Dubbo to Ulladulla

Inland from Newcastle, the only place we'd heard of was called Dubbo, but we didn't realise how far it was to drive and were on the road for 4 - 5 hours. After the long drive we found a really nice campsite with a freezing cold swimming pool and we cooked our first Australian BBQ having been inspired watching some other travellers. The BBQs here are slightly different to what we were expecting, they are just hot metal plates that use gas. So there's not quite as much of a BBQ taste to the food, but it's much easier to use as food can't slip through the grill.
After Dubbo we headed towards the Blue Mountains and a town called Katoomba. We were within walking distance of some really beautiful viewpoints of the mountains and enjoyed the walks along here. We thought we'd have seen a lot more sights like this all over Australia, but this was the first since our time in the Cairns area. This night was our first cold night and day, but we pulled on our jumpers and slept in our car with the windows and awning closed and though I say it was cold, we were still wearing shorts.
The next day we headed back to the warmer coast and on to Wollongong. This is a student town and is the third biggest in this area, but we didn't find a tourist information or much else here and struggled to find an internet cafe, eventually ending up in a Chinese restaurant.
Our campsite was right on the beach however and whilst walking along the beach we saw several dolphins, which we tried to photograph, but just couldn't snap them as they were jumping.
From here we had a couple more nights on the coast before heading to Ulladulla to meet Fran (my former housemate from Ealing) for the weekend.
After a quick catch up, we headed to the beach and spent the afternoon swimming in a beautiful sea near Fran's house where the waves were fantastic. That evening we had a proper Australian BBQ with some of Fran's friends and it was so nice to see how Aussies live and also to have a more regular Saturday night, like we would in London.
The next morning we got up early and went snorkelling. It's still a novelty for us just being under the water and swimming near the fish and sea life. We saw 2 types of sharks and plenty of other pretty fish. We were starving after this so headed back to Fran's for a massive and delicious brunch. We had a really nice weekend and it was great seeing Fran again. Thanks Fran for a great weekend!
From here we carry on down the coast.