Newcastle - 19th Dec

By the time we arrive in to Newcastle, it has past 11pm and we are pretty knackered. As it is Friday night we are faced with many drunken revellers wandering through the streets - somewhat amused by the large group of backpackers, laden with many bags coming towards them! We're glad there is a large number of us walking to the same hostel.

The YHA hostel we are staying at is in a beautiful old building - in particular we are amazed by a glimpse of a large ballroom and traditional study on our way up to our room. ...Right now though, all we can think about is SLEEP!

As with many other places we have stayed, Andy is thrilled that they have boogie boards to us for free. He swiftly arranges collecting one and we head down to Newcastle Beach. Immediately we can see the waves are absolutely huge! After attempting to get into the water, Andy soon retreats back to the beach after the waves threaten to knock him out completely.

After a bit more beach time we head into the town centre and stumble across the best second hand bookshop! Perfect timing as we are all read out of our current books. After making some selections we head on our way - looking forward to getting stuck into them. (After 1 day, I (Jules) am officially hooked on the Twilight books. Yes, im a bit late on the whole twilight craze....but better late than never!)

Whilst staying in Newcastle we also visit the nearby area of Kotara and pop into the huge Westfield shopping centre there. It feels strange to be amongst people, frantically rushing to finish their xmas shopping! We still don't feel remotely festive.

Before setting off for a walk on our final day - we stumble across a boogie board/surfing competition down at Newcastle Beach - much to Andys delight. The tricks they perform on these tiny boards are outstanding, especially considering the average age is about 12!
Walking from Newcastle Beach to Nobbys beach, we continued on to a lighthouse at the end of the beach....its all very picturesque! After popping to the super market we are excited for our final evening meal in Newcastle - Szechuan style noodles. (ok - its a ready made stir fry sauce but this constitutes cooking whilst on the road). I'm sad to say we ended up eating Cheerios for dinner (Szechuan actually should have said - so-hot-you-cant-swallow-it). We definitely had a moment of "we miss home cooking!"/"we miss food at home!"

Sydney straight to Blue Mountains 21st Dec

The Last Greyhound Journey
So our experience of travelling through Australia on the greyhound coaches has been, on the whole, good. Our last journey left a bad taste in our mouths (or rather, bad smell up our noses...)

On boarding the very busy bus, we have 4 seats left to choose from. We can sit next to each other at the back of the coach....however someone seems to have had travel sickness sitting on one of the seats. Yuk! So we have to settle on the two other seats, with andy sitting behind me. Not only has this bout of travel sickness left a nasty stench in the air......but an hour or so into the journey, the on board toilet has liquid leaking out of the door. Gradually worsening, this is running along the floor of the walkway down to the driver. Unfortunately Andy has placed his day sack on the floor of the alley way.....a bad journey indeed! Our disgust at this trip is momentarily forgotten when we enter downtown Sydney and catch a glimpse of the opera house - such an iconic structure, it seems surreal to see it in the flesh!

We are relieved to disembark the horrible coach at Sydney's central station , we're so pleased that we wont have to endure any more trips like that. We head straight inside to find out train times to Katoomba for our final trip before settling into Sydney for Christmas and new year!

Boarding the double decker train, it feels strange to be heading away from the coast. The 2 and a half hour journey covers a drastic change in scenery from city centre, to the surrounding suburbs of Sydney and eventually mountainous and deeply forested areas - really beautiful!

On arriving at our hostel we are unsure what to make of it, a cross between a retirement home, a guesthouse/b&b and a hostel - all in one! Its particularly strange how the doorbell seems to be audible from anywhere in the grounds and it sounds strangely like the doorbell at home....homely and unnerving all in one! Nevermind we thought, its only for a few days. Andy's first task - washing his rucksack. Such relief when the rancid greyhound smell was gone!

22nd dec - Blue mountains beckon
Despite a terrible weather forecast for the day ahead, we set off nice and early towards Echo Point - the lookout over the blue mountains, in the hope the forecasters had made a mistake! Although the walk to the lookout was fairly easygoing, i was conscious that all these steep downhill roads we were wandering down would post a much bigger challenge on our return journey...hmmm lets worry about that later.

It is clear we are nearing the lookout as the crowds of people heading in that direction gain in size.....and what a lookout it is! We weren't prepared for quite how vast the scenery would be. Stretching as far as we could see, the blue haze was clear to see, thanks to the blistering heat that had burnt through the hazy clouds above us! After photographing the 3 sisters rock formation from every possible angle we set off on one of the scenic walks that would wind around the valley/mountain edges. No matter what angle we looked out over the mountains from, the sheer size of the area amazed us! With numerous stops along the way at the various lookout points and carefully placed benches we eventually reach the cable car station. One final short walk brings us out at the Katoomba Cascades, a gentle stream of water flowing down over gradual stone steps. We have been so lucky with the weather! The only downside of this....those rather steep hills we had walked down earlier were quite hardwork on the return journey !

A slightly less exciting excursion in Katoomba involves a trip to the doctors for me (Jules). As mentioned previously, whilst in Port Macquarie I had noticed a rather large bite on my leg. Throughout our stay in Newcastle, it refused to go away...rather, it just got bigger and bigger. It was time to get an expert opinion....and the diagnosis was...a spider bite!! I couldn't believe it. What ever little critter attacked me, came back for seconds and actually bit me twice. I was relieved to hear that it was now beginning to heal and all the venom (yuk yuk!) had left the wound. As mother Wong proclaimed - i should consider myself lucky - of all the people travelling around Australia, that little spider chose me! Its one ozzie experience i could have done without!

After receiving the reassurance that i wasn't going to die from said spider attack, I was happy to get back to our Katoomba Experience! - Last stop, a trip to The Edge cinema. Surprisingly, this little town is home to a 6 storey cinema which is showing a 35 minute docu/film about the blue mountains! (similar to the one about Milford Sound we watched in Te Anau, NZ)

It was also a nice way to spend an evening, as the forecasters predictions had come true and it was now lashing it down with rain! Most entertaining of all, whilst buying out tickets, we have been informed that the showing has been booked out by a Chinese tour group therefore it will be broadcast in Mandarin! As our mandarin is a bit sketchy (ahem) we are issued with headsets so we can listen in English. We spend the whole time trying hard to concentrate on the English in our headsets, not the booming mandarin all around us! An entertaining experience. As the weather shows no signs of improving, we exit the cinema and head straight to the ticket office. Fortunately for us it is 'cheap Tuesdays' thus we declare this movie night and buy tickets for a film in half an hour. (for anyone who's interested it was "The Boys Are Back" and it was pretty good!) One aspect of cinema going we really miss is sweet popcorn! Salted just isn't the same. We finish off the night with a "cheap Tuesdays dominos pizza (we love Tuesdays) and are given free cans of coke whilst we wait for our food - bonus!

Our stop in Katoomba has been great, we are relieved to have seen the blue mountains in all their glory, relieved that my leg isn't going to fall off and most of all, relieved we have no more Greyhound journeys!

Time for the big one.
Sydney - here we come!!
xx