Good Bye Dotti

August 2 – Showing off Dotti

We were up early this morning to take Dotti to her 8am pink slip appointment. We wanted to be there early so we could double check for any oil. We drove over and stopped into the McDonald's nearby. I grabbed us breakfast and Beau mopped up the tiny bit of oil that appears to be leaking for the oil cap. While we had our breakfast in the van a young guy started checking out the van. Beau opened the door and had a little chat, apparently he is looking for a van. We gave him a flyer and hoped to hear from him. We headed down to the mechanics and while Beau got the pink slip done, I picked us up coffee from 7-Eleven. I was gone maybe 10 minutes but Beau had paper in hand by the time I had gotten back. WE PASSED! We made our way downtown to the car market feeling very optimistic about our day. Once in the car market I stayed with the van while Beau went to check his e-mail. He found a van wanted ad and replied to that in hopes of drumming up some interest. We had a bit of down time before we got our first call about the van. We ended up setting up 4 different viewings of the van for today! Or first one was around noon and we met them downtown. They were a nice British couple, they had a look at the van said they were going to grab a coffee and would give us a yes or no after. About 10min later they were back coffee in hand and said they'd take it! Awesome, they hadn't even test drove it or started it or anything! We got a deposit and said we'd bring it to them in Bondi tomorrow. We headed back to the caravan park in disbelief. We messaged the other people who were supposed to see the van and told them it had sold. Now we had to pack ourselves back up into or backpacks again! Yikes!!! We did laundry then crammed everything we owned in our bags. We went out for a celebratory dinner at the mall up the road and had some yummy Thai food. We had a sundae for dessert then headed back to the caravan park. It was our last night with Dotti.

August 3 – Good Bye Dotti

After a quick breakfast we finished our packing and cleaning and set off for Bondi Beach. It was about a 30min drive and we found the place without too much trouble. We got the money off the British couple in crisp $100 bills. We sold her to them for $4500 and they were going to take car of the registration renewal. They had give us 45 100 dollar bills but we had gotten a $200 deposit off of them yesterday so being the honest people we are we gave them $200 back. We went down to the transit office with them and submitted the notice of disposal, form saying we no longer own the van. Then parted ways and hopped a train back into town.  I hope Dotti treats them a little better than she did us. We booked ourselves into a pretty nice hostel in the Kings Cross area. Kings Cross is the backpacker mecca here and not so strangely the red light district too. Our hostel was off the main drag and should be pretty good. After settling in we walked over to the car market and got our bond back from them. The guy who was working down there was very happy for us and had been a really good guy to deal with too. Now we needed to find a bank but had to walk about 20min to find an ANZ branch. We deposited our money and closed Beau's account. On our way back we stopped into O'Malley's Pub and had a jug of beer. We then went to Coles and bought kangaroo burgers for dinner. We passed the evening with internet and Olympics.

Good Bye Dotti!

August 4 – Around Sydney

We had our free breakfast of cereal, toast and instant coffee. The coffee sucked but better than nothing I guess. I Skyped with Elaine for a bit, we had some catching up to do. After a nice chat I signed off and Beau and I went in search of something to do for the next 10 days. We looked into some trips out to Ayers Rock, also known as Uluru, but with flights and a tour it would be about $1000/person. Not quite what we were hopping for unfortunately. We discussed our options and decided to go to the Blue Mountains and Hunter Valley. So we rented a van for 5 days. We got a “Wicked Camper” a graffiti van with a bed in it. Feeling pretty excited about our next week we headed down to the harbour to get some shots of the Opera House on a beautiful day. We also went for a wander in the Rocks and into the Sydney Visitors Center. We got some pamphlets on the Blue Mountains and the Hunter Valley. On our way out of the Rocks we got side tracked by a candy shop where they were hand making peach candies. It was super cool and we got to try some fresh ones when they were done. Yummy. We had another jug at O'Malley's before heading back to the hostel to make burgs again.

Stretching candy

August 5 – Bondi-Coogee Costal Walk

We have enjoyed being warm and inside at night but the beds are quite squeaky and every little move I make creaks. We had cereal and toast for breakfast before catching a train out to Bondi Beach. We walked down to the infamous beach to go for a nice walk. It was lovely and sunny out with a bit of wind to keep us cool. We did the Bondi to Coogee costal walk, a 6km walk between Bondi Beach and Coogee Beach along the ocean. It was pretty busy with people since it was a gorgeous Sunday but it was nice to see so many people out enjoy the lovely winter day. It took us about 2 hours to do the walk with many scenic picture stops along the way. We got Subway for lunch once we reached Coogee and then grabbed a McD's cone to enjoy at the beach. We enjoyed the beach for a little bit before catching the bus back to the train station. Once back at the hostel we had a nice shower before heading for to O'Malley's for a jug of Snakebite (cider, beer and grenadine). After a jug of that we decided to switch back to beer. After a couple of drinks we popped into the grocery store for some fish and made fish burgers for dinner. Then spent the rest of the evening on the internet and watching the Olympics.

Bondi Beach