Finding our feet again 🥾

 Here she is, the Mitsibishi Express, our home for the next few months.... 

The bed is big and super comfy which I think as we travel around will be a huge positive. The bed is high, which does mean Matt has already sustained a minor head injury, but it also means there is loads of much needed storage space underneath. The stove and fridge are all accessed from the back, which works well as we do all our cooking and eating outside, and we can fit fine into a normal parking space. 

As I'm writing this we've done 6 nights in the van, so we're pretty much settled in now. Tonight will be our first night in a paid campsite, which I initially thought we'd do sooner but all the way down the coast there are plenty of free showers, toilets, and water refill points so we've done alright. It's nice to be able to do some laundry and have some WiFi though. 

When we left Sydney we headed off into the Blue Mountains, just over an hour out of the city, which meant we could get a good feel of our new wheels. We met our first rather large spider (huntsman) at a loo stop, which we both were fine with as long as it didn't move! 

Where we first slept we had to leave by 8am, so we headed to a park in Katoomba for breakfast and a cuppa, then unpacked our stuff. We then spent the most of the day at Scenic World (me and matt agreed this is a bit of a rubbish name), where you can get a couple of different cable cars and the worlds steepest passenger railway. These all give glorious views of the rainforest, the Three Sisters (3 rock stacks), and Katoomba falls, the water of which provided Sydneys tap water. We had a great day and enjoyed being out the city again. 

We stayed overnight in the Blue Mountains, the next day taking a walk along the Grand Canyon Walking Track. This was a loop down into a great canyon abundant with large ferns and cascading waterfalls, it then bought you out to a view point but it was so foggy and drizzly we couldn't see a thing. We would have walked for longer but had to get to the Katoomba NSW Services Office to register the van before it closed, and before we kept putting it off so much we forgot. 

We travelled South to sleep at a place called Helensburgh, chosen because of its free pool and showers. The next morning started with a lovely swim, before driving into the Royal National Park on the hunt for the famous Figure 8 pools. From the photo you can see why they're called that. We were happy to be back by the sea, the walk takes you down through the rainforest, to a beach, then along a coastal shelf for about a mile, so it has to be planned for low tide. It's definitely become an Instagram favourite as there were plenty of people there having a swim, it was hard to get a photo without someone jumping in while you were mid-shot. After we had time to chill at the van as we were sleeping where we had parked, Matt tested out some showering options. 

The next morning we did another walk out to the Otford lookout and back before heading down to Austinmer beach for a dip in their coastal pools, the drive along the coast gives wonderful views. We then headed for a drink at Resin Brewery, which had been recommended to us by a nice man we'd given some water to back in the National Park, before deciding where to park up for the night in Thirroul. 

We then spent the evening at a Damien Rice gig at the lovely little Anita's Theatre. Damien Rice has been on my bucket list of people I'd wanted to see live for many years now, so when I saw he was doing an Australian tour when we'd be here I just had to be there. He definitely didn't disappoint, the music was just wonderful,  the audience hanging on his every word, and between songs he shared funny stories and the whole place roared with laughter. 

I'm unsure if days can get much better than waking up in rainforest, swimming in the sea, having a pint in a brewery, and seeing one of your favourite artists live but I'm happy to spend the next few months trying to beat it! 

We spent the next day in Wollongong, we would have liked to have got moving south but we needed to pick our new debit cards up from the bank which didn't open until Monday morning. I'm not complaining thiugh, we lathered up with suncream and spent most the day swimming in the sea and lying in the sun with our books, you soon realise afterwards which spots you missed with your sun cream! We spent the night in Wollongong, picked up our bank cards first thing then headed south to Jervis Bay, where I'm sat writing this and using the WiFi to upload it. 

We've got some loose plans for the next couple of days, so we'll see where the van takes us. I'll probably write about them the next time I have WiFi! 

Lots of love, 

Lisa and Matt 💕