Thinking about the Australian winter closing in, we decided to make use of another nice day and hit a local beach - Coogee. (coogee coogee coogee coo) :) We came at around 3 o’clock to find wind and goosebums. Nevertheless a nice day.

Day two of Blue Mountains, near Katoomba. Way more tourists. Cloudless skies. More hiking. More bird close ups. More mountains. Train ticket from Katoomba to Stanmore station: 11.70$ AUS. Tooheys: priceless. Oh yeah.

Today we decided to check out the Blue Mountains as a two day excursion. The connectivity was great - two hours west from Sydney by train. Our first stop was Blackheath. In the morning we waited for the drizzle to settle down by sipping coffee with some banana bread and then walked over to the Blackheath Caravan Park, where we dropped off our gear. Blackheath is where the Grose Valley opens up. Unfortunately, in late 2006 the valley has gone through a forest fire and a lot of the walks around this place were closed off. Nevertheless we managed to do two tracks: Fairfax Heritage Track, and the Grand Canyon Track. At both hikes we’ve seen the steep, eroded and beautiful Blue Mountains, valleys, and lots and lots of birds. :) (I had the chance to play around with the zoom lens.) I think both Ewa and myself preferred the Grand Canyon walk, as it went through a cave, water pools, a river, and was just so much more diverse in the terrain. The outdoors were definitely a nice break from the city life. Woohoo.

What to do on a Saturday with 35’C outside? We decided the Olympic Park. We took our swimming things thinking maybe we’ll take a dip someplace or at least sit under a tree and enjoy the cool of its shade. The bus ride was very refreshing in a clean air conditioned bus, but long. Then we had to change onto the train and head north for three stops.

The Olympic Park was home for the 2000 Olympic Games. There are lots of modern buildings and a really fancy train station (reminded me of the one in Berlin, but much smaller). At these grounds there are also corporate offices, hotels and natural areas. We enjoyed the nature; walked along a trail that goes through the wetlands. The wetlands are areas where mangroves grow, spiders hang off branches, crabs crawl and ibis (bird with long legs) roam.

The humidity built up into a heavy rainstorm, accompanied with thunder. We were caught in the middle of it. We were so soaked that we could wring out water from our clothes (and we did). PLUS Jakub started to run for shelter, when the rain started for a second time. I was behind him and….POOF! Jakub was gone. We ended up hiding in two different places and lost each other. We ended up meeting back at home…..happily ever after.

The End.

The day was hot so it took us a while to get out of bed. By the afternoon, we did some laundry as the last couple of days was either sticky or rainy which got in the way. I also had a pretty good phone interview or two (more to come on this later in the week), and then we decided to hit the beach. Based on the guide books, another highly recommended one around the Sydney area is the Manly Beach – and so we made that our target for the day. We grabbed some sandwiches, fruit, sunscreen and lemon water, and hopped on the train to the central business district (Circular Quay station). Today was another opportunity to experience the Sydney ferry system, which took us to our destination. Oh … we missed the ferry by a minute, and so we had to wait another half an hour – hate stuff like that.

Manly? It was a damn windy day and we got there rather late, but nevertheless it was a pleasant beach. People were playing volley ball. The waves were high and so there were plenty of surfers. Actually, a small little surfing school found a spot in front of us and we were able to listen in on some of the tips. We also had a chuckle as we looked at the people putting the theory to practice at sea (not to say that we could do better). Oh, and compared to Bondi beach, on Manly we did not find the topless culture to be as widespread. :)

We made our way to the Sydney Aquarium today to find plenty of cool underwater animals. Woohoo.

Yesterday we ventured out on a two day trip to Australia’s oldest national park, the Royal National Park, to attempt a bit of the Coast Walk Trail. Luckily it wasn’t too far off from Sydney, and it was totally doable without a car – very suitable for us at the present. We took the awesome CityRail to the suburb of Cronulla, and then a short ferry ride to Bundeena. We walked around 9 to 10km to the Providential Point Camground, (less than half the full trail) and then setup a campsite. The trail was very worthwhile, as it had some nice coastal scenery, and lots of awesome rock shapes eroded by wind and water. Along the walk we encountered little lizards, birds, some heavy rain, and a rat or mouse which tried to get into our tent in the middle of the night (only saw its shadow on the tent above my face). Awesome walk indeed.

Tip: book the camp sites for the coastal walk 7 days in advance to get a permit

We have moved to Corunna Road located in Stanmore, Sydney. We walked around today seeing the rundown neighbourhood from the early 1910s. The house that we live is old, offering high ceilings in our room - European Style (as I call it). It really doesn’t take long to move in, opposite to packing it (thoughts run back to New Zealand and Canada). Moving in involved taking books out onto the mantel of our fireplace, cloths into the closet and onto steel shelves. It’s gray out and the one window in the room lets little light in.

PS we also went through an Italian region today that’s near by and ate HOT pasta.

The following entry I wrote while at Bondi Beach (I have a travel journal that I write in quite frequently).

Here we are on Bondi Beach. It’s quite the popular place with thousands of people on it, yet it can be quite relaxing. It’s not that loud, even though we have about 3 meters space between the next people. I went for a dip in the ocean or to be more specific the Tasman Sea. The same sea I was looking out at while in New Zealand and thinking about Australia. The sea is quite warm and clear. I enjoyed jumping along the waves, swimming with them, letting the current take me inland, diving under the waves, jumping over them…etc.

Went for a stroll through the various parks the city had to offer.