This week we have been very quiet, Tuesday we went to the Theatre to see Bondi Dreaming and Thursday was so warm (32 degrees) we spent the afternoon on Bondi Beach and even ventured into the ocean a couple of times!! However the weather went downhill on Friday so I managed to drag Daire to Paddy’s market to buy fish and other boring house hold essentials. Saturday was even wetter but we made our way over to Prymont Farmers market where we picked up Mussels, cheese, breakfast and some herbs for the balcony before dashing back to shelter, we had planned to head to Manly to enjoy the Jazz festival that they were holding but it was just too wet and the idea of the ferry on a rough day...well...we decided not to go. Instead I cooked the mussels (first time ever!) and we chilled out in front of the box, Saturday night we braved the elements to meet up with Ken in Surrey Hills and went for an amazing Italian dinner and way too much red wine!
Other than waiting patiently to get started working full time I spent the week planning a couple of days in the Blue Mountains. Having planned travel to military precision I was gutted when Daire realised (whilst sat on the loo) that we had forgotten that the clocks went forward an hour.... so we were *aghast* running late! We made our way up to the Blue Mountains (the town of Katoomba) via train through the rain and the mist into more mist and fog, coming to terms with the fact that would not get to see any amazing views we decided to do more walking than planned, walking down The Furber stairs and along the national pass at the base of the valley, around the 3 sisters (three giant rocks that are said to be three sisters that were turned to stone by a sorcerer on their fathers command as they were being pursued by the male species, however the sorcerer since died and so the three sister remain in stone). We started the massive ascent up the Giant Stairway back up to echo point, as we climbed the cloud cleared and we go our first glimpses of the ‘blue’ in the Blue Mountains, it was a tough climb and we seemed to be the only people going up but well worth it and rewarded with refreshments at echo point.
Determined to continue on the ‘clear’ side of the valley we descended onto the Prince Henry Cliff top walk to Leura Cascades which were amazing, we had seen some parts of waterfalls on the Fuber Stairs and the national Pass but we got to see almost all of the cascades from quite high up, the walk had some great look outs. Here we got the bus into Leura where the bus driver suggested we watch the big NFL rugby final in the Alexandra, so propped in front of a big open fire with a schooner each we watch the Melbourne Storm beat the Parramatta Eels – it was perfect to dry off and finish to our day. We then had a taxi to Wentworth Falls town where dinner and our hideaway retreat hotel waited for us.
Up in good time on Monday (it was a bank holiday weekend here) we were pleased to see the cloud had lifted and the temperature was certainly more enjoyable. Wentworth falls is not as touristy as Katoomba however it is meant to be more idyllic and beautiful, and it certainly did not fail to impress us. We walked down Charles Darwin trail to Weeping Rock when, weirdly, it started raining then onto Wentworth falls 5 minutes away where the sun was shining and we walked across the top of the falls at the highest point . Little did we realise that Daire’s vertigo was being tested a teeny bit in comparison to the rest of the walk, walking around the edge of a cliff and down the cliffs on both sides of the falls, crossing it at two more places before taking the tough and very rough Wentworth pass path along the Jamison valley around to Valley of the waters and up the Victoria falls and more stairs. It was absolutely amazing though, again crossing the water a few times on the way up we enjoyed completely clear views of the blue mountains for miles. Arriving at the top just before a massive storm broke over head. A hearty lunch, drying by the fire gave us enough energy to get to the train station and back in Sydney sheltering from yet more rain. Great few days.
This week Daire is off to Florence for Chrissie and Justins wedding so he goes tomorrow and is back on Sunday, I start work on Thursday, will probably do more water aerobics on Saturday before going on a hen night in the eve.
Anyway, check out our pics….please note they do not give what we saw any justice!
