Redleaf Resort Blackheath

... I do not want to describe it all day by day- this is something one must experience for themselves really. Everyone goes through their own unique experience and that is one of the reasons why the Noble silence was so important during the course....

We as humans have this habit to compare ourselves to others... I can only imagine what it would have been like every day: "how was today for you? did you experience this or that?" and all the sharing of emotions and all the ...

... hours. The photos show the height from top to the bottom of the valley - so im sure you can imagine how i felt! Oh and the joys of yet another good cooking in the bath on my return to the hostel (via the same bus lady and good natter as before).

The hostel eve - i meet with Lorenz, Marion and Marie Ellen - whose birthday it was and had come to Blue mountains from Sydney for the weekend. They had brought sparklers and cake! So obviously the night was made up! :-)

... The next morning we checked out the hostel and went for some much needed food and then walked to the mountains. It was a much warmer day, and the sun was shining. We took the skyride across and then a train ride which was almost vertical going down the side of the mountain at some speed too, similar to a roller coaster drop. We then walked around and got a cable cart back to the top before visiting the Three Sisters Rocks. We ...

... I have pictures. The lookout for Wentworth Falls was sweet, but even better were the views in the opposite direction. From there we drove to Katoomba for a walk down into the rainforest to a lookout point for the "Three Sisters," the most famous rock formation in the Blue Mountains. Before decending into the temerate rainforest our guide did a perfect recreation of the mating rituals of the Lyre Bird, which can mimic just ...

... in flys until the black clouds descended. On the walk back to the hostel the heavens opened and I was caught in a flash storm, so hid under a small tree in someones front garden until it passed. Luckily nobody seemed to be home. The sun returned and I spent the afternoon on a sunlounger with my book until a Belgian girl arrived and started to chat. She seemed really nice and was a rock climber so we had loads to chat about being active. She had walked 100km on the great ocean road ...

... further over toward Darling Harbour. Again, they were pretty amazing.  The Harbour was lit up like day time, the bridge continually appeared to be on fire, and the (high quality) fireworks were well timed with each other.  There were so many that the ashes were falling on our heads, a small price to pay for such a glorious display. Check out the video to see some of what we saw.  We are right under the bridge looking up at it so what you're seeing at first is stuff coming right over the side of the bridge.

The Blue Mountains - ahhh a feast for the sences, stunning views and scenery, the fragrance of pine and flowers and that cool, fresh mountain air. Yes, about that cool air, well we did experience an ARCTIC FREEZE!!!!! We did bail out a night early, just couldn't stand another one, we had to escape to somewhere warmer. The mountains offered us gail force winds, days of persistant rain, SNOW, and an ...

... reservations anywhere, so we made a reservation for Sunday night at The Swiss Cottage. We figured they had chocolate fondue...so what else could we want?? Well, apparently I'm not impressed with fine French cuisine. I tried Rosti with shrimp and curry sauce. The curry sauce was really good. But Rosti is apparently just the fancy French term for hash brown patty, like you'd get if you ordered a plain scattered at Waffle House ...

... cooler; 30's at nighttime and 40-50s in the daytime. So, we packed our long johns, scarves, hats, and bushwalking boots and set off to get the rental car. This was our first rental car experience in Australia and our first driving on the left-hand side of the road experience. We did have the foresight to pay a bit more for the automatic car, which was a big help. Sarah and I picked up the car in downtown Sydney and had to drive further into downtown ...

... and reached the 'Great Western Highway'. The road was busy with traffic and tracked the railway through the low valley, trapped between both sides of the 'Blue Mountains National Park'. We aimed for 'Wentworth Falls' and found out from the information centre that it was a three hour walk but had no water coming over it. So going on to 'Leura', the cascades ...