Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree

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November 1st to December 17th

On November 7th I finally made it out of Sydney to visit the Blue Mountains with Simon and two of his co-workers. The Blue Mountains is a part of a protected World Heritage wildlife area. The air above the forest has a blue hue due to mist from the abundant eucalypt vegetation. (The air also smells fabulous because of the Eucalyptus.) Katoomba, the main town we visited was small and surprisingly not as touristy as I expected. We grabbed some coffee/tea at a small café and then headed to Echo Point to get a good look at the famous Three Sisters rock formation and the Jamison Valley. The Three Sisters is an aboriginal tale about three sisters that fell in love with three men from another tribe, but they were forbidden to marry them. A skirmish between tribes ensued and the three sisters were turned to stone by their father to protect them. Unfortunately their father was killed during battle and no one knew how to turn them back. An interesting tale and the rock formations were cool too, but they weren’t as big as they looked in all the postcards I’d seen. LOL. While we were there Simon and I walked down some very steep stairs to get a closer view of the formations. I was really happy because I got to see a Kookaburra in a tree right next to the view point. After viewing the valley we went to Scenic World to take the scenic railway down to the valley floor. The bottom area we went into was an old mining area and the railway is the steepest in the world. We walked around the overgrown mining outpost briefly before catching the cable car back up and heading back into Katoomba for a pub lunch. It was a great outing and I had fun!

Unfortunately I was feeling ill that day in the mountains and had been ill for awhile. After our trip to Katoomba I kept getting worse and I ended up spending most of November ill with Acute Bronchitis. Due to my breathing troubles I was unable to go out and do too much exploring or much working. The only time I did make it out of the house was on November 14th to get some food and I randomly ended up with a henna tattoo from an Egyptian festival.

Towards the end of the November I was doing better. On November 21st Simon and I went to a huge street market in Glebe. Then on the 24th we wandered a few blocks north of were we live to see some of the historic buildings. We visited the Museum of Sydney built over the foundations of the first Government House. It was small, but interesting. We then visited the old Customs House, the State Library of NSW, the old Sydney Mint, the old hospital and the parliament building. We even sat in on a session of parliament when they were discussing some environmental issues and I was surprised and saddened to see that almost all the politicians were either absent or asleep.

We also celebrated Thanksgiving on the 25th by having Kangaroo Steaks, potatoes and green beans. Perhaps a bit non-traditional, but it was delicious. The last Sunday of the month we went to Manly via the ferry again for fish and chips on the beach. We were going to try to complete the North Head walk again, but it was too muggy so we decided not to bush walk that day.

The first weekend in December we decided to head out on the town one night to see Sydney lit up in its Christmas finery. Trees and lights everywhere. I especially liked the three story high tree crammed in the middle of the Queen Victoria Building and the light projections on the front face of town hall.

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Photos

Jamison Valley
You can really see the blue hue.