Hey everyone! Thought I'd finally write a little bit about my trip to the Blue Mountains with Chris and Ruth. Been ages since I've put anything on here because I've been busy travelling up the East Coast but now I'm in Cairns so I can spend a little time adding some photos and stuff for you all!

Well as you are probably all aware, Ruth surprised me with an early arrival in Sydney! Chris and I were just about to get on a bus to go back to our hostel when I got a call from Ruth. The conversation went a bit like this..

Me: Hello?
Ruth: Hey, what are you doing tomorrow?
Me: Starting my new job! Why?
Ruth: Oh, can you not go in?
Me: Why?
Ruth: Because I've changed my flights and I'm flying into Sydney tomorrow.

So Ruth came and joined us in Sydney 5 weeks early! So that put my job on hold for a week (even though after the week they told me that they couldn't find cover for me so gave my job to someone else! Great!) and knowing that Manny was already at the Blue Mountains and Chris was heading off in a few days we thought we would tag along.

We got there on the 4th of May and arrived in Katoomba around late afternoon after a short train journey which was rather nice! We stayed in a YHA hostel which had a very good reputation. It lived up to the expectations and was really big, clean and had loads of facilities (plus a TV room which we've not had for a few months since being in Sydney!). That afternoon we just took a short walk around the small town of Katoomba. It's a tiny little place with a very local feel to it. Lot's of cafes and little shops line the main street. It had been a while since we had cooked for ourselves so myself, Ruth and Chris made some really nice fajitas! This guy who looked like Boy George was a bit jealous of our amazing skillz. That night we saw Manny, who looked knackered, lazing around the hostel and a bit later in the evening we got some beers and watched a couple of films.

The next day was our main day in the Blue Mountains. We decided to pay for an Explorer Bus ticket which last for as long as your stay in Katoomba. It's a family-run company who operate a hop-on-hop-off kind of service around the Blue Mountains. It was really cheap and saved us a lot of walking. The drivers used a microphone to give you information about the area. One of the drivers was so informative that he would tell you how many people he could see waiting at the next stop; "Oh look, there are 2 people waiting at stop 9....no, there's actually 3!....This is stop number 9. The next stop is stop number 10 and then after that we have 11....".

We used the bus to stop off at several places in the day. The first place was Scenic World. A tourist place that offers a glass-floor cable cart style transporter to get you over the other side of some mountains to see the Three Sisters rock formation. It was a few hundred metres high. They also had a Scenic Railway (not as good as it sounds Dad) which used to be used for transporting people and coal up the cliff face. It was really cramped, only lasted about 5 minutes to get form one end to the other but was on an incline of over 45 degrees. Pretty cool but lame at the same time because you couldn't actually see anything! Downthe bottom of the cliff was a Scenic Walkway where you walk through a rainforest. Nice but pretty boring... The you get in another cable cart type thingy to get you back up the cliff. We had a few walks around the cliff faces and had a look at a waterfall called Gordon Falls. The cliff lookout was amazing. It gave you a panoramic view of the Blue Mountains and you could see for miles. Bit like a cheap version of the grand canyon but no rocks...just lots of trees. We saw a few other waterfalls and walked along to Honeymoon Point which is a small rock platform overhanging the cliff. Again, really nice views. I threw a banana skin off the side of the cliff and climbed on the railings to Ruth and Chris' horror. We chilled out that night as there are no real pubs or anything around the area.

The next morning we hopped on the old school double decker bus again and took a trip to the chocolate factory. Ruth was desperate to see it! It was a lot smaller than we epected and the promise of free tasting was a bit of a lie! But we still got some of the chocolate and it was pretty good stuff. It's about a month since we went there so I can't remember what we did after that ha! but we went to see the Three Sisters later in the afternoon and managed to take some pictures about an hour or so before the sun was setting. They got their name from Aborginal people who said that there were three sisters who were turned to stone by a witch...a load of balls if you ask me but they still look quite cool. To get to them you have to walk down this really steep stairway, from there you can stand on one of the Three Sisters. You can carry on going down the stairs (hundreds of them apparantly) all the way to the rainforest below but it eas late and we were shattered so we didn't bother in fear of not being able to climb back up in time for the bus! Manny said he did but he was probably lying!

We left the following day after staying two nights there. We could have stayed for longer but in all honesty there is not that much to do after you have seen the main parts of the Blue Mountains. It was really nice to get away from the city for a few days because by that time I had become really bored of Sydney. If you are in Sydney or around that area then you should go to the Blue Mountains for the views alone. We saw some people form the hostel at the train station and they had only been there for the day and still enjoyed themselves.

I keep mentioning Sydney but we've not done the journal for that yet as the other guys are still there but once they get it started I'll get them to forward it to me so I can add some stuff about what I got up to and put my photos on when they do.

I'll be writing about Byron Bay next and all the other places that Ruth, Chris, Maggs and I visited after leaving Sydney. It's been wicked, being getting up to all sorts and just generally really enjoying ourselves!

Speak soon and will add another journal soon.

Miss you all, love Luke x

PS. Guys, hope you're having an awesome time stil in Sydney, we shall hopefully be reunited soon!