Syndey to Darwin via the Blue Mountains

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After saying a very sad farewell to Merryn's extended family, who i will miss very much and will definately visit again in the future, i took the train back to Syndey (during the day this time) for a few days of tourism before meeting up with friend Liz, from the jillaroo school, to go and see the Blue Mountains. The main highlight of my Syndey stay was doing theSyndey Harbour Bridge Climb. i had considered it before but Hannah had really strongly recommended it so i thought it was worth the money to have a go. i picked a night climb, to see the city all lit up, and was very lucky to get a perfect time when we also got to see the sunset. it took nearly an hour for them to brief us on safety, kit us out with jumpsuits, belt harnesses, fleeces, hats, radios etc and put us through the metal detector - my belly button beeped even though i wasnt wearing anything metal!! But we did finally get out the door and onto the bridge. i was the ONLY tourist!!! - the rest of the group were made up of 2 girls from an estate agents in the city and a large corporate group from a company that represents Swiss Airlines! It was good though as i almost got a personalised tour, being the only person who didnt already know anything about Sydney. I dont actually really like bridges, having always felt rather nervous just driving or walking across them, so being suspended 50m+ above both the road and the water on a catwalk was a little scary at first, but i soon got used to it and it actually felt really safe. The view was absolutely amazing and our guide Darren knew everything - i have no idea how he manages to retain so many facts and numbers in his head without getting confused. We werent allowed to take cameras on the bridge, incase we dropped them, which was a shame, but i have a very good store of images in my memory. It wasnt at all cold and barely windy so the climb was really pleasant. i would definately recommend it to anyone going to Syndey - you get a whole history of the city and the bridge and opera house construction and everything.

My second day in Sydney i went out to the Olympic Park for the Royal Easter Show - like a massive agricultural show. they have this weird fashion over here for 'showbags' - different branded carrier bags filled with goodies that you can buy at bargain prices. i was tempted by several but realised that it was far too hot to carry much choclate about and anything else i would have to pack somewhere. There was a massive art display, which i particularly enjoyed, and the food halls had some amazing landscape sculptures made entirely from fruits, vegetables and grains. The yard dog demonstration was really good but the main highlights were in the evening. i managed to get an excellent seat for the NSW vs SA mens polo competition (NSW won, much to the crowd's delight) the Judges and Stewards "control your horse" competition - noises and obstacles and strange dismounts with points for control and style, the motorcross and ute stunt driving (awesome!) and best of all the bullriding. Since being in NZ and OZ this is definately now one of my favourite sports. They were on round 7 of 10 or something so i felt sorry for the riders, they must have been really bruised and knackered by then, but it was a great display and there were good few entertaining moments, usually when the bulls refuse to leave the ring. THe show ended with fireworks and a very humourous laser light show. Only in Australia could you entertain a crowd with laser images of cows eating grass and being milked, and make the audience start the fireworks by "mooing" as loud as possible! It was good though to see the support farmers get from the government and the general population compared to at home.

I met Liz that evening, at her backpackers, and despite both of us being totally knackered we still ended up talking until gone 1 am. She was in town for the next 5 days so we decided to do the Blue Mountains over the weekend then i would move to her hostel and we would do the rest of the Syndey highlights together. So having got back to my hostel near 2 am i had to get up again beofe 7 to pack and trundle all my gear to hers. The train out there was only an hour so after breakfast at the Scary Canary (the hostel bar restaurant), which i got free as Liz had some spare meal tickets, we headed inland. Both of us seem to be navigationally incompetant but we did find the Blue Moutains YHA eventually. I could stay there forever, it was so nice and friendly and the kitchen and lounge we huge and CLEAN! Anyhew, not to waste any time, after consulting with the receptionist we headed off for an afternoons walk to a few clifftop lookouts and then down the valley to the Giant Steps. Well, that was the plan, but either the map wasnt detailed enough or we were just blind because we just couldnt find the path along the clifftop. We did have a very nice walk to the bottom of the valley and back and saw lots of lovely waterfalls and some redtailed black cockatoos. We invented the rest of the walk, heading along the opposite cliff to our original plan, but it was still absolutely spectacular. The valleys just go on for ever and all there is is trees. its good to know there are still some places like this left in the world. Far too much talking meant that we just missed the sunset at the Three Sisters - 3 pillars of rock with various legends behind them - all of which we heard from a very nice older Polish gentleman who leant us his binoculars and delighted in telling American tourists that the jetplanes taking off from the nearby airport were in fact comets!

He gave us ride home and after about half an hour of trying to decide where to eat we gave up and headed for the cinema, choosing to eat later. we got lost finding the cinema but made it in time to see Sweeney Todd. If you are at all squeamish or dont like blood, dont go and see it. I thought it was going to be all comedy gore, and the story was very good and i quite liked Johnny Depp (how can you not?) but it was just too bloody for me. i had my eyes shut through half of it and had to get Liz to tell me when it was safe to open them! oh well. We did eventually have tea at a pizza restaurant, the only place that was open!

The next day we got up reasonably early to put in a whole day's hiking and make the most of our time, but we spent too long cooking and eating our Full English Breakfast (mmmmm!) and so didnt get underway until about 10am. We had considered taking a tour but the Grand Canyon actually looked fairly easy to nagivate alone so we caught the train to Blackheath and set off. The weather was beautiful, the scenery stunning and we enjoyed all the landmarks including Bridal Veil falls. We had lunch at a lookout, which was sadly slightly spoilt by the scaffolding railings they used to stop people falling over the edge. As ever, we talked too much and walked too slow but really enjoyed the hike and the scenery. Scrambling around in the valley was great fun and my basic rockclimbing skills came in handy taking various waterfall shots without dropping my camera into the water! Its one of those places you have to go to, its just incredible! We finished the track only about 2 hours later than intended (oops!) to find that it as getting dark and we were still about an hour from the train station. We walked for maybe 40 minuts but we were both tired and footsore and really not making enouhg progress, so we acosted a very nice lady with 2 dogs to ask for directions and a taxi number. When it came we were actually only maybe 20 minutes from the station, but as it was the last train of the day it was better safe than sorry and it gave us time to have a cup of tea at the pub! We gathered our stuff from the backpackers (eventually working out how those electronic lockers work!) and did another tour of the highstreet trying to decide what to get for tea to eat on the train back to Syndey, this time made slightly harder as we were carrying all out stuff! We eventually settled on MSG-free Chinese and then snoozed most of the way home.

For the next 2 days Liz and I "did" Syndey - we went up the bridge pylon and looked out over the city, we had a proper look around the Opera House in the daylight, took the ferry to Manly Beach and the bus to Bondi (no surfing, waves werent that good!). Kirke would be proud to know that we sampled Starbuck's delights several times, but never a cafe latte (or caffay lartay as they are now known!). I have to confess we did do a bit of souvenir shoppin in The Rocks, buying some very nice kangaroo tops and trying on the kids fluffy kangaroo and koala hoodies! We were far too lazy to use the hostel kitchen, which really wasnt that great anyway, so dined out every night, and lunchtime. But it was great to just laze around and have fun in good company. Liz flew out to NZ early on the Wednesday morning, leaving me to jobhuntalone in the big city! wehad such an amazing time. there is about 20 years age gap between us but we get along so well. she really inspires me, having had a tough few years in the past but always doing the best she could and striving to better herself. she is now thinking of changing careers from lawyer to vet nurse - i hope she goes for it!

The next few days i spent mostly reading, postcard shopping and strolling in parks - basically anything to avoid spending money. i got to know Rob and Julia in my dorm pretty well. Rob is ex RAF, having been a door gunner and medic in Iraq and Afghanistan. A really interesting guy to talk to. Julia is sweet and funny and one evening probed me about being a Christian, something that now seems to be happening everywhere i stay, and even had me reading to her from the book of Job! It still amazes me both how people can be so fascinated by God and how little they know of Him. The other girls in the dorm were not so great - one was quite friendly but the other 2 often went out all night partying then would come in any time from 2am to gone 4 am and be very lud, talk non-stop for over half an hour about non-essential things and invariably turn the light on and leave it on, even when they went out to the bathroom! when confronted they turned aggressive so no-one really wanted to try it. i did complain to the management at one point, but they were hopeless and did nothing. so no-one got a goodnights sleep that week! Oh well. On the Friday i finally got a firm answer about a job i was chasing, on the border between NT and WA and so booked a flight and headed to Darwin on the Saturday evening.

THe flight was fine, i am finally getting used to it and not getting all tense every take off, landing and banking. the flight was cheap because it took off around 9pm, went via Brisbane and landed in Darwin at 2 am! ON the second flight i sat niect to a lady and her son, who were flying to darwin with her brother to go on a fishing trip. they were really lovely and she even gave me a book called "Hell West and Crooked" about an English guy who became a stationhand and buffalo hunter in the 1930s, and she offered me a place to stay as and when i make it to the Gold Coast. I fairly well crawled into my bunk at the YHA in Darwin, already suffocating from the heat and very glad of the room's air conditioning, despite it being as loud as a car revving up outside! But my fatigue overcame such things...

My job was to start on the 15th of April, so i had around 10 days to fill, including getting to Kununura in WA, the nearest town to the station, and buying a swag (1 man tent thing, only high enough to lie dow in, but can be rolled up easily and carried on a ute or horse), so the first couple of days i simply wandered around town and adjusted to the heat, spending a lot of time in the TV room's air conditioning! Darwin was quite badly affected by Japanese bombing during WWII and the esplanade had quite a display of memorials and recovered guns and things from sunken ships. With brother Dave now in the army these things have taken on new meaning for me and i am always amazed to find war memorials even in the smallest, remotest towns over here, whrere almost all of the young male population must have gone to fight. The hostel ahd been previously mismanaged so the place wasnt quite up to standard but there was a friendly vibe and i met plenty of nice people. the highlight was Percy, a male cockatiel who couldnt fly, and only likes women. he would often be found hanging out by the pool and would poccasionally scream at you ifd he wanted a ride somewhere! By then money was running tight but as i would be working on a station for 6-8 weeks i decided to have one final splurge and go on a 3 day 4WD safari into Kakadu National Park....

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