After hang gliding, Sara and I stayed at a rest stop about 20km north of Byron Bay. Why backtrack? Sara learned there is a farmers market in neighboring New Brighton every Tuesday. The Yelgun Rest Area was the busiest we’ve seen! I attribute it to the fact that camping is highly restricted in Byron Bay so everybody leaves town each night. In the morning, we left the crowd in search of the farmers market. Luck was on our side and a few minutes later we were strolling the tents. It was a wonderful little market where we found some local bread, cheese and hummus (it’s too bad we were already stocked on veggies). After I finally pulled Sara from the market’s grasp, we saw a post office in the general store and were able to mail a box of goodies home. Hopefully this box will arrive unopened. Our last shipment home (from New Zealand) arrived opened with several items missing and broken!

Even after the productive morning, we were able to start our long drive south reasonably early. Our destination was the Blue Mountains right outside of Sydney. Sara had been there many years ago and wanted to show me their splendor. We weren’t able to make it in one day so we stopped at Nambucca Heads for one last night camping by the water. We camped at the top of a hill, Captain Cook Lookout. (It seems like anything on the east coast is named after Captain James Cook!) We didn’t appreciate the beauty of the spot until morning as the sun rose over the ocean. From our vantage point, we could see dolphins swimming around the point!

Even though we had an early start to the day, we still managed to get to the Sydney area right around rush hour. Combined with the fact that there are no real highways from the north, it took us much longer to get to the Blue Mountains than I anticipated. After we finally got out of the city again, the check engine light illuminated on the RV. I couldn’t believe our luck – almost at the end of the trip and now the car was giving us problems. After pulling off the road, I checked all fluid levels and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary so we decided to press on. A nerve-racking 40 kilometers winding up into the mountains, then we made it to where we would camp for the night. The engine seemed okay but we decided to go to a garage in the morning if the light was still on.

The following morning I woke early and went for a walk to explore our parking lot. Much to my surprise, we were only a few steps away from a cliff! It was beautiful. I don’t know why they call these the Blue Mountains – to me it seems more like canyons than mountains. I woke Sara to show her the view then cooked eggs and bacon for breakfast.

After breakfast, I was excited to explore the area. We headed to a viewpoint right near our camper and could see a very tall waterfall. On the far side of the canyon, I could also make out stairs cut into the canyon walls – too cool! The hike we planned started at Echo Canyon, a super touristy area. Unfortunately, there were signs everywhere informing us our trail was closed. Since we couldn’t do that one, we headed down the road to another trail. It was not our day – just as we were walking to start the trail, Sara rolled her ankle quite badly and that ended our hiking day. We went into town to regroup and eventually decided to return the camper that night (a day early) to give Sara some extra time to recover. I was a little disappointed that we couldn’t explore the Blue Mountains but maybe we’ll come back in the future. On a positive note, the engine light on the camper did not illuminate again prior to returning it.

It seems like we were cursed in Sydney. We spent the most time there but did the least amount of exploring (thankfully, staying with friends made the time inside enjoyable)! When we first visited a month ago, there were bad storms keeping us indoors. This time, Sara had an injured ankle. Sara’s pain didn’t stop us from climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge though! Sara’s parents gifted us a bridge climb and we had reservations the following night. I gave Sara some extra painkillers and we took on the challenge.

The company running the climb operates like a factory – every 15 minutes there is another group of 14 climbers headed up the bridge. They suited us up in cool jumpsuits and a harness. Pretty soon we were on our way. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to bring any cameras and any pictures had to be purchased afterwards. Sara and I really enjoyed the climb. Our timing was great because it was during Sydney’s yearly light show, Vivid, and the city was aglow with color! It was beautiful!

The only thing that was disappointing about the experience was the photos. When we reviewed them, we were surprised to find they were not very good. They were either blurry or the framing was completely wrong (we were blocking the good views). We bought the only descent picture so we would at least have something to remember the climb. As we were leaving, we noticed machines where you could post a photo to Facebook, so we went back to inquire. I think you are only supposed to be ably to post photos you bought, but somehow we were able to get 2 more photos by posting them to Facebook! I didn’t feel bad at all because they took such bad pictures in the first place.

After the excitement from our bridge climb, we just relaxed and packed for our next stop, Africa. Sara’s ankle was still hurting so she went to the doctors to make sure it wasn’t broken before we left the country. While we were there, I popped into the eye doctor because my contact was irritating me. Good news on both cases – there is nothing wrong with either of us! Now we can go confidently onto the African Savannas.