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Published: April 4th 2010
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Welcome to Australia
My backpacking parents arrive! Blue Mountains and Sydney Harbour Swim, 12th-14th March
The weekend of the 12th - 13th marked with the arrival of Avril and Brian (Bowks’s parents) who had flown over to visit and see some of the sights Australia had to offer. We picked them up from the airport on Friday evening and spent the evening chatting about travels. Saturday morning we were early to rise to head t the Blue Mountains, known as the Great Dividing Range, an hour and a half west of Sydney. The Blue Mountains gets its name from the blue haze that lifts from the eucalyptus trees that grow in mass and cover the mountain range. We first drove to see the Wentworth waterfalls where we did several walks giving us fantastic views of the falls and vast expanse of the Blue Mountains and it was once believed that if you managed to cross them you would reach China. It was really nice to be out of the city and into the mountains and paddling in the cool crystal waters of the falls. We then drove and picnicked down by Echo Point that gave more views of the Blue Mountains whilst listening to an Aboriginal playing
the Didgeridoo.
Once fed and watered we went to the Three Sisters Lookout. The Three Sisters are a formation of rocks and legend has it that they were once 3 beautiful princesses who were turned into stone to protect them from the war. Once the war was over they were due to be turned back but the wizard died before he could reverse the spell. Unlucky! We then drove to Katoomba stopping off at a chocolate factory sampling some delicious chocolates. Katoomba was a small town with a new age feel and an interesting array of shops and people. After a short wander we decided that wasn’t a lot more to see and do in the town so we got back in the car to head back to Sydney.
On the way back we called in at Sydney Olympic Park so Avril and Brian could see the stadium, swimming pool and other Olympic facilities. That eve we had a little walk around Coogee, a swim at Clovelly (although a little blustery) had dinner and a few drinks and then retired to bed to ensure we were rested for the 2km harbour swim.
As mentioned in one of
our recent blogs you maybe have been aware that Bowks and I had entered ourselves into the Sydney Harbour swim (2km). Well the couple of weeks had passed and the swim was upon us. As the swim coincided with the arrival of Avril and Brian, Brian had also decided to enter the swim with us. First thing the next morning we were up to indulge in a spot of swimmers weetabix, muesli and banana breakfast. Then caught the bus down to the harbour on what was a beautiful, clear and still morning. The swim went great with all of us completing the 2km successfully, with times of 28 mins (Doddy), 31 mins (Bowks) and 43 mins (Brian). Mind must mention it felt really weird swimming and lifting your head to breathe and seeing Sydney Opera House and Harbour ridge as a back drop. Can’t say it will happen too many times in my life!
With the swim complete and Bowks winning a raffle prize of a dolphin encounter swim we decided to head for a pie from Harry de Wheels, a well known pie shop in the suburbs of Woolloomooloo that had stood since 1945. On the way we
walked through the Botanical gardens taking in its beautiful sights, although I think the trees that play home to the colony of Flying Fox Bats were more of an attraction than a thing of beauty. We also spotted lots of friendly cockatoos in some of the surrounding trees, and with some pistachio nuts to hand they were only to happy to fly down onto our arms and eat the nuts out of our hand.
We took a short detour down to Mrs Macquarie’s point where you could see spectacular views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge and we could take in the area that we had just swam in. It wasn’t long till we had reached Harry’s and were tucking into some yummy pies served in an impressive and unique way consisting of a mashed potato, mushy peas and gravy all being served stacked on top of the pie, yummy!
Another, slightly more successful snorkel was had that eve down at Clovelly, with a low tide making for better swimming conditions but the jelly fish that got me put a slight dampener on things. Don’t think you got away with it that easily Mr Jellyfish, I’m gonna
hunt you down!
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