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Published: January 13th 2007
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Obligatory Opera House shot
I think every Aussie blog has at least one of these! After an overnight bus journey from Melbourne to Sydney on a bus on a par with the standard Ecuadorian offering (minus the Quechuan ladies naturally) we arrived at Sydney Central station sleepy and about ready to get into a shower and have a cup of tea, both of which I was fully expecting when we arrived at my Uncle Ray and Auntie Jane's house in North Sydney. A very friendly cabby zoomed us out across the Harbour Bridge which we took in through our now buzzing caffeinated minds (coffee at the bus station) and deposited us at Casa de Jenkins. We had come to give my uncle a surprise for his birthday so we rang the doorbell and heard the pitter patter of my cousin Jenny's 4 year old feet and saw Ray's reflection. His initial face expression of shock and confusion soon melted into laughter and we headed inside.
After a nap for Mike and a shower for me we were ready to meet Jane's family who had headed over for a birthday barby that evening. We had a truly lovely evening chatting about our travels, comparing notes with other people's experiences and catching up on the family gossip.
The following 11 days were for the most part spent around Sydney. It was so nice to be living in a house again as opposed to a hostel. We walked across the bridge into the city and back on one day, spent a morning on the beach with 2 of my new favourite people Jenny and her 2 year old sister Lizzie, and generally just explored at our own lazy pace. We spent a couple of days in the Blue Mountains which was excellent. After planning a walk which was listed as 3 and half hours and finding it only took us an hour we were intially a little disappointed but the views were pretty spectacular and we extended it by walking back up to the top of the cliff where we had originally come from (around 900 steps). We decided to book onto a canyoning trip for the following day after our not so satisfying walk and managed to get onto a last minute one which saved us around $50.
The next morning we got to the shop at 8.30am as instructed to find nothing open - apparently the tours never get started until 9am. At 9.20 the
last of our group arrived - 3 doctors from the UK who were dreadfully hungover. As the weather was pretty awful the guide told us we would skip the abseiling lesson and just go through the entire canyon instead of the half we would have done as we would be soaked anyway. So we headed off and when we arrived at the start of the canyon we got all dressed up in our wetsuits (no photos you will be pleased to hear!) and started the walk down. I was a bit cautious which led the instructor to believe I was a bit of a wimp and when we got to the first jump of 3 we would have to do I nearly wet myself with fear which no doubt added to the impression. The jump was 4.5 metres high and you had to jump in such a way as to clear some rocks and land in water that was shallower than my height. After realising there was no way back and that everyone else had survived I steeled myself, took a run and jumped. I landed fine and that was the worst we had to do so hopefully I dispelled
The Blue Mountains
A waterfall we came across on our walk - not the one we abseiled down my wimp reputation by being braver after that. I'd just like to point out that Mike found the first jump pretty scary too! The day culminated with an abseil down a waterfall of about 30 metres. I loved it! I got to the bottom and was congratulated on my professional looking style on the way down - apparently I looked like a real abseiler not just a girl who had been pushed off a cliff on a rope! Mike on the other hand went down with his face to the rock and was thoroughly disappointed. He blames the fact the waterfall was splashing straight into his face whereas it wasn't so much on my side. I reckon you either got it or you don't!
After our exhilarating day we stayed one more night in Katoomba and then headed back to the city the following morning. It was Tim's birthday that night and Becky and Tim had arrived the night before so after a shower and some fun and games with Jenny and Lizzy we headed to Coogee Beach which is where they were staying. Becky and Tim had been drinking since lunchtime on and off so were way ahead
Befriending the Coogee Locals
on Tim's birthday. In actual fact they were probably all Brits as the whole area seemed to be full of us! of us by the time we got there at 6. Nonetheless Tim managed to last until 11.40pm before getting asked to leave by security. He fully accepted the dismissal and agreed it was time to go home. This was after a night of dancing like a he was doing the dishes and taking a million photos of everyone. All in all a good night was had.
The following few days involved hanging out with Beks and Tim, sorting out our Thai visa and generally enjoying some home comforts (including an excellent barbeque at Ray and Jane's neighbours' house). We did try and do some touristy things but the sky tower had a ginormous queue and we decided to wait until out return to Sydney to do the bridge walk. One of our favourite days was spent in the Botanical Gardens which are beautiful. They also house a large group (flock, colony, gaggle??) of bats which we watched in fascination for a good couple of hours. They are enormous and totally dispelled any of our erroneous thoughts about bats. First, they make a lot of noise which humans can hear - I had always thought they made such high pitched
Striking a pose
as requested by the birthday boy sound we couldn't hear it. Second, they do move around in the day. Not far, but there was quite a lot of flapping etc when we were there.
On the 20th we headed for the airport to start our northern experience and to settle at Airlie Beach for Christmas.
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