Road trip via 'home'

When I was young, I always envisioned road tripping through Australia in an old school VW style campervan. However although I have a valid drivers license, I have absolutely zero knowledge on the maintenance of vehicles. Considering my dad (who I always run to when something goes wrong with my (it's actually mums but ssh) car) is 10,618 miles (according to google) away, the sparcness between civilisation within Australia (I don't want to be stranded in the middle of nowhere) and my reluctance/fear of driving abroad this will probably never happen. Nevertheless when myself and Jen were invited on a road trip by Sharon and Graham (the family we are currently staying with in Sydney) we were happy to accept.

27th December 2016

8am and it was time to embark on the road trip. Still half asleep I took my seat in the back of the car. Myself and Jen weren't entirely aware of the itinerary for this trip which led to elements of mystery. Off we set, heading away from the city of Sydney towards the blue mountains. Our first stop was the town of Katoomba for breakfast. Here I tried banana bread and raisin bread for the first time. Raisin bread was very yummy! We then drove a few minutes down the road to the three sisters. Unaware as to what this exactly was I was pleasantly surprised as to what I witnessed. The 3 sisters are a rock formation among a vast expanse of trees within the Jamison Valley. Basically it was a view of trees as far as the eye could see.

Three sisters

Trees as far as you can see

We hopped back in the car and set off on the two hour drive towards the city of Orange. Listening to podcasts, music, napping and enjoying taking in the New South Wales countryside, I felt very content. A quick lunch break in Orange and it was back in the car heading for Dubbo. This section was very isolated including a 170km driving stretch along one very straight road. Having travelled over 400km, we checked into our motel in Dubbo, went out for dinner then called it a night.

We had views like this the entire.road trip 

28th December 2016

Today was all about the zoo. But first it was to the local bakery for breakfast. It was here I realised that in my tired morning state I had put my underwear on inside out. I was still half asleep and really couldn't be bothered to correct it so they stayed inside out all day.

We arrived at the taronga western plains zoo ready for the 9am opening. The queue was already long and it was 30 degrees, at 9am! To go around taronga zoo you can either drive, cycle, walk or hire a cycle cart (like the chuckle brothers had). We decided to walk. Map and camera in hand we ventured round the zoo. I particularly enjoyed the giraffes, meercats and koalas. However my absolute favourite was the baby elephant! He was soo cute and in such a playful mood.

I want one!

Soo tall

Parents and cute baby

Its a hard life! 

After the zoo we grabbed a late lunch in Dubbo city centre where I had the yummiest chicken wrap! Then it was time to drive to Coonabarabran. I do wonder how some of the place names came about. Once we arrived we checked into the new motel then headed to the local Chinese. I was obviously having a clumsy day as mid dinner my glass of water slipped out my hand all over the table and the shared rice dish. Well done Ames! Slightly embarrassed at my clumsiness I also confessed to my earlier underwear incident, as well as the time I accidentally wore my bright orange PJ top to work. Well that set us all off into crying histerics! 

After dinner we were booked in to an observatory. On the way a kangaroo decided to play chicken in front of our car. Luckily Graham was alert which avoided a disaster. Despite a cloudy night at the observatory we still saw Venus, Uranus and Orion's Belt (I thought it was called Ryan's Belt until Jen corrected me) amoung other space stuff. Despite not having much knowledge of space I enjoyed this experience. 

30th December 2016

Today was the 3rd and last day of the road trip. After having breakfast delivered to our room (a first for me), today was all about getting two important photos! To get to the location of the first (and most important) photo a 5 hour drive was required. We did have a pitstop in Tamworth however for a coffee. The sparcity between individual houses, let alone civilised towns on this stretch of the trip really gets you questioning how the children get to school daily, or how the weekly shopping is done, or how long do they go without seeing another human outside of their family.

Yummy breakfast for two 

We were heading for Gloucester! The town of Gloucester. The New South Wales Gloucester. Me and Jen are Gloucester, UK born and bred so obviously we were eager to get a photo at the Australian Gloucester. Driving into Gloucester we spotted the Gloucester road sign, stopped, took the photo then headed to the local Woolworths for magnum ice lolly's and uploaded the photo to Facebook to show all my fellow gloucester friends. From what I witnesses this Gloucester was a lot more picturesque than the English equivalent but sooooo much smaller. Coincidentally there is a River Avon flowing to the edge of Gloucester NSW, just like back in England UK.

So close, yet so far from home

Another coincidence was our second location of the day, 40 minutes away from Gloucester is the neighbouring town of Stroud. Much like back at home. We jumped out of the lovely air conned car into 40 degree heat and posed for a photo next to the Stroud sign. That marked the last stop of this road trip then it was time for the home leg back to Sydney. In total we covered a distance of over 1300km (808 miles) over 3 days, that is the equivalent of traveling the distance between John O'Groats and Lands End.

Stroud

Massive thanks Sharon and Graham for taking us on the road trip, allowing us to see non-tourist parts of NSW. It was really enjoyable!

Amester x