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Published: December 9th 2005
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Questacon!
Me + Pablo - after our death-defying free fall at Questacon ;) Today I'm in Camberra, the capital of Australia. It's a beautiful city, with numerous fields and lots of open space. As a backpacker, it doesn't seem to have too many things to see, but I can imagine it being a lovely place to live. At the moment I'm using the internet in the public library which is in a stunning location at the side of the lake. Afterwards, I think I will head to the Science Center (Questacon) and then to visit a few more museums.
I feel much better today than I did when I last wrote from Sydney. My last two days have been packed with activity, and I have loved every minute! On the morning of the 7th, Lucia, Pablo, and I went to get the rental car and drove to Bondi Beach which is located just outside Sydney. We spent a few hours on the beach, soaking up the sun and really getting a feel for the beach culture 😉. At lunchtime, Lucia and I went for a quest for the supermarket...on the way I saw lots of 'Help Wanted' signs throughout the town (maybe I'll go back and spend my christmas/new years time serving ice-cream
on the beach...!!). After lunch, we went on a walk along the shoreline to some neighboring beaches. They were all beautiful, and we decided to have a swim in each!
At about 2 we decided to head towards the Blue Mountains. On the way we heard on the radio that a. it had been 39C that day! b. a shark had been seen off of Sydney Harbour - the biggest recorded shark in 10 years...! The Blue Mountains National Park was the first Australian national park I had entered, and it shocked me to see that there were big towns and houses everywhere! Not what I pictured in a national park, although the views were still stunning! We drove to the famous Three Sisters lookout point, and went for a bit of a walk until sunset.
We then drove to a nearby campsite, and set up our tents for my first campout in Australia! It was fantastic - we had a campfire and good food, and the stars were spectacular! I had a great time - I'm so glad I met Lucia and Pablo so that I could have the opportunity to come up to the mountains. The
Blue Mountains
The Three Sisters next day we woke up early and headed back towards the Three Sisters and decided to do a 4 hour hike down to the valley and back up to the lookout point. The hike was just what I needed, some lovely forests, waterfalls, and even some wildlife (typical 'lizards' here are about 10 times the size of the lizards I've ever seen. We saw one while having lunch, and it scared me enough to jump up and have all my food get sprawled all over the floor :o ). After the hike, due to a recommendation of an Australian friend, we went to visit the Jenolan Caves. The Jenolan Caves consist of about 9 limestone caves that can be toured individually. We got there quite late, and since the tours are not so frequent, we went to go see the Temple of Baal Cave Tour. The cave was incredible, with stalegmites/tites creating beautiful shapes on the ceiling as well as the floors. The guide told us the different colors were due to iron in the water - the contrasting colors made the different formations look even more fascinating! The tour was 1.5 hours, and definitely worth the trip.
That
Canberra Camping
Kangaroo next to my tent! night we had to make our way close to Camberra because the rental car needed to be returned at 9 the next morning. During the drive, I saw my first Kangaroo!! It was hopping across the street - and I had just enough time to see it! Later on in the caravan park we were staying at, though, there were about 15 kangaroos and wallabees just jumping about really close to where we set up our tents! We had some dinner, went to sleep (the night was very cold compared to the previous night!), and the next morning the kangaroos were still there! So I got some good pictures of kangaroos!
We got to the car rental place the next morning with a whole 6 minutes to spare - and then set off looking for a hostel. In all or Camberra, there only seems to be about 3 hostels. We were directed to the 'cheapest' one, and although it's expensive, it has a sauna, spa, and (ofcourse) a barbeque area. I can't wait to relax this evening after we go see some sights!
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Hilary
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really late birthday!
I am a total idiot and I completely forgot to wish you a happy birthday over a month ago! I am in total amazement over all of your adventures and I'm totally jealous!