Our flight arrived in Sydney on Sunday lunchtime, so after arriving at our hostel we headed down to Darling Harbour to find some lunch, before trawling around a selection of mountain stores in an attempt to try and find the last of our requirements for South America. Emma managed to get a thermorest and sleeping bag ready for our camping exploits, and I just made myself look pretty geeky with a whole host of technical sleeping bag questions I managed to pull out!!! (Well i had a really informative guy giving me the speel when I bought mine!!!) We spent the evening down by the Rocks, watching the mens tennis final on a big open air screen... it was a great atmosphere, and we could see both the Harbour bridge and the opera house from our position!!! Admittedly, there were a few occasions when I wondered if perhaps we might get lynched... we were surrounded by french people and appeared to be the minority for supporting Djokovic rather than Tsonga!!! (Well we´d seen him play live in Melbourne so we felt an allegiance!!)
Monday was a bank holiday so we caught the ferry across to Manly beach (with great photo opportunities for the bridge and opera house on the way!) for another relaxing day of sun, sand, sea... (not entirely sure how i´ll cope when I actually have to do work again!! The months of working every weekend seem a long, long way away now!!) For a change that evening we decided to cut back on our spending... so for the first time actually cooked in the hostel (and better still, even prepared ourselves a picnic lunch for the following day!!) Proud at our ability to budget - even if only occasionally - we went for a few laughs in the local bar... it was karaoke night!!! However, we actually managed to embarass ourselves enough with our limited pool playing ability, so we didn`t feel the need to make matters worse by singing!!
Tuesday was an early start for a day tour to the Blue Mountains... it was quite impressive.. we headed up to an outlook called Kings Tableland, which was great, and an opportunity to make the other people on our tour question our sanity with our slightly crazy poses for photographs!! We then had a short hike down to Wentworth Falls, before a quick lunch stop (time for our picnic!!) and a trip to an area called the Three Sisters (due to 3 pillars formed in the rock and an old Aboriginal storey regarding their creation)... here we took a cablecar down into the valley, before a short walk around and a `railway journey` back up - apparently the steepest railway in the world at 54degrees... not quite a rollercoaster but pretty close!! We were really lucky with the weather - it had been hot and clear all day, and as we prepared to travel back to the city, the heavens opened... and it actually started to hail!!! And hailstones like you couldn´t even imagine - absolutely huge!!! (Who says the sun always shines in Australia hey?!?)
Unfortunately, our budget lifestyle didn´t last, and we headed out for dinner and drinks at Darling Harbour!! (We´re counting on South America being REALLY cheap!! Or... er... we might be booking earlier flights home!!) The soft sands, warm water and rumoured shark nets of Bondi called us on Wednesday - it was awesome, not too crowded and perfect conditions - and we spent pretty much the whole day in the water!!
My last full day in Sydney was spectacular!!! With a little nudge from Emma I decided to go skydiving!!! It was awesome!! I managed to persuade one of the guys from our Blue Mountain tour to accompany me, jumping out the back of a plane at 14000 feet!! I have to admit, as we approached the base and got kitted up, I was feeling a little nervous!!! But whether it was the fumes from the plane engine, or just insanity... about 5 minutes before we boarded I just got slightly hyperactive and VERY excited, and sat grinning manically on the plane!!! (much to the unamusement of Steve, who was beginning to pallour and get nervous!!!)
When we reached 14000 feet, we had to stand up, attached to our instructor, and walk to the open hatch towards the back of the plane (this would have been fine, had my instructor not been about a foot shorter than me, and as we were attached, that required me to walk in a squat position - which is actually pretty hard work!! I did think that had we taken any longer to jump - he´d have been dragging me out purely because my legs would no longer have carried me!!!)
Once we jumped, we had about 8500 foot of freefalling before the parachute opened - a bizarre but awesome experience!!! (involving me smiling, waving and doing thumbs up at the camera constantly held in my face!!!) When my instructor had the parachute open, he offered me the chance to `take contol´ in order to orchestrate a few spiral turns to the left and right - great fun!! Then once back on the ground, a few of us went for lunchand celebratory drinks to compare stories... we were all still completely psyched!! Now i´m just looking forward to the next time!!!
Yesterday afternoon we just had a wander across the bridge to get some last views of the city, and Australia before our flight out to Santiago. It´s definitely with mixed feelings that I leave Australia... i´m so excited about South America and the adventures that lie ahead, and yet there´s still so much of Australia I haven´t seen yet!! Anyway... I will update you from Rio!!!
