This is a view from the Sydney Tower to King's Cross. The famous
(and controversial) Coca-Cola logo can be seen in the middle of the
picture. Our hostel is located about 100 meters to the left from the Coke sign.
Monday was pretty much a waiting day. The day was once again quite rainy. We walked a bit in Sydney and went to visit the Sydney Tower and Skytour. Skytour was quite a convincing virtual reality ride through some of Australia's sights with nice special effects (like moving seats and squirts of water on your face). The Tower gave a pretty amazing 360 degree view over Sydney despite the gloomy weather. Rest of the day we just killed some time and finished with a late meal at the restaurant on the bottom floor of our hostel.
We got a call from the car dealer and picked up our car in the afternoon. Just when we were making last checks to the car I found a puddle of coolant under the radiator. D'oh. Well, no worries, we drove the car to the dealer's workshop and they changed the whole radiator for a new one while we waited. We also got a nice selection of camping gear with the car without any extra charge. Gas stoves, a tent, chairs, utensils etc.
Then it was time for a test drive. The goal was to get from King's Cross to the Sydney zoo and back in one piece. I drove at first but soon it became apparent that Asmu and Gandi weren't very good at reading the map - we were driving in circles. :-) Asmu and I changed places and soon we found our way to the right direction. At first driving around in a big city with a big unfamiliar car was quite nerve-wrecking but one got used to it surprisingly quickly. Having the steering on the "wrong" side of the car certainly didn't help. All of us kept switching on the windscreen wipers instead of the turn signal at first. :-)
We only got back from our test drive after it was already dark and we were several AUD poorer thanks to the damn tunnel/bridge tolls. Everything seemed to go fine though and we left Winona (who we christened the red devil) to a dark alley near our hostel for the night.
Today we really started our tour of Australia. We woke up early in the morning, checked out of the hostel and packed Winona with all our stuff. At this point we already realised that a smaller car would've been way too small. We started heading west towards the Blue Mountains with Asmu at the helm. During the drive we stopped once to buy some food and equipment. The car worked very smoothly all the way except that the radio started asking for a code after it had been turned on for a while. Surprise, surprise, we didn't get the code from the dealer.
At Wentworth Falls we hiked a beautiful 6 km trail and ate some very tasty barbeque chicken we had picked up earlier. The journey continued to the famous Three Sisters sightseeing site which was a very big disappointment. The place had masses of tourists and the rocks were really not that awesome. The earlier hike was much more rewarding.
I called the car dealer and asked if they knew the code to our radio. After a couple of calls they managed to find it. The next problem was how to enter the code but we finally figured it out. We still had a few hours of time left to drive and started to make our way north towards Brisbane. Come nightfall, we camped at a rest stop next to a motorway. Could've chosen a little more quiet place. :-) Some of the truckers were nice enough to sound their horns during the night just to keep us awake. The night was pretty hellish anyway as all three of us slept in the back of the stationwagon. There was no room to move and it was cold, warm and damp at the same time. Still, the spirits were high and we were getting into the ozzie mood with the cicadae making a lot of noise all around us.
In the morning our drive north continued. It was my turn to drive. After some initial difficulties with keeping the car in the center of the lane, everything started going smoothly. :-) Before we crossed to Queensland we had to transfer the registration of the car so we stopped at Coffs Harbour to do just that. Transferring the registration was bit too bureaucratic for my taste but it worked out ok after some initial hassle and the lady who helped us at the office was really friendly.
After a lunch we tried to find a place to buy a piece of foam to serve as a mattress on the car. The only one we found was way too expensive so we decided to try it again in Brisbane.
In Brisbane we were warmly greeted by Tracy and Tony who kindly let us stay a couple of nights at their place and show us what Brisbane and the surrounding areas had to offer. First order of business was having a nice shower to wash away the smell of travelling and sleeping in a car.
Today would've been Gandi's turn to drive but he didn't want to start his 'career' in the city traffic so Asmu drove. In the morning we went to see Surfer's Paradise and had a walk at the beach. The weather was a bit rainy. After some brekky at McDonald's we headed towards the Dreamworld theme park where the weather started to get sunnier. They had some really great rides but most were too short. :-) I especially liked the Giant Drop and Wipeout. We spent pretty much the rest of the day there. In addition to the rides they had all kinds of Australian animals including the mandatory kangaroos and koalas. In the evening we picked up some Chinese food and used Tracy's computer to burn our pictures to CD-R discs to free up the memory cards.
After going medieval on us (see the pics) Tracy and Tony took us shopping for equipment and to find a foam mattress for the car... and we did. After that we drove to downtown Brisbane and ate at a fish & chips place where the portions were absolutely delicious, not to mention very bad for your health. We walked around the city for a couple of hours and took a ferry back from the other side of the river. Brisbane is quite a neat looking city and they even had an artificial sandy beach on around a pool. Would've been nice to see more of the city but we had to move on as we were already behind our schedule.
So, we said goodbye to Tracy and Tony, handed them a bottle of Fizz Winter Cider each and started driving north again. We stopped at a nearby roadhouse and repacked Winona and found out that the jerry can had no rubber seal and the fuel leaked out. D'oh. A temporary seal was engineered by Asmu from duct tape and tissue paper.
Gandi drove us to a very nice resting place near Rainbow Beach where we camped for the night. The moon was full and there was only silence all around us - absolutely fantastic! The tent was put to use and Asmu slept in it while Gandi and I slept in the car on the new mattress... Aaah, the softness.
The day was spent worshipping the sun at Rainbow Beach 265 km north of Brisbane. The air was warm and the beer cold. We finally had a chance to swim in the ocean though the water was not very warm. In the evening we ate at a yachting club and watched the last exciting Formula 1 race of the 2003 season. Kimi's world championship was so close... We decided to spend the night at the same resting place as the previous one even though it was half an hour drive there - it was that good.
