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I'M IN MELBOURNE!
So the day I left New Zealand was a very sad one. Those poor families in Greymouth who lost their loved ones in the mining explosion. It was a very subdued atmosphere that day. I had enjoyed my time in NZ immensely, and I felt for the country as a whole. I really hope to return to NZ again someday and spend more time there.
THE RETURN TO OZ
It was with great excitement that I flew back to Sydney to meet my friend Jonny who I met in Bali. He was on his way back to a very snowy England and it was great to see him again. The most important thing about the next 5 days was... CRICKET. Yep, the Ashes Test is on! And despite a sketchy start England have managed to actually turn up, and I mean really turn up! After a night in Kings Cross (party central of Sydney) we headed down to Coogee Beach to stay with friends and watched more cricket, sample more night-life and generally live it up. I lost ANOTHER pair of flipflops (I reckon I must be into double figures by now) and indulged in more night-time swimming. Yep, El was back on holiday! Then the big day came - a 5am start to go... wait for it... SEA FISHING! Yes, we chartered a boat and headed out into the harbour to tame the creatures of the Pacific Ocean! Well that was the plan anyway. In reality the sea was VERY ROUGH and everyone rapidly became seasick (expect of course for me, beacuse us northerners are made of stronger stuff you know). So it was back to the bay, where we caught LOTS of fish! Very exciting, and I have to say I got really into it. It's actually a very satisfying pastime, and I caught loads of Snapper (The Snapper Queen, tha's me!) but none of mine ever seemed to be big enough to keep. The boys brought in the big ones, which we cooked up for tea - VERY tasty. Some were very exotic looking, but tasted the nicest fish fingers you'll ever have. All in all a very enjoyable and educational day out!
Unfortunately all good times must sometime end, and saying bye to Jono was a toughy. He was so excited to be heading back to Blighty, it kinda caught on, and crystalised for me how far away I was from everyone I love. What followed was a shameless few days of self-pitiful, homesick-wallowing. Which I am not proud of, but it is bound to happen sometimes I suppose. Luckily for me, I have made some awesome friends along the way. Amber - who me and Nai originally met on that free scooter tour in Singapore - is now living in Sydney and we met up for a mexican-themed night out that really snapped me out of it. At this point I was staying in a hostel and watching the 2nd test, and realised, horrifically, that my budget for the next month was about A$20 a day = NOTHING. So after trying to look for cheap accom. Amber saved me by letting me sleep on her very comfy sofa, which is also where I will be spending xmas. It was lovely to be staying in a real house, with real people (not that other travellers arn't real... just, well, you know...). Although at first quite un-nerved by being alone in a building for the first time in months, it was bliss to have a few days of doing very little other than watching England SMASH Australia by 71 runs AND an innings :D The area where Amber and her housemates (who are lovely!) live in - Newtown - is the student area and really cool, so enjoyed wandering around and taking it in, heading into the city now and then when I felt like it. The weather has been patchy to say the least, trust me to be in Australia when they have one of the wetest summers on record. Though I still have mixed feelings about missing 'The Coldest Nov on Record' back home (relief... and a tiny bit of envy for all that beautiful snow)... the grass is always greener eh?!
WOMAN VS WILD
After this period of convalesence, I had decided to challenge myself to a bit of trekking in the near-by Blue Mountains. After alot of twoing and frowing over where was best to do a solo 3-day, 2-night hike (mainly due to disasterous flooding and heavy rain forecasts over much of NSW) I settled on getting the train up to Blackheath and heading out into the Grosse Valley. I picked up a handy PLB (Personal Location Beacon) from the info centre, which they lend to hikers for free and means you can be found if disaster strikes. You have to sign alot of paperwork about not setting it off unless it's a life-threatening situation. There go my plans for when I run out of chocolate then... Also grabbed a map of the area and made a quick route change due to expected thunder storms. Hurray. And I was off! Down a VERY steep path, basically cut into the cliff face. Now, walking down steep and slippy stairs with a 12kg pack on my back... not actually so fun. After a few hundred steps my quads hated me. I hated me. But I arrived at the bottom of Govetts Leap - a HUGE and beautiful waterfall, was so worth it. Another few hours of punishing downhill streches, and many boots-off stream crossings brought me to my first camping spot - Acacia Flats. It was such bliss to take of my pack and set up my little tent. I swam in the river and sunbathed on a big rock with not another person around for miles, lit a little fire (illegally, oops!) and cooked my tin of spaghetti on it. Talk about euphoric. Wilderness camping is great when it's like this, but there does come the downside - pretty sleepless night listening to all the weird noises and being woken at dawn by rain. Hate packing away in the rain, then it predicatabley stopping and becoming horrendously hot when I started walking. If the first day I thought was too much downhill then I was about to pay dearly for my thoughts - think I literally climbed up an entire cliff. Sweated buckets, harrassed by flies, spiders and lots of wacky bugs; to say I was relieved to reach the top is a bit of an understatement. The views from up there were incredible though. I could see the entire valley stretched out before me. Yeah, Wild! How'd ya like that!? Camped up the top there that night, and there were other people (how dare they crash my wilderness hike) but no fire or river swimming bliss this time :( One more day of reasonably easy (compared to the first two days) hiking along the cliff top brought me back to Blackheath. I had seen many stunning panoramas, much exciting wildlife - including black cockatoos and freshwater lobsters! At this point I should mention that after my fishing trip I was getting all Bear Grylls about things - and was very tempted to try and catch said lobsters and cook myself a wild lobster dinner... but then I remembered that I was not on survival rations, and my pack was in-fact full of cereal bars and english muffins, so I left the poor little blighters be. Anyway... I was exhausted, hot, sweaty and smelled horrendous, but boy was I feeling pleased with myself. I felt sorry for the people sitting next to me on the return train journey, I didn't care; I had been in The Wild. Yeahhh!
After probably one of the best showers I've ever had, and a good nights sleep, I got the over-night train down to Melbourne, just as the weather got gorgeous in Sydney. Sigh! It is cold down here in the south, but from what I have seen so far I really like the city. I am staying with my friend Megan's little sister - another saviour of mine - in an area called Brunswick. Ever-so cool you know. Got lots of sight-seeing to do and of course the 3rd test to watch... so that's me all up-to-date and signing off. Hope all you guys back home are surviving the arctic winter and looking forward to the festive season. I'll no doubt post again after Xmas and New Year in Sydney before I start the epic South American adventure. Much love amigos!
Els the explorer
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