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Published: March 25th 2008
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Hi Everyone,
We left the last post as we were leaving Sydney for the Blue Mountains, so named after the blue haze that seems to sit over them all day which eminates from the thousands of eucalyptus trees at ground level. After the 2 hour train journey we arrived at our base, Katoomba, where we stayed in beautifully restored Victorian building that was now the town's main hostel.
After the setting the bags down and a bite to eat we headed straight out on a walk, tracking steeply downhill to Leura Falls - a lovely waterfall that seemed to drop from a great height into the forrest below. After getting lost twice we managed to turn a ninety minute walk into something lasting more like three hours we returned to the hostel to cook some food and an early night after what had felt like a long day.
Our second day started early as well. Why? Was it the beuatiful scenery? To visit a world heitage site? No, it was Inter Milan V Liverpool at 6:30am. Football cravings defeated we set out on the four and a half hour walk that would take in the main attraction of
the area, the Three Sisters Rocks. Despite seeming walking faster than anyone else we saw, the walk managed to last over five hours but was well worth it. The walk combined stunning views out over the Blue Mountains area with time spent in the cool of the mountainside rainforest, and beautiful waterfalls. Tired out we eventually returned to the hostel ready to pack yet again for our return to Sydney.
We had one more night in Sydney, just a brief stopover ready for us to move on to Newcastle. We made use of the evening going to Govinda's: a restaurant and cinema run by Hare Krishna where you have a vegetarian buffet followed by a film. The cinema is actually filled with long bean bags, cushions and huge chairs so you can really stretch out and relax while you watch the film. It was loads of fun and a unique experience.
The next day we were off to Newcastle. The express reason for going there was that we'd found out that our favourite comedian was touring Australia and was due to be there on the Saturday night. The bonus is that the town has some great beaches so
was a chance for us to have more beach time as we hadn't had too much on the trip.
We had great fun on the beach but the sea was the best part: big waves and warm water made it easy to lark about while the sun shone above. Unfortunately, a nighmare was around the corner. We'd borrowed some body boards from the hostel and had massive fun for what seemed like hours in the afternoon. During the interval at the thetre however we discovered that my wedding ring was no longer on my finger. It seems the strng waves had literally ripped the ring off my finger during the afternoon. I was pretty distraut as I'd not taken the ring off since our wedding day and it had really become part of me. Searching for it would have been worse than looking for a needle in a haystack but we did have a go the following day before reporting the loss to the coastguard in the hope it may be found.
This event came in the middle of a fantastic show by Ross Noble that had our faces aching from the laughter. Newcastle was unlike any other
Jaime Body Boarding in Newcastle
That's not a sentence you'll often read in the UK place we'd been to in Australia after the bright cosmopolitan cities of Melbourne and Sydney: it was kind of down at heel and the walk back from the theatre had almost as much street drunkeness and aggro as a night in Halifax.
We were off again the next day, this time to Byron Bay. This meant an overnight train followed by a bus journey. Thankfully this journey was better than the previous overnight train though it still hurt to be woken at 3:45am and transferred to the bus. We arrived into Byron Bay at 5:30am, obviously far too early to check in anywhere. We headed down to the beach, put our bags down and watch the most stunning sunrise either of us had ever seen.
The next two days were really spent getting over our tiredness, doing a bit of exercise and hanging around the beach and coffee shops. We had quite a few jobs to catch up with and as we had no plans to go anywhere in particular it was as good a place as any to get them done. I did have the nicest doughnut ever, but that's about all there is to report.
Martin Body Boarding
On waves this big he wouldn't even win the children's surfing championship We also had one night booked at Surfer's Paradise a bit further up the coast, but I'll bring you up to date on that and other stories next time. Hope you're all well.
Best Wishes,
Martin and Jaime
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