Sydney Bound

 I landed back on the mainland in the early hours of the morning. I stopped for a coffee and some snacks before beginning my journey towards Sydney. Along by drive I stopped at this beautiful rock structure called Organ Pipes which is a rock structure that looks like a bunch of tubes laying vertical across a canyon. I continued my journey with a few hikes and ended in Kinglake National Park. I spent 2 nights there, most of which I was camped out in an incredible restaurant working and enjoying good food and chatting with locals. 

After King Lake I headed south along the coast. I stopped along the journey at Raymond island, taking the ferry over to the koala trail where I walked a path that had 15 wild koalas living along it. I saw lots of other wildlife as well like Tawny Wide Mouth birds which were sleeping in the trees and almost looked like a branch. 

I intended on staying in a campground near Raymond island, but unfortunately I couldn’t find a suitable spot and ended up driving a bit further than expected to Cape Conran. It was a rough night sleep in my campground as I kept waking to kangaroos gnawing on my car and having to chase them off! The beach was beautiful though and I saw dolphins in the water. That afternoon I started to feel a bit sick and ended up booking a bnb for a few nights. I slept it off for a few days next to the woodfire stove and it ended up being a good and restful few days. 

Next I headed up to Canberra where I met with my friend Hope’s aunt and uncle. Her aunt moved here 50 years ago and it was nice to meet her and her husband and some of their friends who are famous botanists here. We had a great time chatting. The next day we went to the botanic gardens which was really incredible. The Canberra botanic gardens only have native plants which is really unique and there was so much incredible diversity. In the evening we made gyoza together, and they put whole cloves of garlic in the gyoza before cooking which was fabulous. It ended up with a bit of roasted garlic flavor. Yum. Early the next morning I packed up and headed to Sydney to meet the family!!