August 17th - 26th. Bellingen, Sydney and Dangar Island.

Bellingen Jazz Festival here we come. With Bob and the cats in our wing mirrors the road beckons.

We have 10 days between house sits and intend on making the most of the time we have off. Jason and I have a motto "The plan is no plan" and so its fortunate the we find Bellingen (an hour from Nambucca) has its annual Jazz festival happening this weekend! What a great excuse to meet up with one half of two of our favourite people in the whole world. The Naughty Nanna's who live in Coffs Harbour. This gorgeous lady is the very inspiring, wise and very funny Niecy. I love her to pieces.

Niecy one naughty Nanna

Fellow jazz cats

We saw some great bands over the weekend and loved hanging out with the wonderful Niecy and her friend Netty. This is Frank Salis they were great!

Ooooh we laughed til we cried!

In need of refreshments

The big river

Bellingen is great. It's so pretty. A beautiful heritage town nestled amongst wonderful swathes of green countryside with the wide glassy Bellingen River cutting through it. The High Street is a wonderful sight. Old heritage buildings with wooden verandahs and wrought iron balconies all add to the feeling of being on the set of a wild west film. Everyone is very friendly. Its tie dye and organic veggies country. We really love the friendly feel of the place. Great coffee shops and some brilliant charity shops to pootle in too.

Jazz HQ

I turned beatnik

Jason turned jazz cat

Uncle Jed

So lovely to sit outdoors on the grass with the sun on our backs and music in the air. Loads of kids barefoot and in trees, smiling faces and great food. It was a very good day all round.

All together now...AWWWW!

We came across these marvellous fellows. Its a good job we are travelling by motorbike or I may have been taking home a new friend.

I want to live here

Bello River

How can one refuse

We found a great place to stay via Air bnb. Rae and Simons studio flat is very peaceful and has a lovely native wild garden. We woke each morning with the sun pouring in through the beautiful stained glass window that Rae has created, this piece is made from the bottoms of old wine glasses. https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/767030

Lovely sun in the morning

The lovely garden

More of Rae's work

Great colour combo

We couldn't resist

Van Gogh bonnet

We had our first taste of lemonade fruits. Like huge Lemons but strangely very sweet. Freshly squeezed for breakfast straight from the tree in the garden! Delicious.

Gorgeous alert!

we are healthy.com

All jazzed out

We have had a great time squeezing fun and jazz out of Bellingen, but we are moving on, back to Sydney for a few days and then Dangar Island.
We left Bellingen and drove all day staying in Nelson Bay just as it got dark. We got up early and then did the final leg to Sydney arriving at around 2pm just in time to check in to the Hyatt for a right bit of posh!

And now Sydney.

Like I said, a bit of posh!

Our beautiful room

Rooftop pool and jacuzzi no less

View from our balcony

Sunny Sydney. 

We pulled up at the Hyatt all bags and panniers and were greeted by several doormen who couldn't do enough to help us. It was quite funny watching them load up a huge swanky trolley cart with all our bike stuff. Our room is beautiful, what a view of the harbour and of course the Opera House and Bridge. Where else in the world can you see two major iconic landmarks in such a beautiful setting 100 meters apart and all from your balcony! Feeling truly spoilt rotten and very fortunate.

As we have lived in Sydney we know the area very well and don't feel the need to rush about doing touristy things, instead we will make the most of the hotel, the room and all those pampering 'La Labo' products and fluffy robes. Heaven!

My lovely friends Ali and Maggie

One of the things we miss whilst house sitting, is having friends over for coffee or dinner or a weekend to hangout, so its really lovely to get back to Sydney once in a while to catch up, have a sleep over or just hang out. This is Maggie my good friend Ali's little wonder bun. We had a lovely couple of hours with the giggle box and Ali in the sunshine.

Jason re enacting 'Sexy Beast'

The roof top pool and jacuzzi prove to be fabulous and we have the whole place to ourselves all day. We can see the bridge from the luxury of the bubbles and spent ages waving to people walking the harbour bridge!

The bridge 

Hockney-esque shadows

Call me Bubbles darling!

Very pleased with this shot

We met up with our friends Steph and Dicky and generally hung out. Its time to change over gear and get ready for the next house sit too. I spent a lovely afternoon updating our blog and applying for future house sits. We have applied to house sit on the Island of Vanuatu for a two month sit. Taking care of a Staffordshire Bull Terrier called Shazzie.We have our fingers crossed as they have been inundated with applications from all over the world. 

Its great to be back in Sydney, what a city and we have many friends to catch up with, but there never seems to be enough time! Tomorrow we are heading off again. So im off to turn into a prune and make the most of the pool and the jacuzzi whilst I can! 

Happy to be here!

Time to move on. We quickly head to the storage unit and do a record breaking change over. We are getting better at packing and less choosy about what we take with us. So we are in and out in no time. We are making friends with the guys at the storage unit who are interested in what we are doing and where we are headed each time we pop into get new gear. This time its Dangar Island!

I'm a bit loathed to share Dangar Island, It seems to be a bit of a secret place and I like it that way!
Its a beautiful place only an hour North of Sydney, small, 72 acres in the Hawkesbury River population 200 ish apart from holiday times when it doubles. Its a magic place. You get a small friendly ferry across from Brooklyn which runs every hour or so. The skipper is lovely, all smiles and funny quips.
We have the top box and panniers from the bike and he asks Jason 'Whats in there mate, your barbie'

Arriving on the ferry

The boatshed 

There are no cars on the island, residents take their stuff around with wheelbarrows which are parked near the jetty and a golf buggy which is driven on a rota by volunteers. Because its a magnet to artists and muso's its an interesting eclectic place to be. The natural flora and fauna is not letting Australia down either. In short - stunning. Wild honey suckle and jasmine mingle with the smell of eucalyptus so that you'd be forgiven for thinking there was a perfumiere just ahead of you out of sight wafting some gorgeous scent around for your own personal olfactory experience.

Can you tell I like it here?

Only mode of transport

Amaze

These beautiful arrangements are all over the island, the residents take great care to make the place as picturesque as possible, its not only the flora either.

Very Willy Wonka

These scenarios of little people keep cropping up

Long way from the water

We stumbled across all sorts of interesting things nestled in trees, amongst cracks in rock and up telegraph poles.
Jason found this great place to stay on air bnb its called Nina's place. https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/864339 we have a small sunny room in this wooden house, which is high up so that you feel as though you are amongst the tree tops. So many avian visitors. Very friendly king parrots, cheeky kookaburras that don't mind sitting posing  Kate Moss stylee for photographs. Jason spent a long time photographing them and feeding this King parrot who was so so tame.Cockatoos, galahs lorikeets and parakeets are everywhere its wonderful. Here on the island we feel like we are inside a Willy Wonka world of imagination.

Ninas place

Pretty place 

Morning window

Super tame

Nina has a huge wooden deck that gets a whole heap of sunshine and we are taking full advantage of it. I am enjoying drawing the wild flowers in my new sketchbook. Jason is happy to have found a very good chess opponent in Nina.

Ready for his close up

two hours of this

Love my paint box and pencils

We met some very interesting folk on the Island. Nina is a real character and something of an acquired
taste. She is full of stories of her crazy life. A Hungarian Jew who moved to England in her late teens she has travelled the world, been a pilot, played the casinos and partied in swinging 60's London, became a millionaire on the stock market and had servants and butlers in Monte Carlo, Lost a fortune had children, and went back to university at the same time as her daughter, at the age of 63 to study philosophy. Like I say she's a character. We enjoyed talking with her around the fires at night.

We love a fire at night

Dangar is brilliant, and when we are ready to hang up our hats, we might be looking for a hook or hat stand on the Island but for now, its time to head off again and head to Batemans Bay for the next house sit.

Leaving on the little ferry 

Helmets at the ready