Road tripping in the Royal National Park

Poor T was back to work on Tuesday, so Holly and I got up when he did. While he got dressed for the office, Holly and I put on our hiking gear and sunscreen. We grabbed a GoGet car and took off down south for the Royal National Park.

Our first item of business was hiking the Karloo Track. It was a pretty short but intense walk down to some still water pools in the RNP. Most of the walk was through bush, and the cicadas were SO loud we had to cover our ears at times.

We also walked across some sloping rocks along the top of the mountain.

And then we made it to the pools. They weren't so crystal clear but still seemed to be a pretty popular place for family swims and such.

After hiking back out, we drove a bit farther south to check out the Sea Cliff Bridge.

Then we took the scenic drive back through the park and up north toward Sydney.

Our afternoon and evening were no less busy. After a lunch and short recharge, Holly and I cleaned up a bit, put on our city clothes, and then went out to Surry Hills to check out some of the best boutiques in Sydney. Before jumping right into shopping, however, it's important to charge up with some Messina Gelato. Either raspberry pavlova or salted caramel with white chocolate chips will do!

Sadly, my favorite stationery store was closed for the holidays, but we did get to pop into some other great shops. And we might have found a thing or two that we needed. =)

Toby joined us after he finished work for dinner at Watts on Crown, a place I've been wanting to check out forever! It's a super cute restaurant in an old terrace house on a quiet part of the main street in Surry Hills. We sat upstairs where the balcony doors opened up to let in a nice breeze. It was so charming and relaxing, and our food was good too!

Our plan for post-dinner was to go to the outdoor cinema at Centennial Park, but apparently everyone else in Sydney had that idea too and it was jam-packed with people. So we aborted that and watched the bats leave their trees for the night instead!

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