Sydney and Kangaroo Valley

 It was a big day, I drove out of the national park and parked at the train station, nice and early around 7:30am. getting on the train was actually really easy. You can just swipe your credit card as a bus pass train pass and you just get on the train and swipe it again when you leave. Made it really easy to get where I was going. I got out at downtown. Sydney and I walked over to the botanic gardens, they had a cultivated Wollemi pine, which is the rarest tree in the world I believe. It was really cool to see that, and I really enjoyed all the flowers and just wondering around, seeing the beautiful botanical gardens with the background of the city behind it. 

At the tip of the botanic gardens is the Sydney opera house. Enjoyed wandering around outside and looking at the views. Because it was so early I couldn’t get inside, but I’ll leave that for another time. It’s also really interesting to people watch in places like that there was a Disney cruise that just docked in the harbor and so they were heaps of families And lots of people wearing their little Mickey Mouse ears wandering around. Next time made my way to the museum of contemporary art. It’s a nice museum I didn’t spend that much time. on the top floor is a really nice café. It has reasonably priced but really good food. I got a really nice couscous and roasted cauliflower salad and ate it while overlooking the harbor and the cruise ships and the opera house. It was a really great spot to just spend the morning.

Following the museum, I decided to just wander around the street to Sydney and see what I can find. I ended up wandering into the Chinese district and saw all sorts of cool restaurants, and all the decorations from the lunar festivals which are currently going on on the weekends for the lunar new. There’s a really beautiful area with tons of shops and food and I had just eaten so I couldn’t possibly eat anymore although I desperately wanted to. After a few more hours of wondering, I headed back to another train station and road back to my car. 

I begin my drive southward towards kangaroo Valley where I would spend the night. The drive along the coast south of Sydney is incredibly gorgeous. It goes through the national park that I stayed in the night before, but Ben continues along all these really cute, coastal towns With beach access and the background of mountains. They are really beautiful and I stopped a few places and went and put my feet in the water, although it was really rough Waters and quite windy so I didn’t get in. After about an hour and a half I begin heading inward and upward over the mountain ranges to get to kangaroo valley. Once again, I took quite a treacherous Road, I don’t think I took the main highway. I took a back highway, which might’ve been my mistake. The road was very narrow, very windy, and dropped off on both sides. Luckily, there were hardly any other people on the road so I didn’t have to worry too much about it. I finally made it to my campground about an hour or so before sunset., And it is really a big grassy field with some boulders placed around it, and a whole bunch of people just set up. What’s really cool about it though is it known for the kangaroos and wombats that come out. as the sun got low in the sky, kangaroo started hopping over the fences along the edges of the campground. They worked their way to the center of the grassy pastures where they munched away. I think there were two different type of kangaroos there was a large tan kangaroo in the males were huge. I’m not quite sure how large but I imagine that they were they looked like they were as tall as me and you can just see their muscles ripping as they move. They are very impressive. Then there was a smaller, darker grayish brown kangaroos, there were fewer of them, and they tended to stick more to the edges like around my tent. it was really cool and it was also funny to watch all the people in the kangaroo. There was a group of Japanese tourists, who weren’t staying in the campground, but we’re there to see the kangaroos. And they must’ve seen them from a bit away and the way their car came tearing around the corner of the dirt road was pretty funny. The few locals here, Australians were definitely laughing at all the foreigners who are so excited about the kangaroos, but you could tell they enjoyed it as well. Nobody’s ever sad to see wild animals just living unbothered. The sun is when the wombats come out. I went for a walk, and, I saw what I thought was a rock large rock, and turn my flashlight on to discover that it was actually a wombat. I was thrilled. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a picture because it was too dark for the wombats but no, but it will be in my memory for a long time. Well, I sat a few feet away from the wombat another camper came over he’s an Australian also solo traveling around and we chatted for a while About campgrounds and life and it was nice to have a sit down. I think one of the most fun things about camping and traveling is you just really good to meet all sorts of interesting people and have conversations that are different and unique and it’s really enjoyable. I also had a long chat with the couple next to me who are from Newcastle just north of Sydney and Also just traveling around and seeing what their own country has offered. Both sets of people were really lovely and enjoyable and it was fun to chat with them about everything and get recommendations and just get to know some other people. In the night when I got up to go to the bathroom, I startled some wombats right next to my tent, which was pretty cute. This area also is pretty far from any major cities, and it was really cool, because you could see so many stars in the Milky Way, and it was just really incredibly gorgeous.