Jan 3, 2013 - Blue Mountains

Blue mountains - January 4 Internet access is terrible even though Grammar bought time.  We had to sit on the cement front porch of the campsite office because that is the only place we could get online. We are in the Blue Mountains World Heritage area - about two hours west of Sydney. We are camping here for three nights; tonight is the last one. Peggy and and Hughie's friends left us this morning. The area is lovely. Grammar spent a day here with Uncle Mike seven years ago when she first went to the Australian National University for...

Nov 10, 2012 - Aussie; Day Two

I woke up super early (6-630 am) to get ready for the day! I decided that I was going to visit the Blue Mountains! A guy I had met at my resort in Fiji recommended it.. so I figured.. why not? I walked to the train station.. which was literally right across the road.. bought my incredibly cheap train ticket ($11 round trip).. grabbed a muffin for breakfast.. and off I went! The train ride was about 2 hours long.. but I got to see a lot of the country side! Not to mention, I saw a bunch of wild kangaroos in the field from afar! AHHHHH! So...

Sep 27, 2012 - Return to Sydney

We left the wonderful town of Katoomba this morning, driving back to Sydney. It was great to return to our base in Sydney. The Park Hyatt Sydney was awaiting us and Draideep, Anthony and Leon welcomed us when we returned, even though we were early again. This time, the room faced the Harbor Bridge, with a distant view of the Sydney Opera House. There were trees below us, which we preferred, as there were birds flying around them. Still having internet issues, Mabel spent most of the afternoon on the Hyatt's computer, scheduling credit card...

Sep 26, 2012 - Birding Trip - Blue Mountains and Capertee Valley

Our guide, Carol Probets, picked us up promptly at 5:45 am. We spent a very long and productive day birding with her in the Blue Mountains and the Capertee Valley. For those familar with those locations, yes, we did see the Rockwarbler and the Regent Honeyeater! Most of our day was spent in the Capertee Valley, birding on private property, on land purposed for birdwatching and conservation. We birded in a most beautiful location, below the steep escarpment of the Capertee Valley cliffs. We returned back to Katoomba after dark, about 7:15...

Jun 21, 2012 - 100 kilometers to go.....................

Kilometer count so far - 4,642 (Katoomba) I truly feel that I am on the last leg of this odyssey - the sign posts to Sydney now indicate 110 KM and 75% of that is downhill. I will be relieved and saddened to finish both at the same time. I am sure I will soon get over this once the first cold beer is in my hand and a 12,000 calorie dinner is in front of me. As I get closer to Sydney, the traffic gets more intense and way more aggressive – first swear words hurled out of car windows since Perth all those miles ago. I am now focused on the...

Jul 27, 2011 - To the Blue Mountains We Go

Woke to a bracing -5C this morning with the car all iced up. John ventured out and got us some breakfast and we decided to go to the shops to get all our photos off the card and burned to CDs so we could try to fiddle with the camera. Found a Big W store and did just that but unfortunately we could not get the camera working. C'est la vie!!!!!! John had gone back to the hotel to pick up Paul and Maureen while I had waited for the CDs so we all filled up with coffee when we left the shops and hit the road headed towards Bathurst and the...

Jul 19, 2011 - Snow and Yulefest in the Blue Mountains

A very British-style breakfast greeted us this morning in the hotel's dining area: canned peaches and prunes, toast, butter, jam, hot tea, sausages, and poached eggs. I did also get the chance to try Vegemite—an Australian spread made of fermented barley and a yeast byproduct. Stephanie and Peggy warned me that it is awful, but, in my opinion, it tastes like a bitter beer and I actually liked it. So I happily spread it onto my toast. But this is not much of a surprise since I do enjoy the most random assortment of flavors. It was really...

Jul 18, 2011 - Up to the Blue Mountains

12 seconds remaining! That was how much time we had left on our internet access we purchased when we finally submitted the last email and updated the trip blog. Talk about cutting it close. After completing all our internet transaction, we packed up our things to check out of the hostel. It took a while, since one of our members pulled things out of the suitcases almost as quickly as we placed items into them. As Stephanie said, “the packing to unpacking ratio must be slightly higher than one to get it done.” Eventually, despite Izabella's...

Jul 12, 2011 - Katoomba Matata

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Apr 21, 2011 - Traffic jam #1

An early start - tick. Breeze through 'check in' at Britz - tick. Passengers picked up from train station without delay - tick. First bloody traffic jam of the holiday - TICK! Made it out of the city without any great dramas (aside from the people in the back who in the excitement of it all didn't eat breakfast and needed an immediate pit stop) and headed to the blue mountains. We are almost at Katoomba which was scheduled as our first leg stretch but we have been crawling for the last half hour, even cyclists (bicyclists) are overtaking...

Feb 5, 2011 - Katoomba/Blackheath cont.

31st January. A day of rest, we did some shopping 1st February. We went into Katoomba to look for a Bank of Queensland, no luck as usual, then we went out to Echo Point which is at the opposite side of the valley to where Scenic World is, it is closer to the Three Sisters, and from the lookout you have a great view of the Sisters and the surrounding valley’s and mountains. The weather is very hot so we made our way back to the caravan park for a late lunch. 2nd February. Yesterday I broke a tooth, so this morning I managed to get an...

Jan 31, 2011 - Katoomba/Blackheath The Blue Mountains

29th January. On the road again we are heading to the Blue Mountains, to a small town called Blackheath, which is 9klms north of Katoomba. Once again the scenery is spectacular, (the West has the best beaches the East has the mountains) after settling in we headed to the Tourist Info Centre which has some good info and displays, then we went to Govitts Leap, which is a breathtaking view over the Blue Mountains and a waterfall. 30th January. We decided to go to Katoomba and the Blue Mountains National Park, where at Scenic World met up with...