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Katoomba - Blue Mountains
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We obtained fully comprehensive insurance in anticipation of the completion of our van but were told by the insurance company that we could only drive on a UK licence for 3 months and after that we would have to get an Australian licence. That was great until we found out that only residents of New South Wales could obtain a NSW licence. Needless to say, our ingenuity finally got a licence for me costing a$142 for 5 years. We did not want to spend a further 142 dollars so chris will drive on her British Licence for 3 months and the insurance is now valid.
We left Sydney on the 8th in a campervan which we hired cheaply from Allseasons who are the people making our van. We got it for a$55 per night and it was practically new, only 1600km on the clock. Our van will now be ready on Monday 13th. Hooray!
Three nights in Katoomba in the blue mountains were wonderful but windy. The campsite called Katoomba Falls View was great with super facilities. We thought it was good value at a$31.70 per night for a powered site. We were cosy in our van with an electric heater to keep us warm while outside it was almost freezing.
During our stay we visited the Jenolan caves. The cost of entry to each cave was between 15 and 34 dollars per person and there were 10 caves. Needless to say, we visited one cave only for 22 dollars each. It was called the Chifley cave and was awesome. Our guide, Locky said that we could take as many photographs as we wanted, even use flash. In one part of the cave, Locky asked if anyone could sing because the accoustics there were great. I have now sung in Australia in front of an international audience consisting of Australians, British, Japanese, Chinese etc.. fellow members of our tour group.
We had a great day doing the laundry and we met a couple in the next van site to us, called Jamie and Michelle. They were both in their mid twenties and from the UK. We invited them over for a drink in the evening because their van didn't have heating. We learned a lot from them about SE Asia because they had travelled there before Australia. For the cost of a few beers and a couple of glasses of wine we were handsomely rewarded with a SE Asia guide book. Very fortuitous because I left our SE Asia guide book on the front room carpet before leaving for the airport.
We spent the night of the 12th at a motel called the Gardenia near to Sydney so that we could collect our vehicle without too much delay on the following day. We decided to walk to the nearest pub for a drink and a meal because neither of us felt like cooking. Little did we know that as well as a decent meal we would be entertained by a great pro guitar vocalist.
After his first set, we talked to him. His name was Ziggy and he was 59 years old. He was a great finger style guitarist and his business card also introduced him as a commercial pilot, computer consultant and an entertainment agent. For those of you who know him, he looked exactly like Mike Penny. What a great night.
Today we collected our van at 1.00pm. We paid for the conversion after checking that everything was OK. The van is great. We transferred to the new van all the new stuff we had bought a couple of days before from KMart. Chairs, kettle, pots, pans, cutlery, etc.. and by 1.30 we were back on the road. We will once again spend the night in Katoomba.
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