Blustery Blue Mountains

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Today is Monday, April 28th and we are in the Blue Mountains about 2 1/2 hour drive from Sydney. We left Melbourne on Monday morning last week and headed to Ballarat. Ballarat is a small town that has an old Mining Village. It is similar to Barkerville but about 5 times bigger. We spent the day touring the site. They had tons of school children there dressed in period costume. These children had come to the Site called "Sovereign Hill" to live on the site for 3 days as a school outing. They were in school some of the time and then other times out and about walking in single file with the school marm. They appeared to go to school, have playtime and pan for gold. All the things I guess a school kid would do in the Gold pan days. I don't know if the school marm was play acting or not but she was a witch. Watching her teach the kids to print, it wouldn't take long to erode every ounce of self confidence a kid might ever have had. I really don't think this day and age a teacher would get away with it. Everyone in the class looked dead serious but I thought it was horrid. Maybe she and children were just real good actors!! Thats my hope. We went back in the evening and did another night time light and laser show. It was all about the Eureka Stockade. The gold panner all had to pay a tax to dig and often didn't get any gold but had to pay a huge tax. The moral of the story was not that they had to pay the tax but that government made the rules with no deliberation from any of the diggers. No democracy. There was a huge uprising and eventually diggers were part of the decision making process. By the time we had spent a couple of days there we were pretty versed on the Eureka Stockade. We were laughing that I think to learn anything a person needs to see it, hear it and live it and we did all 3. Ask us anything you like!!

We spent Friday and Saturday in Canberra. Canberra is the capital of Australia and a city that was planned and buildt according to the plan and is very nice. Friday was Anzac day which commemorates the land of the Australians and New Zealanders at Gallipoli in 1915 and basically got slaughtered. We got down to the middle of Canberra about 9AM to see the marching of all the different militery units from around the world. Kind of like Rememberance Day for us. They also celebrate Rememberance Day but Anzac is even bigger. Toured the National Museum and the War Museum and the National Archives Museum. Amazing number of grandpas marching with their grandkids. It was lovely to see.

We arrived in the Blue Mountains yesterday to wind and pouring rain. Quite a switch for us. We have had amazing weather almost the whole way. The Blue Mountains are very nice but more like hills for us. I think we are at about 900 meters at the peak right now. It is very cold and apparently there were a few flurries. We are staying at the Youth Hostel here and it is great. A 1930's cabaret, complete with large wooden dance floor that is now the lounge, a raised platform that would have had tables around it and still does cause it is the dining room. We cooked here last night and ate our dinner with lots of other travellers. Everyone is very friendly and pleasant. The place is clean. It is not cheap. We are YHA members and still pay $82 for a room with a bathroom. I guess it is the location. It is very touristy here. The brave ones, Larry, Ross and Bonnie have gone off to ride the steepest train in the world, ride the cable car and the one other thing that looked pretty to me. They can have it.

We leave here on Wednesday, drive to Sydney and then Larry and I fly to Cairns on Friday and Ross and Bonnie fly home on Monday. We have had a great time with Ross and Bonnie but I know we are all looking forward to parting ways at the end of the week.

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