After the last post, we took the ferry out to Manly so that Scotty could have a songwriting session with the husband of one of the Klick ladies, and I wandered around on the beach and had an excellent curried egg salad sandwich from the Manly Deli. After Scotty finished working we wandered around a bit more, saw Manly beach, and then headed home on the ferry. The next day was pretty uneventful. The weather wasn't terribly nice so I stayed in and did a lot fo reading. I'm sure we did something both those nights, but I don't remember what exactly. We went for pho one night.
Manly beach:
Bluebottle! Ew, and ow, if it gets you:
Friday we left for our road trip. We got a slightly later start than we meant to, but had a really nice drive down the coast. We stopped in Kiama for a late lunch, but just missed the kitchen being open at the hotel on Manning St. The bartender suggested the bakery down the street, Sevbak, and boy were we not disappointed. They had the best meat pies we've had here (mince pies are super-popular late night food in Sydney), and really good cookies too. We went to see the Kiama blowhole, which is a place where, when the waves hit strong enough down below, water shoots up through a tunnel in the rock.
Views from the road:
We continued down the coast and took a quick break at Jervis Bay. Whales often stop into the bay with their calves on the way down south for the summer, so we got out and looked from a hill. The only place Scotty found any was in the swimming pool nearby.
Jervis Bay:
Scotty whale-watching:
The highlight of the day was stopping at Pebbly Beach about an hour before sunset. Pebbly Beach is next to Murramarang National Park, and is an area where kangaroos come down to graze at night. Although they're wild animals and you're not encouraged to feed or pet them, some of them are pretty friendly and we were able to get super close. Most of the babies were old enough to be out on their own, but one mother 'roo had a joey in her pouch, so it fulfilled every childrens-book based idea about kangaroos we'd ever had in our lives, except for those involving boxing.
There were also these cute little parrots running around:
Mama 'Roo:
This guy just hopped right up to us and smelled Scotty:
This little joey let me pet his tail:
We stayed the night at an Ecopoint resort near Pebbly Beach, and really wish we could have had more time there. It was a mix of cabins and campsites, but with a nice pool, beach, bar, and restaurant, and lots of cool activities that we didn't get there early enough for, like kayaking. We had this HUGE possum on our deck that night. Here's his butt:
The next morning we stopped in Batemans Bay for camera batteries, breakfast, and to find some wi-fi. It was our longest driving day and we were heading inland. We stopped in Canberra, Australia's capitol, and took a tour of their crazy futuristic parliament building. Canberra is a planned city, built along the lines laid out by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahoney Griffin, both of who came from Frank Lloyd Wright's workshop (after being horribly mistreated by him, naturally). It's an interesting city in regards to how thoroughly planned it is, but it's terrible to walk anywhere and everything is hidden in parks except for Parliament and the War Memorial, which we unfortunately did not get to see.
Parliament Funkadelic:
The view from Parliament to the War Memorial:
I'll start from there next post.
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