A Little Cheeky Wombat

Now I know that we haven't finished telling you the story of our journey to Brisbane but just as an aside there is an old RSPCA advert that was being shown in Australia whilst we were in Melbourne which we think would be appropriate for this blog. Just watch for the wombat...

Sydney and the Blue Mountains

Ok we seem to be falling behind a bit on the blogfront (we're now in Brisbane) so thought we'd try to bring you up to date a bit starting with our experience of Sydney and the Blue Mountains!

As you may remember we flew to Sydney from Melbourne at the end of our Great Ocean Road trip. We stayed in a hostel in the central Kings Cross area for a few nights whilst we had a look around the sights of the city. On our first day the weather turned decidedly British, very grey skies and the threat of rain but we made the most of our time with a walk through the botanical gardens, admiring the huge spiders and unusual birds (the Australian white ibis is one of Mat's new favourites). It didn't take long to find the harbour which even when overcast was undeniably beautiful and lent a very different character to anywhere else we'd been. Walking along the waterside we rounded a bend and suddenly the opera house was just across the water with the harbour bridge neatly nestled in behind it. It felt strange to just be wandering along and suddenly stumble upon such a world famous iconic scene.

We stopped for the obligatory photos before continuing around the bay and climbing up the steps of the opera house. Standing below the arches gave a real appreciation of the complexity of the architecture, design and engineering of the landmark and some understanding of why it was 10 years late and more than 10x over budget at completion!

From the opera house we headed into the main shopping area to find some lunch and have a look around, in the inner city there was much more hustle and bustle and it felt all business, not in a bad way, just more like London, than it had in Melbourne. We saw the monorail (now due to be taken down), the town hall and some amusing advertising slogans before eventually finding a coffee shop that was actually open (as it was Easter Sunday a lot was closed) before heading back to the hostel.

Monday saw a turn in the weather, we awoke to clear blue skies and predictions of temps hitting the mid 20s so we figured we'd make the most of it by hopping on a train to spend the day at Bondi Beach. We met up with an old school friend of mine, Tegan, whose family emigrated out here back in 2004 and enjoyed just lazing in the sun for a few hours. We later tried a spot of surfing, though to be honest the water was too busy and we spent our time worried about getting in the way of the awesome little 13 year old kids who were making us look rather pathetic! After getting out, struggling to remember where on the beach we'd left our stuff, realising we were going to be late returning the hire-equipment, charging up to the surf shop still wearing the wetsuits, and changing on the pavement we were quite ready to go back and rest for the evening (though we did manage to slip in a quick kerbside coffee on the way)!

On Tuesday the weather was still clear but it had cooled down a lot due to wind chill so we took things slowly wandering around 'the rocks' an area of the city that's been preserved as it was in the first years of Sydney's settlement. It was quaint though to be honest being from England the late 18th century buildings weren't such a novelty to us! We also had a wander along the harbour bridge and got some nice photos of the opera house in the sunshine (though decided not to pay the rather steep $200 fee to climb over the top). We later returned to the rocks for a coffee and cake at a nice little patisserie before walking back around circular quay and the harbour to get some sunset pics of the opera house and the bridge.

The Three Sisters

The next morning we got a train out to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. It only took about 2 hours to get there but the scenery changed dramatically pitching us from the big city by the sea into a small town nestled amongst miles and miles of hilly forest. We got settled in at the hostel, a nice small place with a log fire in the living room where they passed biscuits around in the evening, before taking a walk down to Echo Point from which 'The Three Sisters' are visible. It was surprisingly cold due to the higher altitude, we were both in jeans and thick jumpers, but the views were amazing and it was refreshing to be somewhere so different.

For our only full day in Katoomba we went for a long walk through the woods along the bottom of the ridge under Echo Point. We walked for about 5 or 6 hours, there were a lot of steps down but overall it was easier going than we expected, which was just as well as the steps back up were a killer! Because we were in the woods the views out weren't actually as good as we'd anticipated but it was good to be in the fresh air and we felt so far from the city.

Our third day was spent at 'scenic world' a family attraction featuring a railway and cablecar that descend from the top of the valley down into the World Heritage rainforest of the Jamison valley below. We took the railway (the world's steepest) down which was exhilarating even though the descent did only last all of about a minute, we were clinging on to try not to fall too far forward! We had a walk around at the bottom where we spotted a little tarantula (little by Aussie standards that is, still wouldn't want to find it in your shower) and a lyrebird which was beautiful even if it didn't sing us a chainsaw sound (they're renowned for their ability to mimic noises). We then took the cablecar back up taking in stunning views of the valley along the way. Once we reached the top we caught the 'skyway', another cablecar this time stretching between two outcrops of the cliff top, back towards town, again via more fantastic views of the valley out and below (there was a glass floor!). So ended our time in the mountains. We then caught a train back to Sydney and stayed the night with Tegan and her family before beginning our journey up the East Coast.

Keep an eye out, we'll try to get you all filled in soon enough,

Hope everything's well in the UK or wherever else you're reading this from!

Lots of Aussie love, Leah and Mat