Blogs from Katoomba, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 12

I woke up at the crack of dawn (4:50am) to catch a 6:30am bus to Sydney. It was super quiet around Newcastle - i guess i was the only one crazy enough to want to get up that early and head to Sydney! The city was buzzing with rush hour traffic when we arrived three hours later - i was pretty excited, even though i would only be seeing Central Station that day! I hopped a train to Katoomba and got set for my next adventure in the Blue Mountains! The coolness of the mountain air was definitely the first thing to strike me when i got off the train. It really reminded me of how i felt when i got to the Cameron Highlands - definitely time to bring out the long Lulu Lemon ... read more

It's been a while. Since the last blog we have done many things. For 2 days and nights we played pirates on a yacht around the Whitsunday Islands. The weather wasn't great but we had a fun group of people with us and the crew were excellent. The boat, Apollo, was not very piratey to be honest, mainly due to the unpiratey named captain "Captain Dave", but was an ex-racing boat so we got a bit of wind in the sails and nearly lost a man overboard a couple of times. Tres funny. The rum did flow in the evenings and many laughs were had, before having to get up at 6.30am each morning. I know what you're thinking .....6.30am!!. ...ARRRRGH!! We had a few snorkel sessions around the island reefs and got to wear ... read more

Hey everyone, Had a couple more great days in Sydney which entailed alot more walking and exploring all the surrounding neighbourhoods. Walked along Oxford St from Darlinghurst to Paddington where it seemed to be a great shopping street.....didnt buy anything, Kerry was very proud. Layed low that evening and dined at one of the hundred Thai restaurants near the hotel. Tuesday was our last night at the hotel and we were really looking forward to the Salif Keita concert at the Opera House that night. Went for another walk that day, this time through Hyde Park and towards downtown. As we walked through the park it started to rain alittle, no big deal, it seemed to stop pretty quick. Amazing how crazy the downtown area is and the smart travellers we are (not!), decided to walk ... read more

Happy Birthday Grandad! We went to the Blue Moutains today which is 2hrs on the train from Sydney. It was very misty when we first arrived so I was worried we weren't going to see anything! We got on a hop on/hop off trolley bus at Katoomba to take us round the area. First stop was the Skycentre where we rode the Scenic railway. This is the steepest train in the world (I think), which is a short (steep!) ride down into the rainforrest. We were then below the mist so took a long board walk around the rainforrest and could see everything. I saw a white-browned scrubwren which I was excited about. We rode the cable car back up to the moutains and unfortunately the mist did obscure any views across the valley. We took ... read more

Can't believe its march - this trip is going far too quickly for my liking! Jen got up early for a run (crazy girl!) and rang us all to say the clouds were at bay and there was a great picture opportunity to see the blue mountains and the 3 peaks called 'the 3 sisters' so we all got up and drove to meet her. The clouds from yesterday had vanished and the sun was out with blue sky. have been very lucky with the weather. The mountains were beauitful - you can definatly see the blue haze. After breakfast, we drove into the mountains to see about taking a cable car across them. We took a glass bottomed cable car across the mountains, went on the steepest railway in the worls down the mountains (its ... read more