Big Mary, her older sister and the Grand Canyon.

As some of you might know from reading the press, the Queen Mary 2 docked in Sydney Harbour on Tuesday morning and by the afternoon her older sister ship the Queen Elizabeth 2 had docked too.

The press went mad over the QM2 docking in Sydney harbour as it was the first time two queen Cunard ships had visited Sydney since WWII. Roger, Allen and I went down to the harbour to see the two ships in the evening.

It was as if the whole of Sydney had gone boat mad as the streets were packed with people and cars all heading down to the quay. This first photo is of the QE2 docked in the normal docking place for cruise liners. The Manly ferry in the foreground was packed with people who had booked on the ferry for a special trip around the two cruise liners. They had some fireworks lined up for the evening ,but we didn't get a chance to see them as it was just too busy.

This second photo is of the QM2. We couldn't get a really good view of it and I didn't have anywhere steady to place my camera for a good shot either.

The QM2 was truly a very large cruise liner. It's apparently the biggest and fastest cruise liner today. From this distance, despite my wide angle lens I still couldn't fit the entire ship into my shot. It looked more like a giant floating hotel or building rather than a ship. It was too big to dock in Circular Quay where the QE2 was, it's just as tall as the top car deck of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It's a shame that it couldn't dock there as you would have got a better appreciation of it's size if you could see some of the Sydney skyline behind it.

After seeing both the ships we went down to the Arthouse bar for a couple of drinks. We come here quite often as it's a nice bar and quite popular for people after work to hang out.








On Wednesday Allen and I took the day off to take Joe's son Ben down to the Blue Mountains for a good walk. We decided to do the Grand Canyon walk. It's a short walk at only 5km and in the guide book only 3 1/2 hours long.

We all met up in the morning to pick up a hire car for the day. The walk was quite good as we started up walking down into the canyon where we followed a river. There were plenty of small lizards about and also some small crayfish like creatures in the river. They looked like mini bright red lobsters and more like a plastic toy.

The temperature down in the canyon was very different to the temperature above. So much so that we could see our own breath in the canyon! On the top of the canyon in the sun it must have been around 25 degrees.

Once we had reached the end of the canyon the path lead quite steeply up one side and then you walked along a ledge on one side of the canyon. If it weren’t for a rail that they had put up it would have been quite a precarious walk.

Near the end of the walk we still had to walk out of the canyon. The uphill steps appeared to go on forever. Just as you thought you were at the top over a ledge there were even more steps going upwards.

I saw a giant ant on the path as we walked along. It must have been about an inch long and the largest ant that I've every seen. We didn't hang around too long to see where the rest of the colony was.

Ben also spotted the remains of a snakeskin. We also didn't hang around to see if the snake was about either.

Here's a photo of one of the lizards that we saw. There were about three different varieties of lizard. This one had a particularly striking golden brown pattern along its back.

I guess we were (un)lucky not to see any snakes or spiders on our walk or along any other walks that I've done in the Blue Mountains. Allen says that he's seen a brown snake once around this area of the Blue Mountains. I think it's one of the most dangerous snakes around here. I did see plenty of cobwebs though and one of them quite big!

Snorkelling Tropfest.

We all went snorkelling at Shelly Beach last Saturday. The last time I went snorkelling was when I was out at the Barrier Reef. I was a little apprehensive to go out snorkelling in the sea this time as I would be well out of my depth and Shelly Beach doesn't have any lifeguards.

When we got to Manly there weren't any swimmers in the sea as there were more blue bottle jellyfish being washed onto the beach. Shelly Beach is just a kilometre across from Manly, but because it's sheltered from the sea there aren't any blue bottle jellyfish around there.

This is a view of the area where we went snorkelling, Shelly Beach being just to the right of the shot and Manly directly to the left. As it turned out swimming out to sea was quite easy with a snorkel on, as I didn't have to worry about breathing when swimming. Allen did mention afterwards that I did look a little funny while out in the sea but then again I was well out of my depth and quite reliant on the snorkel to breath!

I saw plenty of fish around, obviously not as many or quite as colourful as on the reef but there were still quite a few fish of varying sizes to see. Some smaller fish swimming in shoals were very close to the surface and would pass you before changing direction very quickly. I was quite pleased in the end that I had gone out snorkelling, as it was something else that I wouldn’t normally do.

After snorkelling we went to Manly for some good food and also some beers. Unfortunately we were mostly dressed in shorts and thongs so we weren't allowed into any of the bars in Manly. They appear to have a policy of smart casual dress for Saturday nights.

Not being able to get into any bars we caught the ferry back to the CBD and managed to get served in the Ship Inn which is more of a tourist bar being right on Circular Quay. Surprisingly we stayed up till about 3.30 in the bar drinking all night.

When we were at the bar there was an obvious wedding couple that were out on the town. They looked a little out of place in the bar as she was still in her wedding dress, but they did both have thongs on as well being very Australian.

There was one incident in the bar when a few bouncers had to force a man out of the place. He was quite obviously drunk and I saw one of the bouncers try to trip the guy over when outside of the bar. Then some woman then started on the bouncer and it felt like just any other bar in the UK on a Saturday night!

A bit later on three policemen turned up and started to take notes from the bouncers and the people that were kicked out. Allen obviously bound by his civic duty to serve went over to the police to give his statement to what had happened! They didn't come over and ask us anything but Allen really wanted to tell them what he saw happen. They eventually took his name and details and obviously took him very seriously. We haven't heard anything else about the incident since, maybe they had better things to do like deal with real crime.

On Sunday evening the Tropfest short film festival was on in the Domain Park in Sydney. The film festival is apparently one of the biggest in Australia if not the world. The Park is only about a fifteen minute walk from my apartment so I just had to go to see what was going on.

I met up with Ian and a few of his friends at the park. Everyone at the park was having a good time there each with their own picnic setup. It was really good to be able to sit in the middle of so many people watching films all night and snacking on food.

The weather wasn't fantastic as it was a little overcast but it was still quite warm and humid. As the sun started to set the fruit bats started to fly from the near by botanical gardens. It was quite cool to see the low flying bats overhead as it got darker. I'm sure the bats were wondering what was going on in their back yard, which would normally be so quiet.

Here you can see the edge of the Sydney skyline at night from the park. There are always so many outdoor events going on in Sydney almost every weekend. I guess the better climate really helps but I can't imagine so many things going on in Bristol as often.

The sixteen films that they showed were of varying quality. Some were obviously quite serious and had a deeper meaning while others were very funny. I think the outdoor atmosphere really didn't help the more serious films while the funnier films obviously went down very well.

One particular film was about the race riots last year. Two blokes met up on a beach one Australian and the other middle eastern. It turns out that they were meeting up for some rioting against each other. However they were obviously too early or at the wrong beach.

They started talking to each other initially cautiously and eventually were very friendly to each other. Their conversations were very funny, along the lines of so how many people does it take to constitute a riot, is two enough, or maybe a dozen. Where do you get your knuckle dusters from, what playstaion games do you play, etc. I guess the underlying message was that even though they were intent on causing each other harm they weren't that different and under different circumstances they could be friends.

You can do a search for Tropfest and take a look at the films online. Between the flags is the film that I described above. The Von and Being Boston were also very good.

Stung by a Jellyfish, check!

Warning: If you're of a nervous disposition and seeing loads of men in Speedos might send your blood pressure up then don't look at the pictures.

Allen had his big race this Sunday. He's been training for the 2km Coles Classic race at Manly beach, and this Sunday was his big day. I got to the beach at around 10:15 for the start of the race at 10:45. We briefly saw Allen who looked quite nervous while waiting around. The course did look much longer than we thought it would be.

Here you can see the racers in Allen's age group all lined up and ready to go. There must have been about 1500 racers in all divided up into about a dozen or so different groups. There were also 1km and 10km races on throughout the day. We could just see the 10km racers coming in as we got to the beach.

Allen is amongst the group in this photo. It was really good to see so many swimmers running into the sea as soon as the starter gun went off. The all looked like a bunch of turtles running into their sea with their identical swimming caps on.

I think Allen decided to stay in the back end of the group to avoid getting tangled up in other swimmers. His previous times for around 2km were around the 47 minute mark. The average time for last years swim was around 36 minutes, so he was expecting to be at the back of his group anyhow.

This is the view of Shelly Beach from around the mid point of the course. You can just see a line of splashing swimmers in the distance as they go all the way up to Shelly Beach and then back around to Manly Beach.

Just watching all the swimmers made Deirdre, Emily and I all tired! We saw a couple of them lose their way at some of the turns and almost swim into the rocks as well! I can't imagine anything more demoralising than realising that you've had to swim further than you needed to.

Emily spotted Allen coming out of the water when we waited for him at the finishing post. He looked quite tired when he exited the sea and there was a group of people around him that all overran him to the finishing line. You can just see him running to the finish in the light blue striped Speedos in the very bottom right of this photo.

There was a radio commentator making jokes and talking about the swimmers as they came in. Allen said that he thought he heard the commentator talk about the food that could be bought at the BBQ. Then the commentator upon seeing Allen said that Allen should get some free BBQ food, instead of having to pay for it! Cheeky git!

Allen managed the 2km in 41.50s which was much faster than he expected. He figures the adrenaline and also the fact that he had to swim through some jellyfish along the course made his time faster. These jellyfish weren't the prosiness kind though.

David Walliams was also taking part in the race, which we didn't realise till the following day. There was an article on him in the local Sydney Morning Herald. A shame really as it would have been good to get a photo of him and Allen after the race.

So what did Allen get for his months of training and swimming the 2km. A can of Redbull, a plumb and form for the next 2km race at the end of February!

We all went to hang around the beach for the rest of the day. I hired out a body board and went body boarding. Typically for me there were some reports of the occasional bluebottle jellyfish (Portuguese Man o'War) in the sea. I swam into the sea with my bodyboard and on my first wave I felt a sharp pain on my left arm. I looked at it and couldn't see anything. For the next few minutes I kept feeling this pain in my left arm but couldn't see anything on it. A while later I could see some more jellyfish in the water so decided to get out in case I was stung.

As it turns out I was already stung on my arm. A local lifeguard identified the marks on my left arm as having been caused by a bluebottle jellyfish. He said that there wasn't anything that could be done about it and the pain would only last for around half and hour or so. It wasn't than painful more like a bad stinging nettle rash. I still have a few marks on my arm today but hopefully they'll go away soon enough.

We were surprised at the number of topless sunbathers on the beach. Definitely more than usual, unfortunately no pictures to make up for the men in Speedos in this entry.

Docked in Circular Quay was a very big cruise liner that we could see on our way back on the ferry. It literally dwarfed the harbour cruise terminal and even some of the buildings behind it.

I never could see why anyone would want to take a cruise for a holiday. To me it would be my idea of holiday hell. Being stuck on a big boat with loads of other people and not being able to get away at all. Still each to their own...

Happy Australia Day.

January the 26th is Australia day, so happy Australia day to you all!

Australia day is generally a day of celebrations for Australians to celebrate all that is great about Australia. It's also a good excuse to have a day off work, BBQ and few beers too.

One of the main events in Sydney on Australia day is the ferry race. It's about an hour race around the harbour by four of Sydney's ferries. Here you can see the very end of the race and four decked out ferries in the middle of the photo. One is just behind the military frigate, which marks the end point of the race just under the Harbour Bridge.

It was quite good fun to watch the race but it wasn't the sort of race that you would normally get, as there isn't any commentary or cheering on for one of the ferries to win really. They don't even really race the ferries either as a few years ago one of them sunk when they did used to really race them. Still it was fun watch and quite entertaining to see all the other boats around the ferries as well. The boat sponsored by Aami won the race but only just, apparently that boat has won the race in the last four years or so even though it's the oldest one in the race. There were also competitions for the best dressed boat and other races by tall ships in the harbour.

Here you can see Allen, Emily and Deirdre who were with me on the Harbour Bridge to watch the race.

There are also plenty of other events on throughout the day. They are mainly family orientated events but there was a fair bit to do for us too. We went to Hyde Park after watching the ferry racing to have some lunch. Like the noodles in the park last year they have a range of stalls mainly selling BBQ food but also a big range of Indian, Japanese and Thai food too.

On the Opera House front there were several big screens showing the Australian Open, as well as the cricket. Unfortunately for England they suffered one of their worst defeats in one day cricket against Australia today. I even had someone have a laugh at me for having an English accent but all in good nature.

There was also a fly over by F-18 jet fighters in formation and a rescue display by the coast guard helicopter. Here you can see the helicopter that they use to rescue people. It really did come very close to everyone sitting on the harbour front. Doing several loops around the harbour and stopping at some points to drop their lobster pot cage and pick it up again.

We spent some of the afternoon sitting in the opera house bar drinking beer in air-conditioned comfort while watching the world walk by. It was yet another bloody hot day here today.

In the afternoon we went to the Rocks to see some live music. There was a band called Angus and Julia Stone playing that Allen had heard of. They were quite good despite a nervous start. Julia looked and was quite obviously very
nervous but gained confidence as they played more tracks.

In the evening there were some events and fireworks in Darling Harbour so we went down there. It was very crowded but we still managed to get a good view despite the number of people. There were some spectacular fireworks right in the harbour which looked even better because we were only a few yards away from them. I would say that they looked much better than the New Year fireworks because they were so close.

Then just as the fireworks ended there was a F-111 bomber fly over which was really amazing. It was quite dark and you could just make out the plane and see it buring fuel out the back in a big flame. It flew very close right over my head which made and incredible noise and sight.

To give you an idea here's a libary image of an F-111 doing a dump and burn.

I'm all for Australia day and will be celebrating it every year on the 26th January.

Something else that happened last Thursday which was quite good. Allen and I were having a drink in the local pub after work when a film crew turned up from SBS TV station. They said they were filming a documentary on immigrants getting citizenship in Australia and did we mind if they filmed on our table and had us in the background. They sat four people next to us who talked about citizenship as one of them had just come from America and successfully applied for citizenship in Australia. Allen and I were just trying not to do anything silly like trip over or spill drink when drinking. The program should be shown in a few weeks time on SBS TV, so we're looking forward to seeing us on the telly soon!

The Oaks Trail Part Two.

I went out mountain biking again this Saturday with Roger on the Oaks Trail. This is the same bike route that I fell off quite badly on the last time. Hopefully this time I won't fall off and break my bike.

We went out at a more civilised time this morning and caught the 8.18am train to Woodford where the trail starts. We got there around 10.50 all ready to take on the trail.

Here is a photo of the trail. It's mostly a fire-break trail that has been created to stop any bush fires spreading in the Blue Mountains. The length of the course is around 30km and should take about two and a half hours or so as it's mostly downhill.

I must admit that I was more nervous than I thought I would be when I started out riding along the course. I did take the first few kilometres quite gently, especially around the place where I fell over the last time. However once I got further along the course the more my confidence built up, and by the end I was flying along almost as fast as I was before.

I think that the fall has helped me have more of an appreciation of the speeds that I was recklessly going down the route before. More so along the really rough rocky parts of the course. Before I would have gone as fast as I could and not quite been in control of my bike. This time however I was much more in control when dropping and jumping the bumps and rocks.

I guess it's all part of being a better mountain biker. I may not be as fast as I was before but at least I stand a much better chance of not falling off and breaking any bones.

It wasn't all roses though as I did fall off once on the course and at certain points when trying to go up the uphill sections I thought it wasn't so much fun, more of an endurance that I had to really push myself quite hard to get though. I had to get off and walk up the last parts of the up hill sections as I was really gasping for air. It was also very hot in the mountains, according to my bikes trip computer it reached 37 to 41 degrees in the sun!

My fall was at a walking pace, but enough to graze my right palm and give me a couple of bruises from my bike. I was just coming up to Roger who had stopped in front of me. Unfortunately he stopped only a bikes length in front of a small drop. As I came down the hill to the drop I slowed to a walking pace and as I hit the drop my bike was going so slow that it just stopped and bottomed out on the drop and I went flying over the handle bars! It was either do a face plant on the rocks or put my hand out to break my fall. I chose the latter option.

Some parts of the course were really good fun though. There is one massively long downhill section where you could go really fast along more or less a double lane gravel track. There was also a great single track section where you can really go quite fast weaving left and right though trees and bushes along rocks, tree roots and sand. They all put a big smile on my face. My bike looks quite worn now and covered in mud and dust. I'm sure for a $500 bike it wasn't meant to be put though the punishment that it's gone though.

On Sunday the great weather continued and it felt like you were opening an oven door when you stepped out into the Sydney CBD streets. We all went down to Manly beach for the afternoon. We must have had some of the (very) tail end of the winds that you've been having in the UK as it was a little windy along Manly beach. They closed most of the beach from swimming as the rips were quite strong. The sand was also blowing up occasionally and you could really feel it blowing against your back. I know it's nothing like the weather you've been having there, and it's nice to be in the Australian summer rather than the English winter. :-)

We spent most of the time catching some sun along the beach and did go for a quick dip in the sea. I could see what they meant by the strong rips as at times I could feel myself being pulled out by the strong current and this was only when the sea was just above waist height.

Swimming with Sharks.

On New Years Day we went to Palm beach, also known as Summer Bay to Home and Away fans. Having never seen an episode of Home and Away I didn't really recognise any of the sites of interest pointed out to me by Allen.

This lighthouse view is apparently in the opening credits as is the beach view. The beach was very clean and long and even better very empty.

Except for one big animal that was determined to spoil our swim. Just as we got to the beach the lifeguards there were blowing their whistles and letting go with their siren on their beach buggy.

One of the lifeguards had spotted a shark in the water so the few swimmers in the water were all told to get out. One of the poor lifeguards was suiting up with a life jacket and all his mates were having a good laugh at him. It turned out to be his job to get on the jet ski and try to chase the shark away from the beach.

We waited around for about twenty minutes watching the lifeguard whiz back and forth in the sea. Eventually he came back and gave the all clear to get back into the water.

Well Allen, Mike and I weren't going to let one shark ruin our new years day swim. I figured as long as I kept a couple of kids in front of me they would certainly be making more splashes in the water to attract the shark. :-) So, swimming in shark-infested waters, check!

We all had a good swim in the sea and it was a real shame that there wasn't a shop that we could hire body boards as the shallow beach and waves would have been perfect for some body boarding.

After the beach we drove up to a lookout point where you could see Palm Peach and the surrounding bay. The view was quite breath taking. Yet another one of those views which I could quite happily watch till the cows came home or the sun set and the mosquitos came out to play at least.

We also saw a small roo at the lookout point. As usual for kangaroos as soon as it saw someone it jumped around for a bit to make enough noise to be noticed and then froze and stared at us. As Allen pointed out it was probably the worst thing it could do if we were trying to catch it! Make some noise to attract attention to itself then stop so that it could be caught easily.

The roo had obviously been in a fight as part of one ear was missing. It had nothing to do with me, honest!

We watched the roo for a few minutes before I decided to see how close I could get to it. It obviously wasn't really used to human contact because as soon as I got to within a couple of metres of it, it scarpered off into the bush.

Cycling into the New Year.

Seeing as my local gym was mostly closed during Christmas week I had to go for a long cycle ride around town to get rid of some energy. I decided to go and do a seven bridges ride around the NW of Sydney.

It basically covers the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Fig Tree Bridge, Tarban Creek Bridge, Gladesville Bridge (where this photo was taken), Iron Cove Bridge, Anzac Bridge and finally the Pyrmont Bridge. In all its around 35km with lots of cycling up and down various hills as well.

I had to take plenty of stops when going up some of the hills it was quite knackering at times to try to get to the top. In the end I cramped up quite badly on both my thighs when I got to the Anzac Bridge. It must have looked like I was crouching down for the loo to the people driving long the bridge! I had to squat down beside my bike to stretch my upper thigh muscles as it was too painful to even stand up.

Still it was worth it in the end and I was quite pleased that I did manage to make it home, even with very tired legs. The views from some of the bridges were quite fantastic. I was quite jealous of some of the people who must have decent harbour side views and even more so of the people who had a garden that went all the way down to their private boat on the harbour.

For the New Years Eve celebrations we decided to find a spot on the observatory park, which is just across the road from my Apartment. An eight-lane Harbour Bridge road, but still just across the road.

Here is the view that we had of the Harbour Bridge from our picnic spot. We got there around 3pm and it was a little busy but never got that packed even in the evening. There were quite a few people for the midnight fireworks but they were only around for the last thirty minutes or so.

There were two sets of fireworks, 9pm ones titled the children’s fireworks and then midnight ones for the adults. As well as fireworks on the bridge there were also several barges around the harbour, which had more fireworks.

Here's a picture of the kids fireworks they were quite good:

Even more spectacular was the midnight show. What made it really good was that there were also some surprise fireworks on some of the tallest buildings in the CBD. So in effect we were surrounded by the firework displays, as the CBD was behind us, one of the barges directly in front and the Harbour Bridge to one side.

Here you can see the exploding buildings of the CBD:

Fireworks from the barge in front of us:

And finally some of the displays on the Harbour Bridge:

Quite a good display in the end. I'd say that they were only better than the London 2000 fireworks because we were surrounded by them and wherever you looked you could see something. I remember the London display being louder but not as spectacular as the Sydney ones.

Post Christmas Fun.

On Boxing Day the weather couldn't have been any better. Clear blue skies and little or no wind.

We (Deirdre, Allen and I) just had to go down to Manly beach for the day. Unfortunately on the way there we forgot that the Sydney to Hobart yachting race would be on and that the Ferries on the harbour wouldn't be running for a few hours after midday because of the start of the race.

Fortunately there was a sea cat service that was running just after lunch so we grabbed a quick bite to eat in Sydney centre and then caught that. It's a little more expensive than the ferry but much faster as well.

Manly had a solar powered Christmas tree in the middle of their town shopping centre, which was very cool. It does look very odd to see a Christmas tree in the middle of thirty-degree heat summer skies. Something about it just isn't right. Not that I'm complaining as it's much better than the cold, dark and damp usual English Christmas’s that I'm used to.

As you can see the beach on Manly was very crowded on the southern half. However if you walk a little way up to the northern beach it's much emptier.

We hired a boogie board each and went out surfing on them. It was really good fun and there wasn't any lifeguard drama for me this time round.

The boogie boards allow you to walk a little way out into the sea and then 'catch' a wave back into the beach while lying with your chest on the board.

It's a good idea to wear a rash vest when on the board though, otherwise you'll end up with quite a red rash from the friction on the board.

We all had a fantastic time and it was a great way to spend a Boxing Day afternoon.

After the beach we had a nice meal and couple of beers at the Bavarian beer cafe just beside the Manly ferry terminal.

On the way back on the ferry we had a very odd experience. The Manly ferry runs both forwards and backwards to and from Manly from the central business district (CBD), so it never has to turn around at any time.

However this time around because apparently the gang plank which we would normally depart on when getting off at the CBD, was too slippery so the ferry had to perform a 180 degree spin in the middle of the harbour. It felt very strange to have the ferry stop its engine in the middle of Sydney harbour and then spin around.

However on the plus side it did enable me to take this great shot of the sun just setting over the Sydney CBD skyline. It's time like these when I'm coming back on the Manly ferry after a day at the beach that I wonder why I would ever want to come back to England. The view of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House at night isn't half bad.

Christmas Festivities.

I've been a bit slow updating my blog recently. No excuses just having too much fun over here to find the time.

We've had the Earth Tech, Wallingford and Sydney Water Christmas parties in mid December.

The Earth Tech one consisted of a meal and dance in a hotel in north Sydney. It was good fun but most other people were much more drunk than me. Earth Tech is the company which Sydney Water hired which in turn hired Wallingford Software to provide the water modelling software.

The photo on the left is of the Wallingford Christmas party which took place on one of the old paddle steamer boats which for two and a half hours circles around the harbour while we get to eat average food and get entertained by a small cabaret act.

There were plenty of other people on the boat, they were mainly tourists though as there appeared to be only one other company there. We all had a good time on the boat but it was a bit brief. You only really had time to eat and watch the cabaret show as it was only a two and a half hour cruise around the harbour. It would have been much better to get some time to walk around the boat and admire the view as well. Still we had plenty of beers once we docked again at a local bar.

As you can see the Australian bus company in Sydney has a good laugh with some of their busses over Christmas. Here are a couple of photos that Allen took of their 442 bus home to Balmain.

It still doesn't really feel like Christmas over here. It's been much too warm though not too hot. The run up to Christmas has been very subdued, if you ignore the shops that is. There isn't that over the top decorating that you get in England.

One thing that we noticed was that there isn't any Christmas decorations put up by the Sydney council. So the only Christmas decorations that you see are either subtle ones on people's houses or in the shop windows. I didn't see any instances of fake snow in the shop windows though, only some tinsel, lights or balls. A much better way to have Christmas if you ask me.

I spent Christmas day at Deirdre and Allen's place for Christmas lunch. We also had Roger, Ian and Ian's mum along as well. Ian is the technical support for Wallingford Software in Australia. He's a proper Sydneysider. We all had a full Christmas lunch cooked up by Allen and played Trivial Pursuit on their front Porch as it was clear and Sunny outside. The Trivial Pursuit here does have an Australian slant though. Unless you happen to know a little bit about Australian sport, politics and entertainment you wouldn't know about ten percent of the questions.

Walking to the ruined Castle.

Yet another trip to the Blue Mountains last Sunday. This time Allen and I had plans to walk from Katoomba to the Ruined Castle.

You can easily see the Ruined Castle from Echo Point where Greg and I were last week. It doesn't look that far away from Echo Point but long distances can be deceptive.

In the guide book the Ruined Castle walk from the Golden Steps is about six hours return and the walk to the Golden Steps from Echo Point is about three hours. We figured that we could do it in around seven hours if we had a reasonable pace and didn't get lost at all. The guides normally assume a slower pace.

We got to Katoomba by eleven, had a quick brunch and then headed off into the Mountains. Deirdre came along as well but not for the walk. She was all prepared for a day in Katoomba, browsing the shops and catching up on things in the art deco classic Carrington Hotel. Think of the hotel in the movie The Shinning.

At 12 we caught a tour bus to Scenic World, which is at the top of the railway from the base of the Blue Mountains. From here we walked to the top of the Golden Stairs where we could descend into the Blue Mountains.

I'm sad to say that the Golden Stairs didn't have any gold, but they were quite steep at some points and it helped make our decision to come back by a different route.

After a brisk walk we finally made it to the Ruined Castle. Initially we couldn't see too much of a view on the ridge because many of the trees were in the way. Then on one of the rocky outcrops we could see a couple that had climbed up there, so we figured we must be able to climb up there as well.

The climb up was a little tricky and I'm certainly glad that Allen and I didn't slip and fall at any point. It would be a long walk back with broken bones. The view from the top was really worth it. It was quite breathtaking to get to the top of a metre square ledge and look around. The views were as if we were in the middle of the Blue Mountains and we had a 360 degree panoramic view around us.

The first picture here is of me on top of the rocky outcrop that I climbed up first. The next two are of some of the views that we had from up there.

Strangely enough we had a phone signal on the top of the outcrop. So we phoned Deirdre to tell her that we were ok and that mountain rescue probably wouldn't be needed for us today. Allen had some binoculars and with these we could make out the Carrington Hotel as well as people at Echo Point. I wonder if any of them could see us as well.

In the second picture you can just about make out Echo Point and the group of houses on the left is Katoomba.

On the way back from the walk we didn't climb up the Golden Steps, instead we walked past them to follow the base of the Mountains around to the base of Scenic World and then we could climb up the same steps that Greg and I climbed last weekend.

However this route round the base of the mountains wasn't ideal. Along the path there was a landslide at some point in the past and the path was wiped out! We had to follow chalk arrows on the fallen rocks and some occasional black poles where the path used to be. Here is Allen on the edge of where an obvious mud slide had occurred recently wiping out the path as well.

At one point we did get a little lost and wondered off the path. However looking down the hill we identified one black pole and then gingerly took a route down to the pole and back onto the path. The sun was really beating down at us at this point, fortunately we both had been well prepared and bought plenty of water, sun screen and some snacks. It wasn't only the sun and landslides that we had to look out for though, the hot rocks were ideal places for venomous snakes as well.

We eventually made it past the landslides and were happily back into the cooler canopy of the trees.

We even managed to see a wallaby in the forest. Someone just walked past us only to see the wallaby run past them in the forest. We all quickly stopped and could see the frozen wallaby though the bush. Here's a small picture of it.

An hour or so later and we were finally back in Katoomba. Quite exhaused after a seven hour walk and in need of a decent pint.

We arranged to meet up with Deirdre in the Carrington for a well deserved beer.

Fortunately for me they served Guinness on tap, unfortunately it was very chilled but then that's Australians and their beer for you. Here's my Carrington Guinness in a Carrington labelled pint glass.

We had an average Thai meal in Katoomba before trying to catch the 9.25 train back to Sydney. You would think that with trains at 5.25, 6.25, 7.25 and 8.25 that there would logically be one at 9.25 as well. Unfortunately not, the next train after 8.25 was at 10.55! So seeing as there wasn't a 9.25 train we had to wait a further hour and a half for the last train home.

The good news was that we had plenty of time to get back to the Carrington then for another beer, the bad news being that we wouldn't get back to Sydney till one am and on a school night too.

Greg's Visit Down Under.

My friend Greg has been visiting me for the past week. He was going to a friends wedding on Manly beach anyhow and it was just coincidental that I was going to be here in Sydney as well.

I couldn't take any more time off work so other than weekday evenings I only had one weekend to show him around.

Seeing as the weather was a bit overcast, we decided to go to see the Maritime museum on Saturday.

There is a retired submarine moored next to the museum and we got the chance to take a look around it. It was quite fascinating to be able to wonder around a real submarine.

For all you geeks out there (me included) it's an Oberon class submarine called HMAS Onslow. A diesel/electric submarine, which was in service from 1969 to 1999. Here you can see Greg with his head in the escape tube in the forward torpedo room. As you can imagine submarines aren't really designed for people over six foot tall.

This is a picture of some of the crew quarters. I really feel sorry for the bloke who had the top bunks here. There is barely enough room to turn over in the bunks.

Even for me the passages were very narrow and I could barely walk with my shoulders square on to them. There were several retired volunteers on hand to answer questions about the submarine and explain parts of it. I had plenty of questions and it was a pleasure for me to be abroad the submarine.

The following day we planned a long day trip to the Blue Mountains to see the main sights there. We caught a train out there, which is roughly a two hour train trip from the city centre. We got there around one and had a bite to eat in Katoomba and then took a good five hour walk around Echo point, to the Three Sisters and then down into the valley into Laura forest and back around the base of the Three Sisters. Then up the other side at Orphan rock and back to Katoomba.

Here you can see the steep steps down the side of the Three Sisters rock formation. I could imagine the walk up the steps being quite a good work out! Fortunately we were walking down them, if you lost your footing on the metal steps then it would have been quite a fall down.

The weather was ideal for a long walk as it was a little overcast and a little misty in the air. If it was sunny then we would have really struggled in the heat and humidity.

This middle photo is of me in the middle of the Laura forest, obviously exploring paths never trodden by any human being. Well actually there was a well-worn path throughout most of the walk. The walk around the Laura forest was not as popular though and as a result much well worn and all the better for it. We only saw one bloke going the other way in the forest, while for the rest of the walk we saw quite a few other people doing the three sisters walk.

There were plenty of tourists around the place and I really got quite annoyed when I saw some of them nonchalantly littering the path with their rubbish. So much so that Greg and I had a loud conversation about how stupid some people are who litter the place. However, they either didn't understand us or just plain ignored us



This final photo is the obligatory photo of the Three Sisters rock formation from Echo point. Once we got round here for the second time it was quite late but at least there were only a handful of tourists about the place so it made the place much more peaceful.

You can just about make out a small walkway between the first sister and the main rock headway. That was the start of the walkway down the side of the Three Sisters.

Once we got back to Katoomba we had a well deserved Thai meal in what seemed like someone’s front room. The meal tasted so good, but then again we had just walked around 7km and really needed the fill up.