Sydney

Day 127 – Sydney, Australia

The head picture has nothing to do with the article, I don’t have yet pictures of Sydney. This come from the Wilsons Promontory.

The day started well, it had rained all night but the rain washed the camper van. Since it was significantly muddy the day before, I rather appreciated that. But my decision to do my laundry started well… and finished badly, with clean but wet clothes, since I either didn’t understand how to work the dryer or it was broken.

Since I had finally remembered to put my hoody in the wash instead of forgetting because I’m wearing it (which happened the last two times I washed my clothes), and I had put both pairs of pants also, I was stuck wearing shorts and a T-shirt on a rainy spring day. Great. And leaving later than I expected, though having bought fresh free-range eggs from the campground hens, I had a nice breakfast of more pancakes and fried eggs.

I made a quick stop to see a beach and some rocks which weren’t that nice (and made less so by my mounting stress to drop off my camper van clean, fuelled, and on time).

I made good time to Sydney, under sometimes heavy rain and buffeting winds. The traffic increased the nearer I approached, of course, and as one should when driving in a foreign place, I took (or didn’t when should have) a few wrong turns. You know, the usual.

I finally didn’t go to the car wash, but I had cleaned the interior that morning and mopped the worst of the left-over dust under the rain also, so it wasn’t bad. I dropped my stuff at the hostel and took back off for the rental agency.

The drop-off took me 10 minutes, and that was because someone else was before me.

2908 km. For 11 rental days, that’s an average of 264 km a day. Not bad, I think.

So greatly relieved, I went to take the subway back to my hostel, wearing almost dry pants but still in a T-shirt.

My next step was to put my stuff in the dryer… which was first full, then I realized that I didn’t have enough change, having bought first a prepaid subway card then lunch (because I didn’t have time to eat lunch, and I’m sure that was a factor in my mounting stress and crankiness of the day, as if walking in the rain in a wet T-shirt wasn’t enough).

So I went back out to find an ATM, which took some time because they are hidden. In shops. Either in betting parlors, or closed restaurants, or in the bar area of an hotel. At this point, I was wet through, and cranky had gone into furious.

I finally went back with change, put my clothes to dry… and got back a not-quite-dry load. Wonderful.

Of course there are no outlets in the common room, so I have to charge my computer in the dorm, from my top bunk with the nearest outlet on the ground. Yes, some days just don’t go well. (Though it would have gone so much worse if I had had a car accident, so I’m still thankful to have small, annoying and not expensive or dangerous troubles.)

My dorm is full of French and German guys, playing Rubik’s cube and drinking beer over cards. But nice and polite.

I’m working on putting last week’s pictures online and writing my days, so keep an eye open for changes!