Monday 3rd December 2007

When we were up and ready to leave this morning, we decided that we'd all go for a bush walk to see the Three Sisters - a huge rock formation in the Blue Mountains. We walked out of the hostel and the weather was lovely, we were even wondering if we'd put enough sun cream on, but no sooner had we turned off the main road and started walking towards the trail - the sky turned black and we heard loud claps of thunder. Being the brave explorers that we are, we carried on walking.

After walking for about 5 minutes we saw loads of people taking in their washing from off their lines - one of whom asked if we were mad? saying we were going to get soaked! Suddenly, their was a huge bang of thunder and, like a clap-on / clap-off light switch, the heavens opened! We tried to see if it would pass, by standing under a tree for a couple of minutes (obviously the safest place to stand in a storm), but when it showed no signs of stopping we headed back to the hostel. Me and Nikki had our kags on, so we walked - but the Beave' was only wearing a vest - so he ran... for about 10 meters, then walked, then ran... for about 10 meters. Back at the hostel we changed out of our wet clothes and hung about in the huge communal area, reading our books. After an hour or so, when the sun looked like it had made a re-appearance, we tried to go for our walk... again.

This time we made it to Price Henry Cliff, the start of the walk - and set off. The path took us down into the bush and along the edge of the cliff, that had a spectacular views - it was hard to believe we were not far out of Sydney. When we were looking out at the Blue Mountains we could clearly see the blue haze that gives them their name (apparently it's an ultra-fine oily mist from the eucalyptus trees). Our walk took us about 1 and a half hours and eventually we got to a place called Echo Point, which has amazing views of the Three Sisters. We were debating whether to climb down the Giant Stairway, when suddenly the clouds rolled in and the thunder started again - so we thought better of it and made a run for the visitor centre. As expected the downpour started again and we had a look round while we waited for it to pass. Eventually it stopped enough for us to walk back. Steve only walked for about 2 minutes and then jumped on a bus - because he was only wearing a vest... again. Will that boy never learn?

Oh well, back to the 'big smoke' tomorrow!