Blue Mountains National Park

Completely overslept today. The plan was for Iain and me to head in to town at seven in the morning. Iain for Camerons graduation from university and me to look at Sydney during that time. After that we could have met somewhere.

That plan didn't go according to plan, as I woke up at 11.30 AM. After finding out my clocks where going right and Iain hadn't been able to get me up I had some breakfast and then continued on to the train station to get to Sydney. The next train left Springwood 45 minutes later, so I had a look around the town. After that walk it was a train ride of about one and a half hours to Sydney (don't know exactly, slept some more). The trains here all seem to be double deckers and I was at the top looking out over a valley whilst going to Sydney. Met up with Iain and Brendan in Sydney Central, Cameron had to leave early to get to a job he got. We had a look at the Sydney Opera house close up and the harbour bridge from afar. The Opera house is plated in ceramic tiles, similar to a bathroom floor.

After viewing that it was back on to the train for a journey back to Springwood, where we said goodbye to Brendan, who had another hour to take home. Went shopping and Iain cooked up something nice in the evening.

Aaaand I woke up early today again. Plan wasn't fully fleshed out that early in the morning. I ended up chilling until midday, as Iain went of to vote, Leanne got prepared for her netball game later in the day and Angus was still in bed (much like Daniel actually). Iain and me got dropped of at the station bye Leanne on her way to the netball match and took the train to Blackheath where Brendan, Maddy and Nicholas where waiting for us. After the rest of the entourage had voted (NSW has their votes right when I came) we set of towards a bush walk. We looked for snakes and the likes of animals on the way to some cliffs that overlook the Blue Mountains National Park, similar to where we had been the two day prior. Shortly before the cliffs we had a small break and Maddy went of home for some rest, whilst the boys carried on along Braeside Track to get to Govetts Leap at the end. Govetts Leap turned out to be a waterfall and the wind was blowing the water spray back over the waterfall itself on to the track we where walking along. It was basically very damp air on a hot day. We reached Govetts Leap at the end and met an Australian with his German companion and a few of the German relatives over for visiting. Had a small chat overlooking the fantastic view of the Blue Mountains National Park from Govetts Leap. Carried along through the bush, with Nicholas being swapped from Dad to Granddad. Always had a view to the left over the canyons as we carried on along Clifftop Track to Evans Lookout (same place we had been two days ago). We spotted two termite hills on the way, a few black parrots out over the canyon, some crimson rosellas (red parrots) in the trees and wild sundews (meat eating plants) in the damper regions. Arriving at Evans Lookout which was more touristy and stayed a while before Nicholas decided he had had enough and we returned back to where they live. They showed me the Grand Canyon exit and entry along the way, a track we might do sometime.

Arrived back where Brendan's family lives and where greeted by Maddys mother who showed us around their place, a pretty large spot of land surrounded in bush, before we carried on to a lively evening meal. After that a short stop by the three sisters after we had dropped of Brendan, Maddy, Maddys mum and Nicholas at their place. Watched the bats zoom around catching insects and viewed the three pinnacles known as the three sisters before we headed back to home for some rest.

Lovely and massive canyon system here in the Blue Mountains.

Not that much today, I woke up to go see a soccer game of Angus, which his team won.

The afternoon was spent with lazzing around a bit, doing some weeding and watching a film about the Blue Mountains National Park (The Edge). Didn't know they where the only place in the world that has Wollemi pines (100 million old plant species), one of the oldest and rarest trees in the world (less than 100 mature trees). Their location is kept a secret and people flown in are blindfolded to not give away their position.

After that the evening was spent with organising a surf lesson and checking the job market with what is available.