mike & rhonda's latest adventure: Three Dog Night

Some of our younger readers may not be familiar with this band that we listened to in the early 70's (Mama Told Me Not To Come, Joy to the World, etc.) but they have come back to mind for us recently. “Three dog night” is an Aboriginal term for how cold it might get at night and how many dingos (dogs) you would need to have sleeping beside you in order to keep warm when outdoors. The last several of nights have been 3DN's in our camper van. Our canvas canopy, attached to the open hatchback door, is great in the warmer weather (air flow, mosquito protection, extra space) but it feels just like sleeping outside when the temperature drops to 10C or less.....and we weren't prepared to invite any wild dingos inside our camper van. As a result, while Otis has been a good companion for 3 months, it came time to part ways.....at least for the evening. He seemed to do just fine as we watched over him from our 3^rd floor hotel room near Manly Beach.

After leaving the Myall Lake region we actually spent more nights at Caravan Parks despite my initial concerns published in the previous blog (we're not total wimps). We spent two nights in the Port Stephens area. The first day we hiked out to Tomaree Head, a scenic lookout and a 160 metre climb over a one km trail......avg. 16 degree angle......so it was a good workout but worth it. We also wanted to walk out along the shallow spit to Fengal Island at low tide but a bad storm recently had moved the sand around quite a bit and several people had drowned mis-reading the tides and so the authorities were not allowing any more attempts until the sandbar rebuilt itself. We also went out on a whale watching tour where we also saw some dolphins playing around (see exciting pictures below).

We have spent the last 3 days touring Sydney, a world class city, and it did not disappoint. With incredibly high parking prices in the Sydney area (up to $50 a day), we decided to leave Otis where he was and use public transportation from Manly which included a bus and a scenic ferry ride into Sydney Harbour. From there we have been walking around the city, covering a lot of territory. We took a guided tour of the Sydney Opera House and with lucky timing we were able to watch 5 minutes of both the orchestra and ballet groups practising for that evening's performances in the two larger theatres. What an incredible facility and a story to go along with it. We have also walked around the Botanic Gardens (scenic views), the Art Gallery of NSW (painting of a Captain Thunderbolt stage coach robbery), Hyde Park (large and lovely), Darling Harbour (full of upscale bars and restaurants), The Rocks area (tough part of town in the 1800's, great stonework), walked across the Harbour Bridge (at ground level) and spent some time at both Manly and Bondi Beaches (beautiful sand). Our public transport pass came in handy......8 ferry rides, 5 metro trains and 10 bus rides along with a lot of walking in perfect touring weather......sunny and 20-22C. It was a perfect way to get around the city and see as many wonderful things as we did.

Today we returned Otis to his camper van home. He served us well but we will appreciate our own camper van, with the added space, that much more when we arrive home. After dropping off the van we took the train back to Darling Harbour and had a nice lunch overlooking the harbour. At one train station 50 young lads from the Sydney Surf Club (life-saving) got on board wearing long-johns, suit jackets and silly, but different, hats. One of the Long-Johnnys told me it was the 34th celebration of an annual event so it was obviously started by people closer to our age. They were having a very good time moving from pub to pub around the city. We are now stationed at a nice hotel close to the airport and we are having a nice, relaxing day before starting our long flight home tomorrow.