On Thursday morning (the 17th), we left the Blue Mountains, and decided to head across to the other side of Sydney to see Bondi, before beginning to head south.

Allow me to just interject here. Every now and then when you’re away from your homeland, you see something you’re totally not expecting to see. For example, the first time I was in California (’99), I spotted a car near where we were parked, with the license plate, ‘MAN UTD’. £50,000 probably wouldn’t buy you that plate in the U.K. but in America, there are probably only a handful of people (comparatively speaking) who would know what it means! Nevertheless, it surprised me when I saw it, and I have two photos to prove it.

Well, I had a similar experience on our journey from the Blue Mountains, towards Bondi. See the image below. (Sorry, if you’re not from Northern Ireland, it’ll probably not mean anything to you).

Getting back to the update, once again, the drive through Sydney wasn’t without its problems. I hate to labour this point, because I really like Sydney. Nevertheless, driving through it has been one of the most infuriating experiences of my life. However, I would think it has to be experienced in order to be fully understood.

Eventually, we made it to Bondi, where we decided to go shopping for a while in the huge shopping centre at Bondi Junction (we had fun trying to find a car park with enough head room to allow the campervan to get in).

The weather was dismal, so after dinner, and a walk around, we decided to just park at the side of the road, and hope for a better day on Friday, so we could enjoy Bondi in its full ‘glamour’. Sadly, we were to be disappointed with the weather once again, as Friday morning was as dull as ever, and showed no sign of brightening up.

Thoughts on Bondi…

To be honest, I think Bondi is a bit like Oz meets Beverly Hills. It’s typically Aussie, with its heaps of surf shops. However, it has a few crazy elements (well, more like crazy people). For instance, the place seems to be a hive for the ‘lady of leisure’ type. These ladies go for coffee at 7.30am with their dog, or they meet up on the beach front with their personal trainer (and if you have a dog, it comes with you).

We also seen two ladies walking about eight dogs, either training them, or looking after them; and it was near Bondi where we spotted a van advertising a pet cremation service. Like I said, interesting.

We ended up leaving about 9.30am on Friday morning, not willing to waste time waiting for some sunshine. In fact, on Friday it began to really rain. I mean it’s mid January in Australia, and we get rain…lots of it. For that reason, the journey south from Bondi to Bateman’s Bay (on the Princes Highway) just wasn’t as pleasant as it could have been, and we didn’t bother to go via the coastal drive at Wollongong.