Having been to Sydney in the past strangely makes our second visit feel very normal and homely - as if we're returning to a place we know and love (which of course is very true). It also gives us the chance to do all the things we wanted to do last time but couldn't fit in.

Our first visit, after walking around the malls for a while, is to the Australian Outback Centre. Not somewhere we really need to visit having seen the outback well and truly first hand but they give 30 minute demonstrations on the didgeridoo and how to play it - something i really need to learn having bought one fairly recently. The demonstration was excellent and i think i can now become the expert i'm destined to be! Not sure Sam will agree with that though!!!

We also visited the Sydney Observatory which overlooked the harbour bridge - soon to become our conquest!

Undoubtedly the highlight of our Sydney trip this time around was our evening climb of the huge harbour bridge. It was a 18:45 start and we only just made it there on time, wearing ourselves out getting there! The first hour of the 3.5hr evening was spent briefing, changing and kitting up. We were loaded up with a harness, raincoat, fleece, hat, radio receiver, headset and torch. The whole lot weighed quite a few extra kgs but we'll be extra strong when we've finished!!

The harness comes with a device that connects you to an endless cable that runs along the whole length of the walk. It is actually impossible to detach yourself from the bridge unless you have very good escapology experience and even then i don't it would be easy!!!

The first part of the walk is actually the worst. You enter the climb about 20-30 metres above water level but you're over the road to start with. What makes it so daunting is the pathway isn't very wide and it's possible to see right through when looking down. There are a few steep step ladders to climb but once you are at the bridge road level, the pathway is about 2-3 metres wide and you can't possibly see straight down. You can only see where you are supposed to see - to the sides and where the best views are. The whole climb is a thrilling experience with breathtaking views and unforgettable memories.

We had a lovely hot chocolate with Rebecca from our Fraser Island trip followed by a shopping browse at Bondi Junction but nothing else in Sydney. We've enjoyed it again and our 3 days was a good amount to enjoy Sydney in a different light and, besides, the weather was quite cold and cloudy!

Leaving Sydney we plan to spend a good few days fully exploring the Blue Mountains after touching upon it two years ago. We are greeted in the mountains by a fog so thick you can't see more than a few metres ahead and it's cold and wet! It's time for our only set of warm clothes to come out and probably stay on for our entire stay!!

We were going to camp but that thought was quickly quashed and we found a nice warm hostel to look after us! After a walk round and a quick thought about what to do over the next few days we decided that some abseiling would be fun and we enquired accordingly.

I would've been more than happy with just abseiling, having never done it before, but Sam was sold the Canyoning trip a little too easily! It was only slightly more expensive but sounded like much more fun. The morning is simple abseiling and the afternoon involves donning a 5mm thick wetsuit and jumping into icy cold canyons before abseiling down a waterfall which looked very tame in the pictures.

The morning of abseiling was a good chance to learn how to do it starting with a 5m drop and increasing to a 30m drop. I felt used to it and comfortable but a few more attempts would not go amiss in order to raise my confidence a little. I'm sure Sam felt the same. The picture above is a clever and fortunate illusion. The mist hides the real image of a 130m drop and you can't see the ledge we land on because of the overhang so if the mist wasn't there, it would seem like we were dropping down to a far greater depth than we did.

After lunch we set off down the same walking track Sam and I visited in scorching heat two years ago. Today was a different story altogether and we couldn't wait to get our wetsuits on and warm up a bit. Getting to the canyon, we put on our wetsuits and packed all our other stuff in big yellow floating backpacks. We also had our helmets and abseil harnesses on and felt warm for a few minutes until plunging into the freezing cold waters.

It took a good few minutes for our feet to adjust and feel comfortable but the rest of the body was fine because of the wetsuit. Then the fun began in the way of jumping backwards off of 2-3 metre high rocks (the only way down) and swimming through the canyon. A couple of hours of this exhilaration led us to the climax of abseiling down a waterfall that was at least 10 times as bad as the picture we saw. The guide said if it was slightly worse it would be too dangerous to go down. Great!

The other two guys on our tour went first and made it safely down. Then it was my turn. I was more concerned for Sam going last than i was worried about how i was going to get down! Immediately over the edge the overhang takes you straight into the full force of the falling water and then it's a bit of a struggle until you can free your face and take a breath whilst the water is still pounding on your legs.

About two thirds of the way down is a point of exit if the last bit looks too daunting. It did but foolishly I continued. The last bit was by far the hardest with the highest concentration of water and i began to lower myself in. As soon as the water caught my legs i slip away and i was just hanging and banging against rocks and water. I couldn't breathe and a panic started setting in. I just concentrated on feeding the rope through and getting down, no matter how much I banged and swung under the power of the water. Luckily i got taken under the waterfall a bit lower down and i somehow found myself standing behind the waterfall on a rock at a point where i could jump the rest of the way. So i regained my breath, released my ropes and thats what i did.

I was down safely and next it was Sams turn. She handled the drop much smoother than I especially considering her fear. She got to the overhang and wanted to get straight back up but the guide said she'd gone past the point of no return. Whether thats true or not is irrelevant because it worked and she continued. A panic set in when the water was pounding her but, after a stop whilst out of the flow of the water, she went on and managed very well. Very sensibly and even though she couldn't see what I went through, she opted out of the last third.

What a day. Suffice to say we did nothing the next day but recover from our aches and pains both mentally and physically.

Once we'd got some energy back, and the clouds had cleared, we took a walk down to Wentworth Falls and marvelled at the amazing sights before bumping into a Japanese guy we'd met in Taman Negara in Malaysia. We got to Jenolan Caves just in time to catch the last guided tour of the day.

There are many different sizes of caves here and the one we saw was small and confined and contained some amazing formations of stalactites and stalagmites that come together over millions of years. They estimate a growth rate of around 5mm every 100 years but they also admit that scientist know very little about this area of geology so i guess it's about time we could see something that no one knows much about!!

Our next stop is the nations capital as we make our way inland towards Adelaide.