Australai 6

Hello.

Wow, I have been really rubbish at this emailing thing! I am three weekends behind!

So the Blue Mountains is where I am meant to start from I think.
I went to meet Ali at the station on Friday night and we came home and packed stuff for the weekend. Saturday morning we headed up to Katoomba, which is a town just into the Blue Mountains. We had a wander round on Saturday, exploring Katoomba falls and walking around the main touristy tracks enjoying the amazing views out towards the valleys of the mountains. We bought a couple of maps and walking guides and went to the pub to plan our Sunday activities.

We got up early on Sunday from our funny 1930’s looking Hostel and got tea and pastries for Breakfast. We stocked up on the essentials (chocolate) and headed out to walk to Ruined Castle Rock. This is just a rocky outcrop but from Katoomba looks like a ruined castle on a hill in the valley. We managed not to get lost and followed the track all the way up to the rocks. There was a bit of scrambling on the path but it was mainly easy but steep walking. We sat on the rocks in the sun and managed to demolish and entire loaf of bread and a large amount of cream cheese along with our emergency chocolate. We had to lie in the sun and digest for a good while but were eventually persuaded to leave by a loud group of tourists who were invading our quiet lunch spot.

The walk back was really warm and we decided to make it a bit longer by walking round past Katoomba falls where we had come down that morning and walking up by the three sisters Rock up The Giants staircase. This was about 900 steps up ladder like steps that were super steep but with amazing views dropping down between your feet.

We decided to count the steps and kept getting confused and confusing each other when we stopped for a rest. We decided in the end that there were about 900 so gained nothing more accurate than the sign at the bottom had said.

After a well-earned shower back at the hostel we tried to watch the GUCC Alps video on the Internet but could make the sound work so spent an amusing half hour doing our own commentary over the top of the guys talking.

We ate a pot noodle budget dinner and headed back to the pub that we had found the night before. A few beers later and we both crashed out in the hostel totally zonked.

Monday Morning we got up and packed then walked from Katoomba to the next town along called Leura. It’s a nice walk along the cliff between the two towns but the path dropped down a little more than we anticipated so we had lots of steps at the end again!

We caught the train back after treating ourselves to coffee and pastries in Leura and then I headed into uni and pretended to do some work while Ali cooked dinner for us.

Tuesday we went into town and got Ali some new sandals and bit and bobs to go to Tasmania. We had a really good swim in the sunny pool at Victoria Park. I had Glass in the afternoon/evening so Ali explored Balmain.

Ali left on Wednesday morning after a very early morning Kayak on the Harbour and I went to Uni to tried to catch up on some work unsuccessfully.

I was really looking forward to my weekend to myself doing nothing but by the time it came round I didn’t really know what do with myself! I had been at Nina’s pool party on the Thursday and out with the Americans on Friday night so had a very sleepy Saturday. I felt super lazy by the evening so went for a run down by the water and found an outside guy thing so exhausted myself doing too many sit-ups.

Sunday I tried to be practical and get work done but failed again as I forgot that everything shuts on a Sunday at lunchtime. Had a good long chat to Ross on Skype however and manage dot Phone Mum and Dad for a while too.

Week 5 of Uni saw me finally get some work done and I had a very productive few days making pots and getting sculpture work done. On Wednesday night we had a performance night at the Art School and lots of people on my course did a variety of weird shit. I decided not to participate in the weirdness and just drank lots of white wine and ate an unhealthy amount of cheese.

Thursday was my ‘Buddy night’. They set up a thing at the uni to match up folk from Sydney uni with people on exchange. It’s a bit late doing it now, as it would have been way more useful to do it at the beginning when everyone was lost and confused. My buddy is called Thea and was at Glasgow doing history last term so we had lots to chat about, revolving around the different drinking spots in Glasgow and their benefits.

At the weekend I went on my first over night canoe club trip! We headed up north about an hour to the Hawkesbury River and took all our camping stuff in Sea kayaks across to Barr Island to camp. We started our paddle at Barrawa waters which is a beautiful little river harbour and paddled for most of the afternoon to get across to the Island. The first half was beautiful sunny weather but about 3pm it got stupidly windy and got pretty hard to paddle. One of the canoes capsized and we spent ages trying to bail the water out with a collection of sponges and empty beer bottles.

Everyone was a bit chilly when we finally got to the Island so we lit a fire and warmed up with cheese and home brew. Had a lovely evening cooking on the fire and drinking. One of the girls made a cake on the fire!!! So impressed!

We slept out under the stars, which was really nice but super windy again. I kept thinking a tree was going to fall down on us but we all survived the night and got up and made breakfast. The paddle back was a bit more relaxed as the wind had dropped. We collected lots of Oysters from the Oyster farms by the Island and paddled back in the sun to a different harbour called Moony Moony. We stopped at a reservoir in the cliff as well and Jiri ate a huge Oyster which was really really gross and slimy. (I didn’t try one).

We lay in the sun at the get out and waited for Jiri and Dave to go get the Cars from where we started. On the way back we got fish and Chips and sat by the water eating them and fighting off the sea gulls before driving back to Sydney.

After cleaning all the kit and emptying the cars it was about 5 and I decided to make them most of the warm sunny evening and walked back to my house managing to avoid the horrible bus (which is ALWAYS late).

Yesterday (Monday) I had a tutorial with one of my tutors so got up early to try and get some work done. I had a really lazy evening as I was still tired from paddling and made lemon drizzle cake and watched a movie.

I am off to meet Ali at the airport now to do a trade of phones, cake and black strap tops.

Going to Melbourne this weekend to see Liz and Rosemary. Looking forward to another adventure!

Lots of Love to all of you
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx