Travelog for: KattieMill

We had to take a trip today, on the way there we of course had to pass through Bathurst. Some of us had been there - some of us - not quite yet. But I'm sure will make a trip there again soon to see more of the sights, but we were on a tight schedule and were already an hour or so late. Whoops!


Here's us on the road to Bathurst, as you can tell it's very rainy and cloudy, and the windscreen is foggy. No matter what Sara and Daniel did it didn't help it, it's crazy sometimes how foggy the windscreen of their car gets (from what they were saying anyways)...




Well, now we're in Bathurst, but it's only a pass through - no time for breakfast - onto the next stop... I think this time we might be stopping for a bite to eat... :-)

...around half way now to Sydney just outside of the 'Blue Mountains' which are at the outer edge of Sydney and we've been on the road now for a good 90 minutes. My legs are getting a bit sore but we're almost there... as you can see it doesn't look *too* much different... but Sara couldn't get some photos to show the main differences. They have a huge power plant and a huge lake or something next to it... pretty crazy.


...as we're now entering Lithgow, we see something really strange... what... is... that?...


...that is Lithgow's famous "Miner's Lamp", it's a huge version of it obviously... next stop was McDonalds to get something to eat. I couldn't get any photos obviously since we were a bit late... next stop... something a bit more exciting... yay! I wonder what it's going to be...

...in route to the Blue Mountains now... lots of people visit this area anytime they go to Sydney because of the beautiful nature that surrounds them. Since it's just on the extreme outskirts of Sydney it's a popular destination for tourists...






Now that we've entered the Blue Mountains, as you can see there is LOTS and LOTS of trees and lots of hills... and lots of small little towns... the driving up and down, up and down, our ears popped a lot. It was quite uncomfortable. But closer to the Sydney side of things is a small town called Katoomba. Katoomba is known as the 'Heart of the Blue Mountains'. It's a gorgeous little town, and it seemed quite touristy at the time we went there... Sara said she thought it might be because the pope just left town the day before, and therefore all the tourists now decided to take a bit of a tour around the famous parts of the outskirts of Sydney...



...as you can see lots and lots of cars...






...finally we got to our destination... sadly since it was so busy Sara couldn't take individual photos so Sara just got a photo of something called the 'Three Sisters'. It's a very famous rock formation, if people go through the Blue Mountains they have to stop off and see them. There's also lots of trails to take around, one of them Sara said was extremely steep and hard to climb down, let alone up. So we only spent a little bit of time there, and then we were back on the road...

...Welcome to Sydney... after 3-1/2 to 4 hours drive we're FINALLY here. Sadly Sara says we can't really see anything famous like the harbor bridge or anything... but we suprisingly got pretty close to the famous CBD of Sydney... we had an appointment at 230pm, so it sadly was just that. We did see the famous hospital called "RPA" which is known as Royal Price Albert Hospital that's got a TV show named after it, and is obviously filmed there as well. One of Sara's favourite TV shows. But this wasn't at RPA but more a smaller clinic that is owned by RPA... anyways, here's us navigating around Sydney...


Although it seems like it should be pretty simple and straight forward... you can easily get lost, especially if we're getting close to the CBD. Sara told us about the story a few years ago that Daniel and her were trying to make it to Cronulla (South Sydney) and ended up in Glebe (which is near where we were going - in South Sydney). She told us how they ended up going over the harbor bridge around 3-4 times since they couldn't get off it and had to go back across before turning around. I'm so glad we didn't get lost though... here are some sights from around Sydney... :-)






...and now, we're in Parramatta, we have to get on Parramatta Road which is a huge major road, we've technically been driving on it the whole time but it was called the "Great Western Highway" it goes all the way to Dubbo, so it's a main highway through the state... it was amazing to see the difference between Orange and Sydney, I mean, I knew Sydney was big... but man, there are sure a lot of palm trees as well. :-)


...and now we're almost to the appointment, so here are some more sights around the area we were driving around...


...oh wow, we're getting close... although we couldn't personally go and visit it there's the CBD in the background, can you see it? It's pretty small but you can see the huge buildings on George Street (which is the main street and most famous street along with Pitt Street in Sydney... how cool! I just wish I could have seen a bit more... maybe someday...) here's a close up... :-)


...sadly when we got out of the appointment it was almost 530pm and we couldn't stay much longer. With a cranky child in the back seat and to be honest we were all a bit worn out... it was time to go home... here's the traffic on the road just as we were leaving Sydney...


Well it was a long and busy day, but I hope to go back here some day and visit the more famous parts of Sydney. Maybe my next host will take me on a ferry even around the harbor? Who knows, it was pretty awesome anyways. :-) I hope you enjoyed my trip, I'll update again soon! <3

Hey Mom :-) I arrived at Casterton only to be packed in the car and taken for a long drive to Swan Hill with another toyvoyager Fuzzy Wuzzy.

We visited a Pioneer Village. Everything was old!

1st we saw a small parade of old cars, a fire engine and horse and wagons too.  The police car isn’t old haha, it was making sure everyone was standing on the paths and not on the road.

After the parade we walked around the little village.

The post office.



A horse named Harry who pulls the wagon around the little village.



Beautiful music being played on an old Pianola.



The pharmacy. Lots of old empty medicine bottles.



A really old tractor.

The blacksmiths fire where we watched a man make a horse shoe.



A replica of the helmet the famous Australian bushranger Ned Kelly wore. This is extremely heavy, we are wondering how Ned could hold his head up. It took all Sam’s strength to lift it!



One of the four horses who pull they Royal Mail Coach.



A paddle steamer. We didn‘t go aboard as Sam and the family had been on it last time they visited Swan Hill.



Having a rest before we continue looking around.

Future toy voyagers maybe??



This is a fridge! Doesn’t look like one. Sam tells us there was no electricity way back in the old days so they kept the food in this where the bugs couldn’t get to it. They would then put a cloth over it to keep the sun off it. Nothing stayed very cool in it for long though.



A friendly sheep.




A really old petrol bowser.



And to end the day we played a game where you throw horse shoes at a pole. The winner is the person who gets the most horse shoes around the pole. Very hard but fun.



Love and miss you xx

Hey mom, I've been off the radar for a while, but I arrived here in the Netherlands safely and I'm doing fine! To relax, we watched this really funny movie tonight, called 'Over the Hedge'. The pictures aren't so great, but you can tell it's me! I miss you mom!

Here are some pictures of me in Leidschendam:

My host is in the process of moving into a new house and she took me along with her. This is what the house looked before:





And this is what it looks like now:





Looks a lot better, right?