Travelling Post 14 - England have lost the Ashes, which is not fair, just as I was getting into the sport

This week I have mostly been... working. Yep I work a lot now, it pays the way though, and the job isn't difficult. I have also been enjoying the house and it's DVD player and television. Living in a house is rather more suited to my tastes than hosteling, (that is not to say I don't like hosteling, because I do like, which is good because if i didn't I'd be screwed for the next 17 months - and not in the good way) The only issue is cockroaches. I've lived in hostels with messy rooms for almost month and did not see a single cockroach. I am now living in a nice clean house and see loads (well 1 or 2 in a night) and walking around the streets at night I see even more. Apparently they are as common spiders in Britain, but I wish they weren't, spiders don't look so disgusting or freak me out so much.

On my Monday off I went on a tour of the Blue Mountains. On Monday 18th December in the freezing cold of winter I traipsed up some snow covered mountain wearing my fleece and waterproof... wait, I think I have got confused with a childhood memory. On Monday 18th December at 7am, I stood in Coogee, wearing a t-shirt and my shades, waiting to be picked up to go on a walk through the rain forests... now that sounds more like it.

Monday was one the best days I have had since I have been here. I booked a tour through IEP on a Wildframe Ecotour, going on my own as all my other friends had been before or couldn't go the same day I could. The tour involved a three hour hike down into the grand canyon, a trip to a viewpoint to look at the Three Sisters and Mount Solitary in the Jamison Valley and a short ride on the Scenic Railway which is the steepest railway in the world. As if that wasn't enough we went to a picnic site to 'hang around' with wild Kangaroos, Cockatoos and a Goanna lizard.

The walk through the canyon was really good and the tour guide gave us a fair few interesting anecdotes. The top layer of the canyon, and the majority of the Blue Mountains are all Eucalyptus Forests, but there are no Koala Bears. Scientists, and other clever folk, believe this is due to the 1984 bush fires which was so severe it wiped the local population out, and none have returned since. Although all other evidence of that bush fire had been gone, you could see the effects of the less severe bush fire of a few years ago with dead trees heavily scattered amongst those that had survived. Whilst I was out in the Blue Mountains there were bush fires occurring, and there were areas we couldn't walk around. Below is a map of the blue Mountains, and the short walk that we did.

Here you can see the dead trees, killed by bushfire, amongst those tress that have survived and grown since the fire.

Even though it took 3 hours, it was only a 4km or so walk. I think I could have done it in 1hr but then the tour guide emphasised that we should take in our surroundings and the history of how they were formed and that of the aboriginal people who lived there years before. The rain forests occur because the canyon is made up of sandstone, which works like a sponge to soak up the water, thus even though there has been a drought for 5 years, the rock still has water. The rain forest was mostly covered in ferns, they looked a little different to the ones I am used to seeing in Britain, as you can see below the Australian variety has trunks.

Despite the heat and humidity down in the canyon, and just plain heatabove the canyon the walk was exhilarating, I took many, many pictures, but I'm only gonna post a few as they are all very similar. The one thing I have noticed about walking in other countries compared to Britain, the walks only ever encapsulate one or two different views. Going walking in Britain, one can see a variety of different landscapes in a relatively small walking distance. That said the canyon was one of the most beautiful sites I have seen when I have been walking.

After the walk, it was time for lunch then off to view the three sisters (below.)

A long long time ago, there would have been seven sisters, you can see where they would have sat next to the remaining three above. Below is a further view of the Three Sisters, in the Grose Valley. You may be able to make out a blue haze in the picture, this is why the area is called the Blue Mountains. It is caused by the refraction of light through evaporated water coming off the Eucalyptus trees.

There is an aboriginal love story behind these rocks which goes something like this. There was the magic man of a tribe who had three daughters. These daughters fell in love with three men from a different tribe. As the three men were from a different tribe their father forbid them from marrying them, but daughters, being daughters, disobeyed him and ran off. There father, being the magic man cursed them and turned them into stone. Which I think sounds a little harsh. A the next stop, the steepest railway in the world, there was a visitors centre with bronze casting of the three sisters and their over protective father.

The steepest railway in the world was well, rather short, it cost $16 to go down on the cable car and then you took a 5 minute walk and came back up on the train. It was disappointing because I could have spent over an hour exploring the rain forest and the old coal mine that was down there, but we had to rush through. The Railway, though short, was still pretty good, it had seats on it that were at an angle so when you were riding the train you were at sat normally.

After that all-too-brief-stop it was time to spend time with the wild kangaroos, cockatoos and a single Goanna. It was great, we got a decent amount of time there and I took lots of photos. There wasn't too many Kangaroos about but that didn't stop my trigger happy finger. When someone spotted the Goanna the tour guide chased it up a tree so we could all take pictures of it, but it went up the wrong side so, as you can see below, I couldn't get a very good picture of it. When it came to taking pictures of the Cockatoos, I discovered my camera can take pretty good action shots, so spent 10 minutes trying to get the cockatoos to fly at me but it didn't work so all i got is what you see below. After all that it was time to go back to Sydney.

Above, the picture that started my 10minute campaign to get a really good action shot of a flying Cockatoo, below the picture I took when I gave up.

Above, the Goanna Lizard, it was about 1 to 1.5 metres long. Below pictures of wild Kangaroos.

I left the house at 7am and arrived back at 8pm, so it was a long day but well worth - and I ended it with a DVD and a pizza from Domino's. All in all a pretty darn good day.

Today I have bought tickets to see Michael Parkinson at the Sydney Opera House, where he will be talking about his career, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra will be playing music from the golden era of movies. That is not until Sat 3rd February, now it is 3pm and I am at the IEP Christmas Social. We should be in the Botanical Garden's but the weather is a bit crap, it is raining, and so we are in their offices. And now for more drink...