Road Trippin’ in Oz

We arrived in Sydney after a long red-eye flight from Bangkok (had to backtrack due to our world ticket we are on) and hopped into our new home on wheels – a campervan! Complete with bathroom-shower, mini-kitchen and a big bed, this big beast feels like driving a one-tonne truck but is great to be able to be able to pull over and call it a night where ever we venture to – but city parking is not an option!! We ventured to Cronulla beach, South of Sydney, on the first afternoon and it was very cool to drop right into a classic beach town with the centre of attention being their surf club. A huge modern clubhouse sits right on the beach with storage for every type of watercraft imaginable underneath including paddleboards of all types, surfboards and the big boats the lifeguards row with oars and use for competitions going out through the surf. After an early dinner we decided to make our way to the north beaches of the area where we found a really nice caravan park right on Narrabeen beach – another great beach town that has built amazing swimming pools right into the tidal pools off the headlands of the beach (click on panorama pic.).

We ventured out to take in the sites of Sydney the next day but as driving the rig downtown was not an option, we went to Manley Beach and took the ferry down to the Circular Quay that is right next to the famed Sydney Opera House. It was the perfect way to take in the city and the action in the harbour on a Saturday was so amazing to watch – from layers of sailboats racing, tall ship cruises, jet boat tours – it was 10x's as busy as any day in the Vancouver Harbour. Back to Manley and an afternoon body surfing and cruising this upscale beach town finished off the day nicely before we put in about 3 hours on the road heading north to get as close as we could make it to Seal Rocks.

Today we awoke early in a small caravan park on the #1 highway at the turnoff to Seal Rocks and ventured down the road to where it turned to gravel and took us to a spot called Treachery Beach. Sounds ominous but is a beautiful stretch of beach way off the beaten path that Mark was tipped off to as a great spot for surf and a spectacular setting. Headlands of uplifted sandstone form great caves and natural pools for swimming and exploring on each end of this mile plus long beach. The water was the clearest we have seen anywhere, even with the sandy bottom. Some surf, sun and swimming took us to early afternoon where we then ventured another few hundred km's north to Emerald Beach where we finally saw our first wild Kangaroos! Tomorrow AM we will hit the road to Queensland and Lennox Head & Byron Bay on the Gold Coast. Before we leave on Friday from Brisbane, we will be hitting Noosa on the sunshine coast as well. Stay tuned for more Aussie updates!

SURF REPORT: After big fun surf of Bali, the small waves of Australia are not that inspiring so I actually didn't surf until this morning at Treachery Beach (see pic of the setting). Super glassy knee to shoulder waves but the crowds made it a little tough. It was good to rest the sore shoulder I have from a rotator cuff tear I had in Peru and take it easy until some bigger waves come! Hopefully I will get to see Snapper Rocks in its full glory! I am still waking up with flashbacks to the big hairy lefts from Uluwatu though.