DAY 21

Week 3

SYDNEY (New South Wales, AUS)

Sunday October 3rd, 2010

TODAYS MILEAGE – 34 miles or 55 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 1924 miles or 3096 kilometres


Bit of a "Slack Attack" day, today

Not much on the agenda today, other than attending the National Rugby League Grand Final that is.

With that in mind Jungle, Yvonne & myself decided to head out to arguably Australia's most famous beach - Bondi, just so that can both say they've "been there - done that". There was some last minute souvenir shopping before grabbing a maggot bag or two at Harry's Cafe De Wheels.

As train travel to and from the Homebush Olympic site was included in the NRL Final tickets, we shuffled on over to Central Station around 1 o'clock and headed out to catch the Toyota Cup Under 20's Grand Final, played out by the New Zealand Warriors and South Sydney Rabbitohs', which the Warriors ended up winning 42 – 28.

The main match between St George–Illawarra Dragons and Sydney Roosters was a fairly entertaining affair and had the full house on its feet at times. In the end, the Dragons got up by a score of 32 – 8 and it's their 16th Premiership, but they've waited 31 years since tasting champagne from the cup.

We merged with the masses and jumped back on to the train and were back at Central Station inside 30 minutes. Talk about a brilliant way to watch such a sporting event. Kudos to whoever thought up that idea.

As Batesy, Portia, Jungle, Yvonne and I were all a bit peckish; we decided to stop off for a feed at the Yummy Chinese BBQ, just around the corner from our hotel.

One of the first things that struck me, was that we were the only "round eyes" in the joint. Second, there were no menus at all. Thirdly, we had to front up $35.00 a head (cash up–front and no cards), just to get proceedings going. The whole premise of the joint was that you go and pick any food item from the servery and the cook your own meat in a skewer, at your table, on a charcoal fired mini BBQ.

Whilst it was a unique experience, you were trying to eat while sweating your arse off and as the joint was closing, the selection dwindled to the point of near on non-existence of items that you liked and wanted more of.

Ah well, at least I've experienced Chinese BBQ now.

A couple of quite sherbets before bed and we're all set to hit the road tomorrow.

• SYDNEY (New South Wales, AUS) ~ Bondi Beach
• SYDNEY (New South Wales, AUS) ~ Harry's Cafe De Wheels