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Dec 1st 2006 - How can it be December when its so hot and sunny ha ha!
Settled in well to my new Mates Place hostel - im in a 6 bed girls only dorm and have ensuite shower and toilet and u get loadsa free stuff too, so thats my home till 5th Jan when I make my way to the hippy beach town of Byron Bay! I have spent the last couple of days with Penny, the lovely lady I met on the Oz Exp bus.
On Thurs we wandered round the city, checking out Darling Harbour, theres loads of things down there, shops, pubs, clubs, restaurants and the actual harbour itself too! Then of course back down to the bridge and opera house (sorry now for taking so many pics of the bridge and opera hse but Im sure there'll be more to come!) Penny has really helped me find my bearings since Im now in the Kings Cross area of Sydney rather than the Central part - but it is actually closer to everything!
Yesterday we spent the day on a 16 person tour to the Blue Mountains - the 2nd most popular Oz tourist attraction (Uluru is of course 1st). It was an awesome day with loads packed into it! First we visited an aboriginal rock formation which was an engraving of a kangaroo in stone, I took a pic but doubt you'll be able to see anything other than a big stone! They cant make it stand out anymore cos the aboriginals believe it should be left just as it was menat to be cos thats how/where it belongs. Next we went to Nepean River for morning tea, you know how I like my tea! It was a very quiet and tranquil spot we stopped at, then back on the bus and onto Sydney Olympic Park where they held the 2000 games. We went up to the Telstra stadium and got some pics. The stadium holds 800,000 but the roof can be taken off to allow up to 100,000 capacity! Outside there are loadsa poles with names engraved on, these are the 75,000 members of the public who volunteered to help during the games after a plea from the government - I took a pic of all the 'Johnson's' that helped! Then onto the Blue Mountains! First stop was the KIngs Tablelands, from a cliff top (with no safety barriers or anything!) we saw our first glimpse of the mountains and their bluey haze - amazing! I never knew the range was so vast and we were only seeing a section of it! There are bush fires in the mts at the min but not where we were! The blue haze is a result of the sun's reflection of the oil released from the eucalyptus trees, but of couse u knew that already! It was a stunning view. Then we went to Scenic World in the mts where we rode the worl's steepest inclining railway - it goes up / down the mts at a 52 degree angle!!! GOt some pics going down it, it wasnt oblivion or anything but still pretty cool!! (THink it was an old coal mining track) Then we did a board walk through the rainforests at the bottom og the mts. The first part had loadsa things along it about the old caol mining days. The rainforests had that lovely tree smell if u know what I mean and of course lots of weird and wonderful noises again! At the top of the Mt we saw the famous '3 sisters' which are 3 bits sticking out of the mounatins. The aboriginal story behind these is as folllows: A long time ago there were 3 sisters who were waiting for their dad to return from hunting when they got bored so started throwing stones into the ranges and making noise. This woke the monster who wanted to eat them of course! The dad came back who was a witch doctor and turned his girls into stone using his magic shin stick to protect them and turned himself into a liar bird and annoyed the monster until he disappeared. But the liar bired lost his stick and so could not undo the spell on his daughters. Today they believe the liar bird scurries along the rainforest floor still looking for the ,agic shin stick! For lunch we went to a small town in the mts famous for its flower show gardens. Me & Penny found a chinese place doing meals for $7 (approx 3 quid) and you got loads it was well yummy!! In the afternoon we hiked along tracks to Wentworth Falls, these are supposed to be some of the most amazing waterfalls in the region but the drought has unfortuantely left little but a trickle. Still got amazing views of the Mts again though from the cliff side overlooking the falls. Then we went to Euroka Nation Park where we saw Kangaroos, Gallahs and noisy Cockatoos! I got some good pics of the Roos - if u look closely you should be able to see a joey feeding out of his pouch at the same time as his mum - awww!! Instead of returning to the City by bus we got a 1hr ferry ride back into the harbour which meant I got some great pics coming back into the harbour! It was well windy on the front of the ferry, I had tears streaming down my face from the wind, things I do to get u lot pics!! But it was well worth it for the views!
Then we discovered it was late night shopping so mooched round the shops (Sydney has loads and loads and loads....) and got to see an amazing window display at DAvid Jones store with moving displays and music, pretty cool!
So really Sydney, feeling great at the moment and off to the beach now!
Ang xx
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