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Published: March 12th 2007
Carmen, Muzz and the black bloke!!
meeting up with muzz before he went back to th UK, and we went off to the Mountains Well, after the debacle of the car, let me leave that for now, and continue with waht has up to now been a fantastic voyage of discovery. We were, however, about to find the best yet, in the fantastic blue mountains.
To give you an introduction, the Blue mountains are about 1.5 hours drive from Sydney. It is a mountaneous range which was given its name due to the blue haze given off by the oil of the Eucalyptus trees.
We arrive in Katoomba falls caravan park, and put up our tent. The caravan park is set next to a playing field, which has a rugby field to the right of us, and a cricket pitch to the left. Being an avid cricket fan, I am instantly drawn to the cricket pitch, but as we don't have any cricket equiptment for one, and I am accompanied by a spic, and surrounded by Germans and scandanavians (who don't really understand the aesthetics of such a cerebral game), I am left to my somewhat vivid imagination of playing cricket for England against the Aussies for the World Cup (which I am keeping a keen eye on)............................................... But I digress.
wildlife spotting
the famous kookaburra, up close and personal!! Apart from the sports pitches!! The caravan park is set amongst mountains, and the smell of eucalyptus. We pitch tent next to one, and set up for the night, by which time the heavens have opened, and the rain dawns upon us once again!! Whilst with our map of the region, planning our days, we meet up with a couple of yorkshire lads, who had been at the campsite a few days before us, and we get chatting about the area and our plans. Reminiscing about the rain back home, it brought a wonder of how all my mates are doing. But this did not last too long, and we quickly got back to planning our trip!!!
That night was cold as hell, and we had to wrap up in wolly hats, hoodies, and even had to get the emergency space blanket out (silver foil blanket). It was truely freezing, and we did not get a great deal of sleep that night.
The morning arose to a beautiful sunrise, with slight frost on the ground. A good harty breakfast, with STRONG coffee made us feel slightly better, and we set off on our exploration of the area. First
IT WAS WET OUT THERE!!
we arrived at the campsite, and were drentched as we put up our tent!! Drought??? stop was to the three sisters at Echo point. This is a mountain range that is fascinating by its story as much as its view. The aboriginal story goes that three sisters from an aboriginal tribe fell in love with 3 brothers from another tribe. As these two tribes were waring at the time, a wise shamen type member of the tribe decided to turn the sisters into stone, in order to protect them from the opposing tribe. However, the shamen was killed during battle, and the sisters have remained encased in rock ever since.
The views in the morning were full of fog, views of the three sisters were unclear. This did not stop hoards of japanese tourists flocking to view....................................................white fog!! It was truely amazing, they were taking photos and everything.....of nothing!!! Mad people. If they had stayed longet, however, they would have seen the beauty of the three sisters, as seen by our photos.
We continued on our exploration, and there are various walks and treks that you can do. Now i am not the biggest fan of walks, as I have a dodgy knee, and also an insane fear of snakes. Therefore getting me
t'was cold as hell!!
Our first night was freezing, and getting up was THE most difficult thing i have done for a long time!! to agree to these walks was a test for Carmen, and ended up with some arguments. However, I must say that i was a fool for arguing, as the views were breathtaking.
Gordons falls, Evans lookout, Black Heath, they are all magical, and as you can see, the views are absolutely breathtaking.............unless you don't like heights!!!
Now, i have been asked to write something in spanish for Carmens friends at home, so excuse me for a minute whilst I say a few words.
Oye todas/os en espana, y bienvenido a las montanas azul. Nosotros visitamos aqui, porque necessito Carmen ejercicio porque ella se esta poniendo muy gorda!!!
Es muy bonita aqui, pero en las noche es muy frio. FRIO, FRIO, FRIO!!!!! Necessitamos un gorro y un abrigo para dormir, y tambien un papel de plata por urgencias!!!!
como podeis ver en las photos, las vistas es muy bonitas. Nosotros visitamos sitios con cascadas y yo me queje todo el tiempo, me encanto mucho.
espero que os guestan las photos. Hasta lluego. RobXX
HUH!!! ok. Lets get back to our normal language. Now, you might have thought that, being so far away from
views on our first day out
not a lot to see at first, due to the huge fog that decended on us. work and all, i am forgetting my emergency skills. Well, I have a surprise for you!!!
One day, on our way back from the shops, we came across a car in the middle of the road. i was about to let go with the horn (which incedently sounds like a bloody donkey!!), when Carmen noticed a guy frantically running across the road, and an elderly lady looking a bit lost for words. Carmen shouted for me to get out and attend, as she thought something had happened. Begrudgingly, i got out of the car, and jogged over to the lady, only to find that she had knocked an elderly gentleman of his motorbike, and he was now unconscious in the middle of the road, with blood pouring out from somewhere, and the man asking if someone knew CPR!!!
So off i went to do my duty, quietly asking myself if 1- I thought this was a good idea, and 2- did i still remember my ATLS (advanced trauma and life support) skills!! Flashes of my friend simon and I going through moulages in our hotel room during our training came flooding through me, as i lay at the
i'm scared!!!
yup!! it was like hound of the baskervilles head of this guy, who was making erratic breathing noises, and was not responding to anything, as i grabbed his neck and asked if he could hear me. SHIT!!! a quick jaw thrust eased his noisy breathing, and as the guy was calling the emergency line, he kept telling them that the guy was not breathing and that there is a doctor helping him!! Ã'm not a doctor, I'm a nurse, and he is breathing, but tell them we need a paramedic crew asap!!" I continued my primary survey, and apart from a completely rotated right elbow, there seemed no other lifethreatening injuries. I asked Carmen to slowly remove his arm from under his body, and I might as well have asked someone else, because Carmen attended him with two fingers!!
The ambulance crew seemed to take a life-time to arrive, by which time this guy had come around, and started to take his helmet of, and sitting himself up. In my frustration, i started shouting at him, which in turn made everyone else shout at him. Surprisingly, he did not listen, and sat himself up. After looking around, with me holding onto his neck, and trying to explain
what a shot!!
the master at work (heheheh!!). Thought this should win a prize for something!! what had happened, he finally eased up, but remained sitting. He kept moving his neck, which worried me a lot. He was clearly confused, telling me he was 57 one time and then telling me he was 21 the next. However, in sitting himself up, he seemed to have relocated his elbow, and this was the only thing he was complaining off. The blood was coming from a gash in his eye, and his elbow, and he looked like he had some facial fractures. However, he could consider himself very lucky!!
The Ambulance got there, and i immediately asked for a hard collar. He got one out, but did not really know how to measure him up, and with continuing flashes of our moulages during training, I had to explain to the other guy, who really did not know anything, and seemed to keep away from the action. The paramedic took a blood pressure, which was ok, and then got the stretcher over to him. By this time, the police had arrived, and were taking statements from everyone. As the paramedics brought the trolley over, something kind of grasped me. There was no device to lift him onto the
echo point lookout
fantastic views of sandstone rock formations. Its starting to clear a bit now. trolley. What were they going to use?? I had felt his pelvis, but they had done no real survey of his injuries. No hard board, no scoop (which is essentially a metal board which splits in two, so that you can effectively scoop this under the patient). I continued holding onto the neck, and to my horror, these guys just grabbed by the jeans, and hoiked him onto the trolley and sat him up!! "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" I was furious, and as they got him into the ambulance, I asked them if they needed me to come to the hospital with them. "naa mate, we should be good from here. Thanks for your help." I asked "have any of you done ATLS?" AT what mate? where are you from?" UK, i answered, and with that i got silence, as one guy tried to get a cannula in him. I left them to it, as i went to speak to the police man, and hoped that everything would be ok!!
This left me slightly nervous for the guy, and as we got back to our tent, with my trousers and hands full of blood, i remisced about the events that took place.
it gets better
beautiful waterfalls start to appear. We're getting a bit excited now!! Carmen, on the other hand, was all shaken and stirred, and even had back ache!! FROM WHAT, i asked, noting that she had infact been F-all help to me at the time!!! I was somewhat conforted by the fact that they were taking the guy to a trauma centre, but from what i had just seen, i was not sure if that was a good thing or not!!
The next day, after our traumatic experience, we headed of for the jenolan caves. This, for me atleast, was the heighlight of the trip, as it was like returning to my childhood days. Now, i don't normally need much encouragement, but this was truely an inspired day out.
We arrived at the caves, which we enter through a rock tunnel, after a great drive through windy roads. It's a fantastic sunny day, and we head to the reception desk to see whats on offer. There's a plethora of caves to explore, the most photographed of which is the lucas caves. There are caves so big, that people have their weddings there, and there have even been musical concerts held inside, due to its fantastic acoustics.
Not being sure of
for god sake!!
there's no getting away from it. Even thousands of miles away, its etched into the walls of caves!!! which cave to visit, and each one is priced accordingly, we ask the receptionist for her opinion. On off is the adventure caving, aptly named the plughole. This sounded like fun, and so off we went (after paying about $60 each). Our guides were two girls, who had clearly been doing this for some time. We signed our disclaimer, and were taken to an old school house, where we donned our boiler suits, hard hats and abseiling harnesses, and listened intently to our instructor, who explained the route we would take. We then proceeded to our drop off point, where we had a 30M abseil down a rock face, and into the caves. As Carmen was the only one who had never abseiled before, the instructor volunteered her to go down first!! Actually, she did it with no problem at all, and soon all 5 of us were down at the bottom, switched on our high beam head lights, and descended down into the dark dark caves of jenolan.
Down in the caves, it was eereily quiet, with a few bats ebing disturbed by our presence. Jenolan Caves were known to the local Aboriginal population for many thousands of
years as Binoomea, "Dark places". European involvement in the area began in 1838 with the first recorded discovery by a local pastoralist James Whalan. According to legend however, Whalan was not the first European to set eyes on the caves, with that honour going to James McKeown, an ex-convict and possibly an outlaw, reputed to have been using the caves as a hideout. It is littered with helectites, underwater rivers, and its history holds you in extreme awe and emotion.
As we struggled through the various holes and crevesces, we edscend into one of the larger show caves, the imperial caves, which draws your breath in its beauty. It is amazing that, through time, water has effectively eroded these limestone formations into what we see. At one point, we come across a broken helectite, and are amazed at the weight of one of these, which I can only liken to an elephant tusk in its size and weight. It is truely amazing how these things manage to remain suspended from the top of these rocks for centuaries.
We finally get to the piece de resistance of this adventure cave, called the S-bend. This is so called as it
just the two of us!!
there are lots of beautiful littl etrails to walk along. Just make sure your warm!! resembles the S bend pipe that we often see below our sinks. Now you can imagine that this is not a problem for someone of carmen's sixe and physique. But when you look at the size of me, i had to wonder whether i was going to make it through, or whether the rescue team would haver to be sent to get me out!! But we managed to squeeze through, and in the end had such a good time, i can thoroughly recommend this trip to anyone who ventures up into the blue mountains. it was fantastic..........but get there early to make good use of all the caves (it closes at 5!).
Well guys and girls. After all that, i'm all pooped out, so I shall bid you farewell, as we head for Canberra. But for those travellers who visit this site, and view my blog, you just have to take a trip up here. its just breathtaking
See ya soon
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nigel
non-member comment
sunny then
Hey lads you lucky lucky bastards bringing loads of memories back from my trip! rob it looks like its sunny there..... workin up a tan eh? big love nig x