From Sydney to Brisbane

When people imagine travelling in South America, especially in Bolivia, they imagine dirty, backpackers sleeping in crappy tents, eating tasteless rice that was cooked on a small stove in a field. In Australia, on the other hand, the travelling conditions should be a luxury. As a matter of fact, the real picture can't be more different than that. Moving from the poorest country of South America to modern Australia was a real descent in our life style. In Bolivia we slept in a private room with cable TV and ensuite bathrooms, and dined in high class restaurants every night, where as in Australia we sleep in tents (in all weather conditions) cook our own meals and pay at least 4 times more than in Bolivia.
After being in 3 big cities in a row, it felt good to be out again. We drove from Sydney to the Blue Mountains, 3 hours west, and got there just in time to see the sunset over the Three Sisters. At sunset it is also very clear why did the mountains got their name. The far mountains are being colored in blue by the thick haze when the sun disappears, and the valley becomes magical. The silence sometimes disturbed by loud groups of white Kakadus flying around.
Our first night in tents wasn't a very warm welcome. We arrived late in our campsite, just after drinking a huge hot chocolate, that is probably considered illegal and corrupt in some countries. The wind was blowing so strongly that we almost couldn't build our tents. That night was also one of the coldest nights we had in Australia. For Itay who wasn't used to sleeping in tents at all, and wasn't prepared for cold weather, the experience was especially traumatic. On the next morning he described it as one of the worst nights he ever had, but that didn't stop him from driving hundreds of kilometers on that day, just like he did most of our journey together.
One of the main attractions of the Blue Mountains area are the Jenolan Caves. It is one of the most interesting cave structures in the world. There are more than 300 caves full of beautiful stalagmites and stalactites, small underground rivers and lakes. Few of the most impressive and accessible ones were open to the public (not for free, though... God forbid). We did one self-guided (with earphones) tour to the main space and one guided tour to "The Oriental Palace". From both of them we learned a lot of interesting historical and geological facts about those caves. Lately, a new, few million dollar, lighting system was installed in those caves, what made our guide especially proud. On the next day, after another "pleasant" night, we drove to the Hunter Valley. The Hunter valley is a very nice rural area and the main wine district of New South Wales (the state where Sydney is). There we visited two wineries, tasted some wine, bought some fancy cheese, visited a funeral and interrupted few kangaroos with their dinner. After all of us got sober (especially Itay) we drove to Newcastle, which is a big industrial city next to the Pacific shore.
The day after, we had a long driving day (more than 800km) at the end of which we got to Bayron Bay. On the way we stopped in Coffs Harbour. Apparently, this is Australia's biggest bananas grower. They thought that this is a reason good enough to build a banana theme park, and Itay thought that that was a reason good enough to stop there. On the way to the "Big Banana" we got lost, that was actually a good thing, because we got a very nice lookout over the Pacific ocean. The park itself wasn't worth the effort, though.
We completed our long journey in a very nice city of Byron Bay. The majority of Australians like to stay indoors (aka sleep) right after sunset, that is why it was really refreshing to find a city with restaurants and bars open after 7pm. By the time we finished dinner half of the places were already closed.
We wanted to stay in this vital town for another day, but the local Pachamama (we really need to find out how do the Aboriginals call her here) thought it's time to go. It was raining most of the morning, so we decided to continue to Brisbane.

Tip 1: The best time to see the Three Sisters in the Blue Mountains is at sunset, then they are beautifully lit.
Tip 2: If you are planning to visit Jenolan caves, take into account that they have only about 3 different tours each day at set times. In order to save time make sure to check their schedule in advance.
Tip 3: If you visit Jenolan caves don't throw away the tickets. You can use it for another tour for half of price, for a whole year. You can even give it to your friends. That's what our guide told us.
Tip 4: In most wineries in Hunter Valley there are no tours and the tasting is for free. If you like what you had tasted they will be happy to sell you a bottle. Unfortunately, the ones we liked were much too expansive for us.
Tip 5: Take into account that Internet is very inaccessible all around Australia (that's why it takes us so much time to publish our posts). There are almost no Internet cafes in most of the towns and even if you have your own computer there are very few campsites that have Wifi. Eventually we had to buy a portable modem for Itay's computer from one of the local cellular companies.