Last Tuesday I flew back to Sydney, going from Gladstone to Brisbane and then from there to Sydney. The first leg was typical for a small domestic airport; no security or ID checks whatsoever and a tiny plane that you're only meant to take 4kg of hand luggage in (I don't know how I got away with over double that!). Once I got to Brisbane normal service was resumed and I arrived in Sydney at about 3pm. I got the train into the city centre and checked into Base Backpackers, where I had stayed before.
The next day I checked out and went to the Work and Travel Company office around the corner to spend much of the day organising everything. They've got free broadband Internet access there for members, so you can imagine how good it must have been after being stuck with dial-up on the island for 3 months.
After checking my email and a few other bits on the Internet, I went to the in-house travel agent and booked my bus tour. I'm going with Oz Experience, who are one of the few bus companies in Australia to have passes that cover more than one state or region. As opposed to coach transport, this is a small guided tour, going to places that aren't neccessarily on the tourist trail, although you do end up at the most obvious spots like Uluru.
My tour takes a minimum of 30 days to complete and you can jump off and on it whenever you like within a 6 month period. It'll take me from Sydney, up the east coast to Cairns, then west across to Darwin, then south through the red centre to Uluru, on to Adelaide, before sweeping back eastwards to Sydney via Melbourne. All in all, that's over 6000 miles on the road!
I'll probably stop at Magnetic Island on the east coast to do a scuba diving course to get my license, and might also have breaks of a few days at Cairns, Adelaide and Melbourne. I did a similar trip in New Zealand in 28 days, but I can see this one being a bit more tiring because of the distances you've got to travel.
Sydney has turned out to be my 'base' in Australia like Auckland was in New Zealand. This is the second time I've been here and I'll be back twice again; when I finish my tour and just before I go home. However farmiliar the city is, some things still keep their novelty. The Opera House, for instance, doesn't seem to lose any of its imposing sense of grandeur. It's impressive and iconic when you first see it and it still gives you that impression when you return to see it again.
Apart from my first night here, I've been staying with Vanessa and Brian (plus their excitable dog Bentley) who are friends of mine in Sydney and who I met up with when I first got here three months ago. Vanessa's parents live next door to us back at home and they've been our neighbours for all the time we've lived there (which is all of my life). Vanessa and Brian live in the northern half of the city and run a business together from home. Talking of home, it seems like such a long time since I've been away - nearly seven months now - so it's nice to stay with friends in a comfortable and homely environment for a while. I do miss home, but I'm not quite finished out here yet; I've got Australia to see!
