Blue Mountain

Thursday 14 October 2010


We slept pretty well considering the noise of the fridge, Alison's squeaky bed, and the kitchen noise. We were up at 6:30 and ready for the day. We had the room to ourselves again, so that was nice. We ate breakfast (granola bar and juice). We waited for our ride for the Blue Mountain Tour. A good portion of this trip will be waiting. When our guide came, he said that a couple on the tour went through a different company and paid quite a bit more than us. He told us to be discreet about it. We were happy we chose the right company. Most of the seats were full, so we went to the back of the van to sit. A lady and her two kids came next. The lady sat in a single seat, but the kids sat right next to me. The kids were entertaining each other, but moved a lot. So we occasionally got elbowed or kicks or something. The major issue was the smell. It was overwhelming at times. A couple of times, the boy lifted his arms. The stench just about knocked us out. We would try to cover our nose with our hand, breathe slowly through our mouths, and lean as if to look intently out the window. Also, they talked a lot, so it was difficult to hear the commentary.


We made a stop at one place. Alison and I got out to stretch and recuperate from the kids. We didn't stay long. It was a snack break. Our first real stop was Flat Rock. It was a big flat rock with no railing. The wind was strong. Very Strong. Alison asked the driver to take our picture. He was taking it when a gust of wind hit me, causing me to lose my balance. I felt like I was going over and instinctively grabbed onto Alison to steady myself. We were a long ways away from the edge, but my movement frightened the driver. He thought we were going over. We all laughed nervously and took more pictures to slow our beating hearts.

We stopped for lunch. Can we say...Subway? A guy talked to us for a while. We told him we were in New Zealand. He said he had travelled there a while. He asked where we had been, and every place we mentioned, he had some sort of negative comment to say about it. We gave up after a while.

We got back on the bus. and the driver stopped to point out kangaroos. I couldn't see squat. Because there were too many heads in my way, and I was on the wrong side of the car. Another time, I was on the right side of the car, but the kangaroo was so far away, it could have been a tree stump for all I knew. He then scooted the car up a bit...right in front of a tree stump. He started pointing out things from the kangaroo, such as a line. What line? There are hundreds of them...oh that's right. I'm looking at a massive tree. So no kangaroos for me.

Then we headed out for bush walking. The driver said we would have to choose what we wanted to do soon, but didn't explain anything. Then he passed out maps and was kind of abrupt all of a sudden. We got out of the car to see the Three Sisters, and he said we could go there or down steps or something else. He was not very clear, and we weren't sure what to do. So Alison and I started looking intently at our maps to figure out what to do. The driver suddenly turned around and took off while running into my map (which I had to lift up so he wouldn't take out my arms). Alison had to move away quickly as well. The lady with the kids made a face. We all followed him. We headed to another location to get more pictures. He turned the car around and asked what we all were doing. We decided to do the steps and take the cable car up.

So we took off in the bush. We were ready to be away from people. We first came to a formation in the rock that looks like a witch. Then we went to look at Katoomba waterfall. It was quite muddy and difficult to get to, but it was worth it. We went down so many steps, my legs started shaking. We went all the way down to a coal mining area. We walked through on the boardwalk and went up the cable car. It was a nice view. We met our group and waited. A couple people in our group got lost, so it took a while for them to get back. Then we had a long a smelly ride back to the hostel.

There was an ad on the radio about children and what they wanted to be when they grow up. It was an encouragement for children to get their BA and MA. The thing that was funny was, I thought the first kid said he wanted to be a pirate when he grows up. So, to be cheeky, I said to Alison, "I want an Masters in piracy." She then burst my bubble by telling me the kid said pilot.

While we were driving, the circulation of my legs was gone. They started going numb. When the driver finally dropped us off, I couldn't get out of there fast enough. The driver told us we were the quietest Americans he has ever met.

We had peanut butter for dinner. We are so sick of eating peanut butter. Alison hit her head hard on her bed, and I couldn't walk straight. We were both not feeling the best. We think the PB is getting the best of us.