Blogs from Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 34

Yea it rained in the Blue Mountains so we couldn’t see much except fog but Lo and behold Tuesday morning- sunshine! So we headed to Scenic World took the steepest railway in the world down to the jungle floor and after some bushwalking back up on a cable car The Blue Mountains are really blue! They get that color from the eucalyptus trees Probably the only place like that in the world. Australia is home to many plants and animals that cannot be found anywhere else in the world including the kangaroo which Frank has been on a quest to see. The closest he's gotten is to pose for a picture with his arm around a cardboard one. Not quite what he was expecting but we haven’t left yet!!! Unless you want to count the ... read more

I found my own little wonderland today. At 10 am I set out for the train complete with picnic...cheese and salad sandwiches...and jumped on the 2hour train to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains...very beautiful From the station its a hike along the road, maybe 1.5miles, to Echo point....tourist central. almost got photographed by all the oriental coach tours but managed to slip off down a trail and found myself alone...The trails and bush walks lead all the way round a huge sandstone valley, with cliffs and waterfalls and lookouts. Every now and then there would be another couple of people armed with their cameras but mostly I had the trail to myself. The sun was shining but it was a little hazy. Had my picnic at a secluded little lookout with spectacular panoramas. will get the ... read more

A month or so ago, I put out the feelers to track down more contacts to get supplies of wine grapes for the coming harvest season. I have found it is not hard to get lots of advice and some good contacts from any number of wine making enthusiasts (who are mostly of Italian or Macedonian decent). So, based on the information I was given, I started making some calls and now I have a feeling my plans to “make a few bottles” is possibly growing a little beyond my expectations. "Joe the Italian", was the contact I was given to try and get some white grapes, I made one call to his mobile asking if he could get me a “few boxes” and he called back three days later asking “Ok mate the grapes are ... read more

Lorenza and I recently bottled our first vintage of Riesling. I am surprised, it tastes ok!... read more

Throughout this trip, I've tried to stick to my mantra of leaving places on a high rather than waiting for tedium and over-familiarity to set in. Looking back, this has served me well as I'm hard-pushed thinking of a bad day so far. So having decided that it was time to say goodbye to Sydney we hired a car and headed for the Blue Mountains, 100kms or so west of the city. Much in the way that the Cameron Highlands offered a retreat to wind-down after the Full Moon Party, we were looking for the Blue Mountains to steady our pulses after the hectic festive period in Sydney. The two Swedish girls we'd been travelling with for a bit on the east coast, Hanna and Sofia, had mentioned that they were keen on seeing the Blue ... read more