Blogs from Katoomba, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 18

Sydney to Melbourne Journal # 37 2/8/06 We have been in Australia now for 2 1/2 weeks and so far it's very interesting. The Australians drive on the wrong side of the road, which is the right side and they talk in an Australian accent. They have large rat-like bouncing animals that they call kangaroos and they have pig-like wombats. They have koalas that walk like bears. Austalia is very similar to the USA; they have the same technology, wear the same clothes, watch the same movies and eat the same food, only they have meat pies which are very good. The money is made out of a plasticy material and the coins go from the smallest being worth the most and the biggest being worth the least. Everything is more expensive than the USA. For ... read more

Days 90 & 91 Another early start, we walked up to our pick up and clambered aboard the bus at 7.20. The Blue Mountains are about an hr and a half from Sydney and our first stop was to see some Kangaroos. We took some piccies and then jumped back on the bus and were driven to another part to do an eco walk. The walk lasted 3 hours through rainforest and we saw some lizards but luckily no snakes!! The views were really nice - they are called the blue mountains because of the blue mist the euycaliptus trees give off. We had lunch and then headed for Grouse Valley where we walked down the Furber staris into Jamison Valley to view the 3 sisters rock formation, which was pretty unimpressive given all the hype ... read more

So we arrived in Cronulla and have been backwards and forwards to the Blue Mountains... as we like it so much. The weather has reminded us of home as one day it is grey and then the next it is wet... the only difference is when the sun shines the weather ends up as hot as 40 degrees!!! Well, hope you enjoy this new lot of photo's .... Missing you all Suzanne and Tony xx xx... read more

We lasted 4 nights in total in the Blue Mountains. During this time we managed to only do one walk (as per last blog) as the weather really was so pants. In fairness, it didn’t rain heavily ALL the time. Sometimes it was drizzling in between, and other times it was just so foggy that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. We’ve learned something - do a thorough check on the weather before we go off to a new destination with a differing climate. Seems sensible, however it’s really easy to forget and make assumptions based on what you read in guidebooks. In the end we lounged around, caught up on blog publications, read our books, wrote postcards, ate lots of yummy food, and went to the pub. So it wasn’t all ... read more

If you get the chance to go to Katoomba, do it. The Three Sisters are up there but that is the tip of the fun. Look up a guy named Jason from Hign and Wild Adventures and sign up for the canyon tour. The morning is filled with rappelling (absieling), then the afternoon is action packed with a few awesome jumps into cold water(so refreshing) and then a rap down a waterfall. Do it on your knees or your likely to come out with bruises. It's a blast. The Katoomba YHA is the only hostel I could find but it was fantastic. Liquor land around the corner and a bakery to boot. Cute little town but the black flies are all over NSW and they like to get into you mouth and eyes and ears. Deet ... read more