Sydney and The Blue Mountains

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My last week in Australia was spent in Sydney and the Blue Mountains. I stayed with my friend Ed in Sydney and spent the first couple of days, like a true tourist ticking off the sightseeing boxes.

Sydney has a nice feel to it. We got the ferry across to Tarronga Zoo, and the journey gives cool views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Although I have to say, this iconic building wasn't quite as impressive as I'd imagined; its off white colour and 70's brown glass weren't what I expected. It was my first zoo trip and I wasnt too keen on some of the enclosures, they seemed a little small. But I loved seeing the lazy cuddly koalas and tasmanian devils, which are actually like a strange giant rat.

Sydney is a cool city, the harbours are pretty and it has some great green spaces like centenial park and the botanical gardens; this is where I met up with Justin,Siri, Hans, Jen, Angel, Rebecca and Helena- who I travelled with in Cambodia. We all happened to be in Sydney on the same date, definitely a happy coincidence.

Ed took me to visit the Sydney beaches too; we walked from Bondai to Koogee, it was raining so maybe not the best beach day, but the water was still full of surfers. I guess i've been spoilt with amazing beaches in Oz so they werent the greatest I'd seen. But we drove to Manly later and Manly beach was definitely my favourite, and I think its so cool to be in a big city with beaches and parks all at your fingertips.

We spent the next few days in the blue mountains, staying in Katoomba. The scenery was beautiful; amazing waterfalls, picturesque mountains, and green trees and forest everywhere. We were staying near the Three Sisters rocks, which get their name from an aboriginal tale of 3 sisters who were turned to stone.

We did a few of the National Park trails from Katoomba and Black Heath, which had constantly awesome views...and countless steps!! But the highlight of the blue mountains was definitely our canyoning trip: We spent the morning abseiling in the mountains which was a lot of fun, then headed to the canyon where we wet-suited up and walked, swam, jumped and slid our way to Emperess Falls. The water was pretty cold, so jumping off a rock bacwards into a pool of water pretty much took your breathe away! The finale was abseiling down the 90ft Emperess Water Fall. This was probably the least graceful abseil I've ever done...I lost my footing several times, slamming into the rock, stupidly looking upwards for a face full of water..and eventually dropping into the pool of water. It must have looked pretty amusing...luckily I got to watch Ed come down after me with a similar descent.

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Comments

[Jan Maughan]

Torronga zoo
Been sat 2hours now - it's like playing the picture game I just cannot work out what is in the picture derrrr !!!! Loving the Blog of the 14th you are certainly Having the experience of a life time 'good on ya' as they say down under. Who's the handsome guy ??? Happy travelling. X