It is almost a week now since we arrived down under in the land of kangaroos and wombats and we have enjoyed the delights of Sydney. I reckon it really should feel very other worldly here, being so far from England and sunny Wolverhampton, but strangely it feels far more homely than I thought it would.
We were expecting blistering temperatures and beating hot sun but instead have found the daytime highs of 23 degrees rather nice, especially when combined with on-shore breezes. Added to this pleasant high streets, verandas and blessedly few shopping malls and it has all felt quite nice.
The other homely factor about Australia so far are the names. When in Sydney we stayed at the excellent YHA, The Rocks, complete with roof terrace view of the famous harbour bridge and opera house. It was situated on Cumberland Road. Walking past the bustling Circular Quay area the we took the train to Hyde Park and the very good Museum of Australia, choosing not to get off at St James Station. After collecting our campervan from Erskine Road we then drove into The Blue Mountains, going to the north of Loftus, through Sutherland and Bangor, turning left at Menai and then following the A6 to Padstow and then M5 past Liverpool. All very strange and reassuring at the same time. We haven't yet found a Norwich, Brigg or Wolverhampton, but have not given up hope.
Back to the Australia Museum ... It was a very good intro to the history of Oz and it did its best to tackle the historical injustices. Uniting such a massive land mass, an area the size of continental Europe with only around 24 million people, is no mean feat, complicated further by the terrible treatment of the indigenous population by the settlers. Large parts of the museum are certainly doing their bit along with regular adverts on buses and trains repeating the message "Racism Ends With You," as it should do.
As well as sampling chunks of kangaroo cooked over a barbecue in Sydney we enjoyed another major cultural experience. Swallowing hard when handing over our credit card we booked for all Lawrences to see "Wicked." It was a spectacular musical, led by two extremely good singers. The dances, sound and lighting were also imaginative. The drama purist in me liked the spectacle but left me yearning for a bit more. I love watching theatre and I know what I am about to write will sound really snobby but when watching a show I want an intellectual and emotional reaction as well as enjoying the look of it too. The children loved it as did many members of the audience who gave the skilled performers a standing ovation.
Today, Sunday, we started out from Katoomba, 130km west of Sydney, and travelled out to the Jenolan Caves. As caves go they were really something, with large areas of stalagmites, stalactites, columns and shawls all growing at the rapid rate of 1cm every 100 years. My thoughts were mainly with the explorers who first discovered the area and the wonder that must have greeted them. I also really enjoyed the patter of our first tour guide who used all his well-practised lines on us with "Who's been on this tour before? No-one? Good. I can say what I like." being my favourite. That was closely followed by "Remember no food or drink inside the cave because it will attract the cave animals especially the bats, crocodiles, elephants...."
Our hired campervan has certainly seen some adventures before us. The speedometer on this Toyota hi-ace camper reads 387,000+km and it appears to want to do lots more. Not bad for a petrol engine and on the hilly 150km round trip to and from Jenolan it dealt with every twist and turn like a trooper. The downside to having a hired campervan, as compared to having owned our own in the past, is that with your own van you know every little idiosyncrasy and know exactly how to work everything too. Assembling the beds was quite a jigsaw puzzle and things appeared to be in places where they're shouldn't really be. I am sure that by the time we hand it back we will have learned how to use it properly.