Well…I survived another adventurous weekend in the Land of Oz! Once again, Australia did not disappoint. I spent three days out in the Blue Mountains with my entire group and had a great time enjoying all our activities and the magical scenery.
Thursday, we took a 5 hour train ride out to Katoomba. Katoomba is about 2 hours straight west of Sydney. The town itself is so cute! The main street was lined with a bunch of small shops, restaurants, and cafes. It also has a trolley line that circles the entire town, stopping at all the tourist spots, including the Three Sisters, waterfalls, views of the Blue Mountains, the Chocolate Factory, and a place called Scenic World.
We spent Friday morning with a local Aboriginal descendant who demonstrated different Aboriginal hunting techniques, dances, and songs. He shows us how they throw spears and catch kangaroos (no worries, no animals died…we actually didn’t even see a kangaroo haha). He also took us on a “bush walk” à this walk took us through the Australian Bush (forests) which, in this area, is full of eucalyptus trees. They smell SO good! I’m thinking about shipping some eucalyptus leaves over to Yankee Candle back in the states and asking them to make it into a candle! The Eucalyptus forests also cover all the valleys within the Blue Mountains.
We had all Friday afternoon and night to do whatever we wanted. A few of us went on the trolley tour, going all around Katoomba, looking at all the scenery. We stopped at Scenic World, which is a small tourist location that has sky rails and is home to the world’s steepest railroad. We did all of it…naturally! Scenic World is located right on the cliffs of the Blue Mountains, so it has spectacular views stretching on for miles. We first took the Railroad down into the forests, which was awesome. To give you an idea of how steep it was, it is illegal for rollercoaster’s to be that steep because they wouldn’t stay on the tracks at their speed. So, of course, we were going extremely slowly, but we were basically laying on our backs. Once we got to the bottom, we went on a 5K walk around the eucalyptus forests. Then we got to ride the Sky rail back to the top. The Sky rail gave a really nice view of the forests under us and the mountains in the background.
Saturday morning we woke up early and went out to the cliffs to do some abseiling (cliff repelling). We did 4 different cliffs. The first one was a learner’s cliff, only 5 meters. The second one was another beginner’s one, only 10 meters. The third one was pretty cool. It was 30 meters long and really steep. A lot of people in the group had enough after the 30 meters. But, us true adventurers were nowhere near being done! We moved on up to the 60 meter high cliff…which was about 190 feet. It was super scary at first…especially getting your body to lean back over the cliff. WHEW! But it was a lot of fun! My arm and hand were killing me by the time I got down, but it was worth it.
Most people left to head back to Newcastle after our abseiling experience, but I stayed back with my roommate, Lisa, for a little bit. We went a toured more of the city, taking more pictures, and doing some shopping. We went to Echo Point in Katoomba and got the see the Three Sisters. If you haven’t heard about the Three Sisters, they are three points directly in a row in the Blue Mountains. Here is the legend:
The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe. These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry. The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle.
As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come.
Katoomba was a really fun place to visit. It really reminded me of home…minus all the mountains haha.
So…what else is new…
I have exactly 7 weeks left…completely crazy! Next weekend, Lisa and I are renting a camper van and taking a road trip up to Brisbane. We are going to hopefully visit the Australia Zoo, Sea World, and a couple of smaller cities along the Gold Coast. It should be interesting…neither of us has driven in 3 months and everything is backwards here…but no worries! We have to take a small driving course in order to rent the van so all should be well. There is a small group of some friends of ours that are doing the same trip next weekend too, so we will be with them most of the time.
Unfortunately, it’s looking like I’m not going to be able to go to the Outback while I’m here. My friend, Kim, who was going to go with me, is running pretty low on money. I’m bummed…I really want to go. But, Lisa and I are renting a van (again) and taking a big road trip along the southern coast. It’s called the Great Ocean Road. We will drive through 4 major cities (Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, and Adelaide) and hit up many tourist attractions of the south. The drive it supposed to be beautiful! So, that will be my farewell to Australia trip. We are planning that in the middle of June. If you look at the map I put up a couple weeks ago, you can see our driving path.
Lately, it has been pretty rainy in Newcastle. Fall is here as well, so it’s cooled down significantly…well, not as cool as we are used to I suppose. It is actually pretty funny seeing all these Aussies run around in big coats and boots while we are still in T-Shirts, jeans, and flip flops. School is going well. I have 3 papers due within the next week or so. Right now I only have 3 more weeks of classes. Then I have 2 exams and a writing portfolio due and then I’m DONE!
Well…there really isn’t much else new with me! I had a really good time at the Blue Mountains and I’m really looking forward to my trip next weekend. I’ll be back next Monday, so sometime next week, expect another update! I included some pictures of my recent escapade below, along with a couple other randoms (including some of the infamous/unsuccessful/fun camping trip).
I miss you all! Talk to you soon! :)
Mindy
