Biking and Bushwalking in The Blue Mountains

Hello Everyone! I'm actually writing this in Byron on Tuesday 18th, but I'll write as if it's still Friday and all my thoughts and stuff from then, and keep the magic going!

I got homesick for the first time last night. I'd just been speaking to Mum in the phone and then me and Craig were listening to a CD in the headphones. When 'God Only Knows' by the Beach Boys came on I just started crying cos we all watched Love Actually on Christmas Day at home and that's the song that plays out at the end. I felt like such a geek!

Anyway, today we got up really early to make the 7:30am Oz Bus to the Blue Mountains. This mountain range is named so because the vegetation is 70% eucalyptus trees, which give off a blue vapour which creates a blue haze over the mountains. We actually blagged this trip; we had a voucher from a gap book in the library at school back home, which we took to STA and they put on both of our passes (although it was only for one person!). So we got the trip totally free for the both of us! Anyway, there was only us and about 10 other people, and instead of the smelly, beer-gutted old guy I was expecting for a driver we got a immensely gorgeous 20-odd yr old guy called Pete (or PJ), who was really friendly and chatted to us the whole journey. We stopped at a small town called Glenbrook for lunch on the way, which was a really quaint little village off the highway. Apparently it used to be called 'Watertank' as it was where the trains would stop and refuel on their way up the mountain back in the 19th century. They're simple people, these Aussies.

When we got to the start of the mountain bike ride we were kitted out with bikes and helmets by a young guy called Ryan (who was also very beautiful) and we set off to see some of the mountains. We were out for about 2.5 hrs and saw some spectacular views of the 'Australian Grand Canyon'. I took so many photos I had to change film halfway through! I also got to chat with the folks on the coach; we heard our first unfamiliar northern accent from a guy from Manchester who had never been to Australia before but was mid-immigration and was just looking for somewhere he'd like to stay, a Canadian guy called Cam and a woman called Jenny who had been in Phuket at the time of the tsunami, but had booked her accommodation late so had got somewhere far back from the coast. I don't think there's any skin left on her teeth. It was a very hot day - pushing +40C - and by the last 20 mins of the ride I was very breathless and woozy. Ryan stayed with me but I felt like such a wimp being at the back of the group, and having to push the bike up a 2% incline cos I couldn't hack it! We later found out that they've only been running this trip for 12 weeks and had 4 hospital trips already, including a British guy who lost his scrotum on the handlebar after skidding down a steep decline. Ouch.

We stopped off in Blackheath for lunch, and after a large glass of cold coke and our melted packed lunch I felt much better. Blackheath was a town similar to Glenbrook, and was a halfway-house for travellers over the mountains back in the 19th century. Both towns provoked an image of what I'd imagine small towns in America to look like, with their shelters over shop windows and saloon-type pubs. We then stopped at Govett's Leap which is a lookout at which a bushranger called Govett was supposed to have fallen to his death after trying to escape the law. The whole story is a complete fabrication of course, a way of getting tourism into Blackheath. The Leap had some fantastic views though, you could see all the way down the valley of the Blue Mountains.

Then we went for a bushwalk near Scenic World, down the mountain to where an old coal and shale mine lies. We walked down all 1029 steps of the mountain, passing the Three Sisters (three giant stalactites protruding from the edge of the mountain). Aboriginal legend has it that these rocks are actually three Aboriginal girls, who were turned to stone by their father (who is apparently now a sort of bird after he turned his wand on himself) as they were being chased by a bigfoot type of creature. Hmm. We also saw Australia's largest free-falling waterfall, cliffs, gorges and plenty of over-hanging rocks, one of which we all stood underneath and shouted 'Doh!' to create an echo on the other side of the mountain. It was pretty cool. We took the 'Scenic Railway' back up the mountain, which looked like a rollercoaster and took you up backwards at a 45-55 degree angle. That was amazing as you could see the landscape unfolding below you.

On the way back we stopped in Katoomba to switch drivers, and some of the people on the coach decided to get off and stay a night. I wish we could've done, the town was lovely, there was plenty of activities to be done like canyoning and abseiling, and the YHA looked really nice, but we have a bus booked out of Sydney for tomorrow.

The plan for tonight is just to go out to Darling Harbour for a couple of drinks, as it's getting quite stormy, we're very tired after all our exertions today and we have to be up at 5:30am tomorrow. I'll let you know how its going in the Warrumbungles and Bingara as soon as I get chance.

TTFN!