Mountains and Surf in the Care of the Lord

Yes dear readers we know, its been a while since we posted. Having finally arrived in an English speaking country, the telly and the Internet access are the worst yet...these developing countries, we don't know! After escaping Sydney with 2 riotous hangovers, we headed to the Blue Mountains for some good clean air and promised views. Arriving at the town of Katoomba and tramping through the single high street, we quickly exhausted all the backpacker accommodation options before settling on a Norman Bates-style motel. There we hibernated for 24 hours with videos and take away, emerging the next day fresh as daises and ready for some scenery. The photos you can see are views of the iconic Three Sisters at Echo Point and our restorative ramble through the Jamison Valley. Nothing much else to say about the Blue Mountains except for my purchase of a splendidly outback Bushwhacker hat, mate.
Onwards and downwards we had to blast briefly back into Sydney to make our way down the eastern coast on the long road to Melbourne, and towards all those bush fires... Our route took us via places with great outback names like Parramatta, Wollongong, Bendalong, Tilba Tilba and Ulladulla to the conventionally named Bateman's Bay. After trains, buses and automobiles we were met at "Batey" by a chap called Lindsey(!?) who whisked us off to our hastily booked Kooringa Coastal Retreat. As the car doors centrally locked he revealed that we were to be guests of the Scripture Union, and we were surely now in the hands of The Lord!!! The place was perfect otherwise, with our own kitchen to save those spiralling costs, but not without its price; these appear to be the only residents of Australia who don't booze. I was forced to ask for a couple of wine glasses and suffer the mossies eating my feet while the woman explained how God had told her and her husband to give up their successful business, kiss goodbye to $20,000 and run the hostel for Him (and the church authorities who oddly seemed to have similar supporting visions). Inevitably every time they saw us we'd just walked miles into the village in search of wine! Anyway, we're sure it was Jesus who liked to tipple at weddings?
We filled a couple of days there swimming, surfing and catching some rays. During our surf lesson, Rachel uniquely developed a side saddle style to wave riding and managed to reduce the level of the oceans every time she plunged into the briney off her board, head first and gob open with concentration. Between us we managed a combined thirty six seconds on our feet.
We're now even further south in Victoria at the literally-named Lake's Entrance where some fishing calls, before we hit the cultural and culinary delights of Melbourne.
We'll be keeping our eyes out for the towns of Bingontoolong and Singalong!