the spaceship has landed.

After 19 days on the road and well over 4000 kms travelled (See our updated map here), we have dropped off our van - our home for the past weeks - and are on foot for our last 10 days in Australia.  What a 19 days they have been.  Before we reflect, let us catch you up on our trek from Brisbane to Sydney.

A view of Lamington

We left Brissy early afternoon on Friday after enjoying a night in a real bed and nice hot showers in the morning.  Although I (Jon) started to feel a bit sick Friday, we were still able to visit Lamington National Park and go for a couple of great walks to see caves, cliff tops and incredible views.  As a final stop in Queensland, it was well worth it.

A large tree we came across on the road

We decided not to drive too far Friday evening, and so stopped in a small wet rest area of the kind that we have grown quite fond of over our time here.  We woke up early on Saturday knowing that we had a lot of ground we wanted to cover, and so we made only very brief stops in the morning in quaint surf towns of Yamba and Woolgoolga - both of which we could have stayed longer if time and weather permitted.  In the afternoon, we did take a small detour that at first did not seem worth it as we drove on a dirt road that seemed destined to end in a popped tire, but then took us past a few beautiful waterfalls and a great little town called Bellingen - Aimee again fell in love with the markets here, and the shops made her want to stay for days.

The view from our campsite 

After around 8 hours of driving and considering this was our second last night in our van, we decided to pay to stay at a campsite on a small peninsula (near South West Rocks) looking over the ocean and the beautiful coastline.  After a battle with strong winds, we were able to have dinner and spend a great evening around a roaring fire.  It was great to sit outdoors, listening to the ocean, seeing the stars above us, talking and even singing around a fire. A great end to a long day.

As we hit the road Sunday morning

Sunday, we made our way to Hunter Valley, taking a detour through the Australian "Great Lake" region.  Hunter Valley, for those unfamiliar with Australia, is the Australian wine country - and they take their wine very seriously here.  We had not planned on stopping here as we knew nothing about it but decided it would be an appropriate transition into more civilized city life.  We showed up late Sunday afternoon and fell upon vineyard after vineyard, along with enough cheese, olive and chocolate sampling to make anyone's palate content.  We sampled several wines, pretending to know more than we know, and had a nice dinner to finish off the day.  We then camped in our usual style (free rest area on the side of the highway), except this night was different because we were entertained for several hours by a local travelling surfer/construction worker.

Our new friend, Dextre, who shares his home with us

This (Monday) morning, we woke up to a bit more of Hunter Valley's luxuries and then headed down south to Sydney.  We cleaned up the van along the way before parting ways near King's Cross in Sydney.  We then made our way to where Bec Kimpton is staying in Bondi, where we will be staying the next few days.  Bec is graciously hosting us and we enjoyed a great dinner on the town this evening.

As we move into this next phase of our travels, its been great to look back over our past few weeks. Despite the weather, its been great. We both feel that God has richly blessed us as we have seen and done so much in a short amount of time, had moment after moment of sunshine just when we needed it, and as we have had great time and space together that has proved to be rare over our first two years of marriage. We are both deeply rested, which is really important.

Now that we are in Sydney, we are so excited to be here. We have no set plans yet but already love the city after a great couple of walks to Bondi Beach. We will be here for most of the week before heading to Melbourne for our last few days. We find it hard to believe that after all we've done, we still have so much more to experience here. We'll be excited to fill you in on what we find.

A shot of Bondi Beach here in Sydney