!

Tom and me in the sea

We made it back to the car and got out our beach bag and headed to the beach. This being a Sunday it was quite busy - ie we had neighbours thin 50 meters of us! I had to put on my new bright pink swimsuit - yuck, I must have stood out on the beach big time! We then spent the afternoon playing rugby and playing in the sea. Tom really got into the sea today, although he won't go far, today he decided it would be fun to sit down in it. This he did and a couple of times he got submersed as a bigger wave flowed over him. We were expecting tears but instead got giggles! He was shivering with the cold, but refused to stop playing as he was having so much fun.

Lying in the sea

Eventually we called it a day and decided to head into the town centre in search of a cafe for tea and a bun and hopefully a wifi connection to check the rest of our plans are still ok. We didn't find wifi but we did find the most amazing cafe 'Twisted Sista' I have never seen such amazing cakes and pies in a cafe before. Basically I would happily eat there every day for a week and not get bored. We shared a caramel slice between the three of us, but couldn't bear to leave without trying something else so asked for a slice of chocolate mud cake and a slice of pear and apple crumble to be put in take away boxes so we could have them for pudding tonight. They didn't skimp on the portion sizes - the slices we took home were HUGE.

Pirate Australia

We then walked back to the car, I was on the look out for tourist shops to get some more postcards - but couldn't find any (I guess we must have been in the wrong area as I'm sure There must be plenty of them here). I ended up getting some in a pharmacy instead. We also found ourselves in a surf shop looking for a new sun hat for Tom (his is getting a little small). We didn't find one, but Tom suddenly piped up that he wanted a surf board! I asked him to show me which one and he pointed to a skateboard. It was $150, however I then noticed a box of mini skate boards - each one $9! We couldn't believe they were so cheap but the shop keeper confirmed it. It was too good an offer to turn up, so Tom is now the proud owner of a green skate board.

Monster Quiche at Twisted Sista

We got back to the campsite, Tom had a go on his new toy on the grass and was happy. We had a very good dinner of pork chops, cheesy mash and salad followed by those two monster slices of cake. The dinner of champions and we didn't get through the cakes so they will feature on our breakfast menu tomorrow.

Skate Boarder Tom

Another fantastic, fun family day. This has been a really good road trip, I'm a little sad that this is our last day of it, although I'm looking forward to meeting Matt's friend Lisa tomorrow and Martin on Wednesday.

Sumo Tom at our Cabin

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Location:Byron Bay

Into the tropics

My favourite spread from 13 years ago and still yummy today

Another glorious day, unfortunately we had to spend it in the car. We moved further north today to Byron Bay. First of all though we had to repack (our luggage has expanded to fill our car - so much so that it has got out of hand). Matt took Tom for a play at the parks facilities whilst I grappled with everything. There was a jumping pillow, giant chess and a putting green - so that kept them both busy for quite a while)

At 10, the car was ready, so we all jumped inside. It wasn't a fast journey as the Highway was single track for a fair while (although there were serious roadworks going on along big chunks of it - turning it from what we would call an A road to a Motorway). We stopped off at Grafton as I spotted a Target where I knew I would be able to get a swimming costume. I popped in and yes I found one that fits - phew, it was also heavily reduced - yahoo, it is also bright pink - yuck! Oh well, beggars can't be choosers, it was purchased and I'll just have to suffer the shame of wearing bright pink!

River Clarence

English and Gaelic in Australia?

As we had stopped anyway and it was lunchtime, we thought we would have lunch too. Matt and Tom found a Japanese outlet so we headed to that: gyudon for Matt and ebi fry with rice for me as well as a side order of gyoza with Tom sharing as usual. We then headed back to the car, we decided to come off the highway for a little while and followed tourist route 22 which took us through beef country, alongside the Richmond River - very flat and lush countryside.

Tartan Totem Poles

And more

We had to get a little chain pulled free ferry back across the river to continue our journey Northwards. This ferry was green and yellow just like the Manly ferry, does that mean that all public transport ferries have the same livery?

The first town we came across on the other side of the river was Maclean, which is a Scottish town. So much so that some of the signs were written in English and Gaelic. They have also painted hundreds of telegraph with different tartans, I even spotted a weather vain in the shape of a piper, the public loos were also divided between lads and lassies. I wonder how Scottish the people are or whether this is just a gimmick to try to get people to stop off and spend money with them? It didn't quite work with us - we stopped, took a couple of photos from the lookout point and of the tartan poles and then got back in our car and carried on.

Tom was quite good in the car - he didn't shut up the whole time, we were singing silly songs, spotting things, playing cafe, playing with Totoro, asking silly questions etc etc. he certainly wasn't going to doze!

Mummy can I play a game on your ipad?

We got to Byron Bay around 3.30, checked in. I was pleasantly surprised with our cabin. I had a bit of trouble finding somewhere to stay here. Either accommodation was overpriced (double what we had been spending), full, minimum booking of 3 nights, no children or tents only (we didn't want to risk my wet weather curse with those). This place was reasonably priced - only drawback is that their wifi isn't working, meaning I've got behind on this blog again. The cabin is more spacious than the other two: it has a bunk in the living area meaning they haven't tried to cram in a second bedroom, giving us more space elsewhere. Tom once again is going to sleep in our bed and then we are transferring him to his bunk when we go to bed.

Anyway after looking around the cooking facilities we headed to the local supermarket to get provisions in: more lamb and some pork, beer etc. then back to the cabin for dinner, shower and bed.


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Location:Byron Bay

Rainforest

On the Skyway

We woke up to some clouds today - but not to worry, there were only a few and they were dispersing nicely. Today's plan was to go to Dorrigo National Park which is World Heritage Listed as one of the Gondwana Rainforests: pockets of pristine rainforests dotted around NSW and Queensland.

This we did- we took warmer clothes and raincoats expecting the worse (we needn't have). It was a 60km drive inland, passing through the town of Bellingen which I had in my mind as an Alpine town with lots of alpine style wooden chalets. Once again my mind played tricks on me as we didn't see any but it was full of fair-trade type goods and craft shops which I also remembered,so maybe I've got mixed up somewhere.

View from the top

Buttress Roots

Small boy amongst the trees

After a slow drive up into the mountains (I got stuck behind a horse box) we finally arrived at the centre. We went to the information desk and asked what we should do with Tom seeing as he will happily walk around 6km. The lady sent us off on the Wonga Walk which incorporates two elevated sky walks where you walk amongst the canopy and two waterfalls. This sounded perfect so we headed on our way.

Crystal Falls

A rainforest really is an amazing place to explore - especially if you come from Europe where there aren't any. There immediately in front of us were thousands of trees - most of them very very tall and very skinny - all competing to get the most sunlight possible. We saw cedars, Tallow trees, rosewood, Yellow Carabeans, Walking Stick Palms and of course most spectacular of all Strangling Figs - trees that sprout half way up an existing tree and then sent roots up and down that tree slowly strangling it and taking over its intake of nutrients etc until the original tree dies and leaves the fig with pipe in the middle where the original tree was. Naughty Strangler Figs. We also saw the Stinging Tree - touch any part of it and you will know about it for days, plenty of ferns and palms, some fine examples of buttress roots and lots of mushrooms (much to Matt's disgust).

Lots of trees

It really was truly splendid, photographs really don't do it justice. We also were confronted by a barrage of sound: exotic birds calling out to each other. We didn't see many, but a Brush Turkey ran out in front of Matt startling him and slightly scaring Tom.

We stopped off at the first waterfall: Tristania Falls for a picnic lunch and what a lovely place for lunch watching water cascade and fall over what looked like a very tall version of The Giant's Causeway - the rocks seemed to be perfectly geometrical. We then headed to Crystal Shower Falls which is absolutely spectacular a fine flow of water showers over rocks. There is a cave behind meaning you can walk behind the waterfall and view it inside out - it was so beautiful and good fun because we all got wet doing it - Tom thought it was very funny.

Glowing (slightly blurred) fern

We then completed the circuit back to the Rainforest Centre. We had been warned that this was very steep, but it wasn't bad at all: Tom didn't stop to draw breath the whole way back - yacking about goodness knows what all the way and we did ok too. Once again he didn't whinge at all during the walk and he was rewarded with 'tea and a bun' at the cafe - what's big slab of cake it was too! We were both very proud of him.

Big cheesecake, small boy

After a suitable rest we headed back to our cabin. Surprisingly it was a good 40 mins before Tom nodded off, he wasn't that impressed with us when we arrived back at the cabin and woke up.

Oh big milestone: today was the first day that he sat still whilst eating dinner - he was under severe threat (his constant fidgeting at the dinner table has been driving us nuts for months now) and he did it - proving he can do it - no excuses now.






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Location:Dorrigo National Park

Onwards and Upwards

Nambucca Heads Main Beach

This morning we woke up to another glorious day - yahoooo. We had a lazy-ish morning and then had breakfast and packed up ready to continue north wards to Nambucca Heads. It wasn't that far a journey - about 130 miles. In fact at one stage it looked like we were going to arrive way to early at the holiday park so we decided to have elevenses at the first independent coffee shop we could find. After a few false starts we arrived in a town called Kempsey and decided to come off the highway in search coffee. We went a bit wrong and ended up travelling about 20Km out of our way to a place called Crescent Head. We were expecting it to be a wild run down place as according to the guide book it was a township on a piece of land which was the first to given back to Aborigines by the Australian Government after they were able to prove a continuous connection to it - this took place as late as 1996!!!!! We didn't see one Aboriginal face.

Writing practice on the beach

However we did find an extremely good and bustling bakery and coffee shop so we had a late elevenses and decided to see if we could find a minor road back to the highway which we did. It was nice to be off he highway for a while, we drove past cattle farms - with some very serious looking cows in the fields or as we like to say - beef on four legs. We were puzzled for a while as to why the sheep were so woolly but then remembered that although it is hot for us, it is cold for them right now - being the middle of Winter.

We got to the caravan park just gone 1 and checked in. We have a slightly smaller cabin here - Tom has a bottom bunk in a corridor between the living area and our bedroom. He's happy enough. We have a cooker but it is just an oven and a grill, no hob, so have to use the camp kitchen for anything that needs cooking in a saucepan.

Running into the sea

We headed straight off to the beach at Nambucca Heads as we had promised Tom another play in the sea. I have been here before - in fact it is the location of one of my best travel stories from my time as a backpacker as it was in a hostel here that I met someone who shared a cell with Chopper (a notorious Australian murderer). We all went to the cinema that night to watch a film - we decided on an Australian film called 'Chopper' not knowing anything about him. Then when we arrived back at the hostel we met one of his cell mates, Jimmy who was portrayed in the film. It was all a bit bizarre. Needless to say bedrooms were firmly locked and possible escape routes noted - disturbing at the time but a great travel story afterwards.

Anyway, normally the place is a sleepy holiday town, which is what it was today. We found the beach and ate our picnic and then got changed to play in the sea. This where I had my first 'oops' moment of the holiday. I found out that I have packed the wrong swimsuit - my pre-Tom one! I can't possibly be seen wearing it in public, so put a T-shirt over the top and kept fiddling with it for the rest of the afternoon. Tom was very pleased to be on the beach again, but for some reason he seemed more afraid of the sea than yesterday and seemed more content playing rugby on the beach rather than jumping in the waves.

Pelicans

After an hour and a half we went in search of Woolies for some food - we got some kangaroo burgers and flavoured chicken kebabs and potato wedges. Not our usual diet - this place is quite like America in that it isn't very well set up for eating / cooking veggies.

We then took Tom to a playground by the river we saw on the way in. We noticed some Pelicans on the river and went in search of them - such huge birds.

We then headed back to the campsite, this one has working wifi and a laundry so we hurriedly put the laundry to good use - it's amazing how quickly dirty clothes build up. Then I grilled the kangaroo burgers and roasted the potato wedges. They were very pleasant, in fact you wouldn't know that the burgers weren't made of beef - according to the packaging they are 98% fat free so you could argue they are healthy too.

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Location:Nambucca River Holiday Park

Beautiful Day in the Great Lakes

Beautiful and deserted Elizabeth Beach

We all had a great night's sleep - even though the cabin was cold (they provided lots of blankets AND electric blankets (very exciting - never had one before). Tom went to bed around 7 and Matt and I were in bed before 9pm (very rock and roll aren't we!). We slept until 7 so we all woke up raring to go.

Jumping in the waves

We had breakfast, then Tom and I went exploring in the holiday park whilst Matt did his reading through. Tom and I discovered lots of Mangroves (this area is a narrow piece of land separating the ocean from fresh water lakes, so perfect for mangroves and lots of colourful birds (nearly every bird youse here looks like it should be in a zoo!). Shame I didn't have my camera with me as we came across some pink ones which Tom really liked.


We then went to the camp office where I asked about what to do in the area, the lady confirmed what we already were thinking of doing - an excursion south, to see beaches, Seal Rocks and the Sugar Loaf lighthouse, so that's what we did.

Eye on the ball as always (he did actually catch this one!)

Getting caught in the waves

I made up a picnic and then we headed out - I drove the car this time (it is easy to drive here, they drive on the same side of the road as us and once out of Sydney there really are very few cars). First stop was Elizabeth Beach in Booti Booti National Park. It was stunning: clear blue water, golden sand, mountains as a back drop and hardly anyone on it. Tom loved it and got really excited, he even wanted to dip his toes in the sea, which he did and to our amazement enjoyed it (last time we were on a beach with waves (Morecambe doesn't have waves) he refused to anywhere near the sea and sulked the whole time we were there). I went back to the car to get his swimming suit and he spent the next couple of hours either playing in the sea or playing rugby with the little rugby ball that he was given in Sydney as part of the Lions tour celebrations / marketing. He had a ball as did we. Unfortunately neither Matt nor I were prepared: we didn't have our swimming cossies, meaning we had to do the very British thing of rolling up our trousers and wade into the sea fully clothed. We got wet, dried out, got wet again etc etc.

Scuffed knees

Whales

After a couple of hours we decided to move on and headed down towards Seal Rocks and No. 1 Beach where we had lunch. We then continued playing in the sea, in and out, in and out, jump in, run away, run in. It was fantastic, the sea wasn't too cold, it was just a shame that we couldn't go as mad as we wished - tomorrow we will pack a beach bag for all of us. We really didn't expect the weather to be this good, we had uninterrupted blue sky, there was no breeze at all so it felt hotter than it was.

Sugarloaf Point Lighthouse

We then hopped back in the car and drove round to the Lighthouse at Sugarloaf Point. It was a 500m walk up to it. All was going really well until Tom tripped up and fell flat on his face. He hurt himself pretty bad - scuffed both knees (dripping blood), bump on his face, scuffs on both arms and (we discovered later) scuffs on his chest too. Needless to say he cried, in fact he shook for a little bit, we managed to persuade him to continue and before long he was back to not looking where he was going and acting the fool again!

The view from the lighthouse was amazing: deep blue sea, you could see a very long way AND we saw whales playing in the surf, waving their tails at us. Well we thought they were whales, the guide book suggests that they are Nurse Sharks, anyhow it doesn't really matter, they were large animals with big tails playing in the sea and we enjoyed watching them.

Mangrove

We then walked back to the car and headed back. We stopped off at a post office and finally bought some stamps so post cards can be sent soon. We then headed to Smith's Lake where we were told there was a really nice cafe called Frothy Coffee, sounded too good to kiss. We turned up at 3.45 and it was already closed for the day - boo!!! However, its location was spectacular so we hung around, took some photos and drew pictures in the sand, before heading in the car back to the campsite. We stopped off temporarily at the shops to get some bits (annoying things you need when self-catering: cling film, tea towels etc.

Sunset at Smith's Lake

Happy Boy at Smith's Lake

Tom had a shower whilst I cooked. I thought we would have lots of tears at shower time but Matt explained to Tom that he needs to clean his wounds - citing his example of not cleaning a wound and ending up in hospital. That gave him the impetus he needed and he happily submitted to a shower and cleaned all his wounds properly.

We sat down to a family meal (Tom doesn't like not eating with us which happened a few nights in Sydney so every evening he is checking with us that he is going to have a family meal). Pasta, tomato sauce and 4 big rump steaks of lamb - lamb is still the cheapest meat here so we will be eating lots of it.

A very lovely, beautiful and happy day

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Location:Forster

On the move

Goodbye Manly Ferry

This morning we were up bright and early as usual - haven't managed to get past 5am yet! We had to say our goodbyes to Lindsey and Stuart as they went to work and then finished our packing, hoping we remembered everything before closing the door on their flat for the last time. Have I mentioned how nice their flat is? It is on the 4th floor of an apartment building and is full of huge glass windows with wonderful views over the wharf. It doesn't come cheap by any means, but it is a wonderful place, they have had to furnish it themselves which must have been a pain and expensive! It is really well laid out as well with huge amounts of storage, a separate laundry room and a balcony overlooking the wharf with a BBQ (we were going to have a BBQ but the weather didn't allow). They also have a communal swimming pool and table tennis, once again we didn't get a chance to use these with the weather being so rubbish.

Driving over Sydney Harbour Bridge

We walked down to the Wharf and had our last ferry trip to Circular Quay where we got the bus to the car hire place, where we picked up our silver Ford Falcon and drove out of Sydney (across the Harbour Bridge of course) towards the Freeway and up North. Unfortunately the Freeway was closed where we wanted to join it and we got stuck in a traffic jam all through the Northern suburbs - not much fun. Once we were on the Freeway, the traffic disappeared and we motored up north. In fact sometimes it felt like we were the only ones on the road.

We had lunch in a pie shop on the side of the road in Newcastle and the carried on. We got to our campsite: Lani's Holiday Island around 4 and got the keys for our home for the next couple of nights. Quite a nice cabin: called Wattle Villa it has separate bedrooms for us and Tom - will be nice as we have been sleeping in the same room since we got here, a bathroom and a fully equipped kitchen. Not bad for the price of less than a motel room. We headed straight out to a supermarket, found a huge Woolies so went there and stocked up for the next couple of days (one thing that is cheap here is meat so we got fillet steak and lamb steaks). I even found Chris's Avocado Dip - something I lived off when backpacking - so got that for old time's sake.

Wattle Villa - our home for 2 nights

Came home but couldn't get in our villa. The key just went round and round but the door didn't ope. The site had to send a maintenance man round with a box of tools and even then it took about half an hour to open it up - oops! Not our fault.

So steak for dinner, bed for Tom (in his bunk bed - very exciting) and collapse on the sofa for us!




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Location:Lani's Holiday Island, Forster

Coogee to Bondi in the sun

The 3 of us overlooking Coogee Beach

Today dawned bright with blue sky and sunshine hurray. For once our plans stayed the same: to walk from Coogee to Bondi. First of all it is a lovely walk and second, it meant I could indulge myself in some memory lane as I lived in Randwick (the borough immediately above Coogee which we would have to go through on the bus) and I worked in a beach cafe in Coogee on Saturdays when I lived there. Also Lindsey (who had taken another day off) hasn't done this walk - so it was something new for her too.

So, we got the ferry to Circular Quay and then the bus to Coogee. I was hoping I would remember some of Randwick as we went through. I spotted the racecourse (where I went to see camel racing) but the bus didn't take us through the high street - I certainly didn't recognise any of it. It also dropped us off somewhere I didn't recognise in Coogee. In fact when we got there I was really dis-orientated, I didn't recognise any of it.

Gordon's Bay

We found some cafes, but in my mind's eye they were in the wrong place. However, they were the only cafes and we were hungry, so we went over. I looked at the first one and the layout was right, and then I saw the old lady - yep this was definitely the right place. The cafe was memorable because it was run by an Italian family, the head of which was this tiny old lady called Nicki who was sooooo Italian that you couldn't understand a word she said and she was wasn't afraid of tearing strips off you in public - this happened regularly. It was advantageous to me as diners (especially Brits) would feel sorry for me and give me extra tips. It took me ages to work out the source of her anger - she can't read - so if you wrote something slightly differently on the chits she couldn't work it out.

Tom's new friend

Anyway, she hadn't changed at all, she spoke to us a couple of times and none of us could work out what she said!!!! For future reference I worked at Cafe Congo (even the name didn't really ring a bell!). We ordered lunch - field mushrooms, avocado and toast for me and Lindsey and an Irish breakfast for Matt. The food was really good, which also concurred with my memory (although as a mere waitress I didn't get to sample it when I worked there, although it always looked good). We were all happy and fortified for our walk.

The walk was as lovely as I remembered - you hug the coast and walk round all the bays. Some bays are rocky, others sandy - all very beautiful with a deep blue sky overhead. In fact it got quite hot. Lindsey regretted her choice of jeans (even though she laughed at me in the morning when she saw me in shorts). The sun was so strong I had to put my sun hat on.

Surfer

Tom had a bit of a melt down at one point, suddenly becoming afraid of steps, but once he was over that he did really well, in fact he didn't once complain or whine about the actual walk.

Bondi Beach

We got to Bondi in good time, tired, hot but happy and immediately set to finding an ice-cream shop. Took a while (you would think there would be loads wouldn't you). Tom was determined that he wanted his own (he doesn't normally go for ice-cream) but true to his word he ate the whole thing up (and got very messy in the process!)

Ice Cream Chops

We then went back to Manly in a very roundabout way. We could have just got the bus from Bondi to Circular Quay, but we treated Tom to another train ride: so got the bus from Bondi to Bondi Junction, a train from Bondi Junction to Martin Place and then walked from Martin Place to Circular Quay, all that just so he could have a train ride - the things we do!

We arrived back, then had to pack everything up - which took longer than it should. Lindsey made us curry for dinner - yummy and then Tom went to bed - we weren't that far behind! A tiring but lovely day. We are off on our road trip tomorrow...

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Location:Manly

No wifi

Sorry for recent lack of recent communication, I booked campsites with wifi.  Unfortunately the signal was so weak at the first one we couldn't connect to it let alone upload pics etc and we had technical difficulties at our current one meaning I couldn't do anything about it yesterday either.  Fingers crossed I get the pics uploaded today.  Happy reading!


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Fishes in the rain

Lunch

On the ferry

So we woke up to rain again! The plan today was to go to Taronga Zoo, but the rain put us all off. Other suggestions were the aquarium and the new Austalian Wildlife Centre next to the aquarium. We have arranged to go to Australia Zoo with a friend of Matt's next week so we thought the aquarium would be a better option.

I have been there but I couldn't remember much. We got on the ferry to Circular Quay and then (as it was raining) another ferry to Darling Harbour. We seeked out lunch first and ended up in a Greek restaurant eating kebabs (Matt and Lindsey) and mussels (Stuart and I). Tom of course had both!

Talking to sharks

We then headed to the Aquarium. At the onset it was absolutely mobbed - it took a while to get our pre-paid for tickets (it was way cheaper to buy them on-line than on the door) and then when we got through we could hardly get to any of the exhibits because of the crowds, but it suddenly eased and the rest was fine.

Coral Reef

The aquarium was bigger and better than I remembered, with quite a few big tanks. The first one one had a Dugong in it, the second one had loads of sharks in it - not tiny, non-fierce sharks like you get in some aquariums but proper sharks with proper teeth. We spent ages in there - Tom was wearing his shark t-shirt and was hoping to scare the sharks away with it. He was a little disappointed that they didn't seem to notice it!

The third big tank was a coral reef tank which was also good - but by then we were all getting tired so didn't enjoy it as much as we could.

Once out of the aquarium we headed to a cafe for a drink and then headed out (in the rain) back to Circular Quay - zig zagging through the streets - Tom liked this as he got to press lots of traffic light switches - a very important job.

We got the ferry home and thought Tom would sleep again - but he decided playing games with Lindsey and Stuart would be more fun. He has bonded with them really nicely. It must be difficult for them - I would have found it very difficult being in their shoes - having a 4 year old in the house for a week when you don't know or aren't used to children, but they seem to have survived, and Tom obviously likes them both.

The mad 3

Dinner

In fact it has gone so well that they offered to babysit tonight whilst we went out for dinner. Fab. We gave Tom his dinner and then headed out to the parade of restaurants and ended up at Manly Grill - a meaty Aussie restaurant. Matt had half a pig and half a chicken (eyes bigger than stomach as he couldn't finish it) and I had a pulled pork burger. However, we were both quite tired so had to call it a night at 9 and come home. We were in bed by 10!

We have been promised sunshine tomorrow...

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Location:Sydney Aquarium