Day 85 - Sydney to the Blue Mountains

  Katoomba, Australia
Monday, November 26, 2007

We woke up at about 7am, Katie feeling refreshed and well-rested, me feeling like half the house had collapsed on my head.

Thankfully we both went straight back to sleep, until Rob knocked on the door at 8:30 to say goodbye as he was off to work.
 
We eventually dragged ourselves out of bed, and joined Helen & Joshua in the lounge. Helen made us some toast with marmalade and some coffee, while I played with Joshua.

It's amazing how entertaining people find a soft round ball and a couple of noisy rattles. Josh quite liked them too ;)

We chatted to Helen for a while, then phoned a few hostels in Katoomba, the main town in the Blue Mountains.

I didn't have time to go to the Blue Mountains last time I was in Oz, so I was looking forward to exploring them this time.

Katie was also looking forward to seeing these famous mountainous forests full of eucalyptus trees, whose oil creates the blue sheen which from a distance turns the mountains blue, hence the name.

Navigating west across Sydney was ok, and we arrived in Katoomba just before dinner.

We checked into our hostel, which is a nice old house in a quiet part of the town, with one PC offering free internet access (woo-hoo!), 'toasty' rooms as Katie would say, and it seems nice and quiet also, which is always a bonus.

We decided to drive to the lookout just out of town, which offered a great view of the most famous rock formations here, "The 3 Sisters".



The entire experience was soundtracked by an aboriginal dude playing his dijeridoo, which was cool. He could have done with a haircut though ;) 



We then headed to a 'scenic park' which offered a variety of methods of transport up and down and across the valley.

First we headed across the valley on a big cable car with a glass bottom, so you could look directly down over the trees as we sailed hundreds of feet above them.

 

This was the view below us as we soared over the canopy.



It's been raining here for most of the last few days, so the waterfall in the middle of the valley was in full flow.



As soon as we got to the other side, neither of us could really be bothered to do a walk around the rim and back to the other side, so we cheated and got the same cable car back again!

We got a good view of the 3 sisters in the distance on the way back.



When we got back to the base station we decided to take a smaller cable car down into the valley...





When we got to the bottom, we walked around a 2 km wooden boardwalk through the forest, which was not particularly taxing but was most pleasant.

 

Check out the size of these tree ferns!



We then decided to take "the world's steepest railway" back to the top. At its steepest point it's 52 degrees apparently, so it was very interesting!

 

This was the view from the car, looking back down from whence we'd come!



Unfortunately we had 3 of the world's loudest Americans in the seats in front of us (sample dialogue: Dad "OH MY GODDDD" Daughter "AWESOME, THIS IS SO AWESOME" Dad "OH MY GODDDDD"... repeat ad infinitum), but we managed to make it to the end without chucking them out of the train, which showed excellent restraint I think, well done us!

It was a bit of a whirlwind tour so far, with minimal walking involved and this was unlike us, but we were both exhausted. It must have been the VERY fresh air up here in the mountains, it just wiped us out.

With one last heroic burst of energy we jumped back in the car and headed to Blackheath, a nice part of London, but an even nicer part of the Blue Mountains with a couple of splendid lookout points:



 

After enjoying the views we drove back to the hostel to chill out and do some washing, oh what glamourous lives we lead...

It was soon time for dinner, and we also fancied seeing the famous sunset, so we tried to kill two birds with one stone by going to a good Indian restaurant which is famous for its sunset views. Clever. 

It was also a BYO (Bring Your Own alcohol), which is not unusual in restaurants over here, so we stopped by a bottle shop - which looked suspiciously like a pub - to buy a few beers, and then headed for the curry house.

Our curries were TREMENDOUS, with huge naans, tasty sides, and our favourite beers.

We were absolutely stuffed by the end, but we hadn't had an Indian curry since Cambodia, so we didn't feel too bad about the 8 trillion calories that we'd just consumed.



While we were eating it suddenly got very misty outside and then started raining, so the sunset was completely impossible to see, but at least the food was excellent.



We were back at the hostel by 8pm, grabbed our washing, and now Katie is probably asleep upstairs while I spend some time updating the old bloggy woggy.

As a result, I'm delighted to say that for the first time since arriving in Oz, the blog is now 100% up to date, I just need to add some photos.

I can't do that here because the PC blocks me from downloading the necessary software, but I hope to get the photos up before we leave Sydney in a few days.

Oh, incidentally, fellow English footballing legend Mr David Beckham has just arrived in Sydney, ready for his exhibition game for LA Galaxy against the mighty firepower of erm... Sydney United. HAHAHAHAHHAHA!

Tune in tomorrow to see if the Sydney area can cope with having 2 of the most talented and good looking English footballers of all time in the city at the same time, and no I don't mean you Smithers! 


Night night, don't let the bed bugs bite,


Al & Katie xx