RoadTrip to Sydney: Kangaroo's, Blue Skies and Good Music

Melbourne was a great place to begin our trip, with the beach in walking distance to our little Air'B'n'B house, which gave us a few relaxing days to get over our jet-lag.

But we found ourselves keen to move onto the next place, and we had planned to go toCanberra, but we then settled on going straight to Sydney, as we found a cheap ride there via Co-seats.

We knew we weren't city people before we arrived in Oz, but our short time in Melbourne only confirmed this. We longed for wide open spaces, wildlife, and really experiencing the beauty of this country...not that Sydney would provide this, but it would take us that bit further up the East Coast, to where we really want to be.

5am Wednesday morning, alarm clock goes off, and it's time to head to the train into central, where our lift would be meeting us.

A few minutes of waiting on a street corner at 7am, and a guy suddenly came and stood next to us. I instinctively leaped back, slightly dramatically, wondering what the hell was going on, it was too early for weirdo's, or in fact the best time to be mugged.. and so a few seconds later the guy said my name, turns out our ride's boyfriend was just messing with us...

Into the car with who we knew then was Tumi and his girlfriend Gabby, a really laid-back pair with great music taste. So the ride began with some Sigur Ros, and the sun rising to begun another hot day in paradise.

It wasn't long before we saw a kangaroo, albeit a dead one of the side of the road... but then, on the brow of a sun-bleached hill, in the distance, a pouncing animal, we got a live one! Our first Roo, and it was miles away, but it was still a surreal sight.

Cruising down a long and quiet road, sun blasting through the car, the music changed to the 'Into The Wild' film soundtrack, which was also surreal for us, it having been a major inspiration for us, the music of Eddie Vedder playing out for months in the build up to Oz.

Taran took a turn at driving to give gabby a break. He was a bit freaked out by the automatic gearbox at first, and kept reaching to change gears. I had been too nervy to drive, but once he settled into it, it was just us in the front, taking in all the beauty of the open road.

We made a few pit-stops including one in Goulbourn, which had not only a Subway, but also a bloody enormous sheep! It made no sense to us at the time, but was something to do with the big sheep industry over here...no idea.

As we neared Sydney, Gabby drove again, we weren't quite ready for the busy over-zealous city-centre drivers! We had spent a peaceful 8 hours on near-empty roads, bar the vintage classic cars occasionally overtaking us on their way to an event.

Hitting traffic as we came in, we slowly made it through, passing down the main street in Newtown, an eclectic suburb, home to another branch of the 'Lentil as Anything' restaurant.

We came across some other cool sights, including a building that looked like something out of a post-apocalyptic world...

Arriving into the centre of this super famous Australian city, and as expected, we had traded one humid and over-crowded tourist Mecca for another. But there was definitely some awesome and interesting experiences to come, even if we felt a bit sceptical at first...

Thanks for reading!

Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!

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