I am pretty much 2/3rd's of the way through my trip now, so I suddenly have an urge to go out of the city more on a weekend and do something a bit different. Last weekend was one such weekend. I deiced to visit Katoomba which is in the middle the Blue Mountains: Sydney's wilderness getaway for the past hundred years. The Blue Mountains are around about three and a half hours train ride from Sydney, and at times appear blue (hence the name). This is due to a blue haze which is a result of an ultra fine oily mist given off by eucalyptuses. The Blue Mountains actually took 25 years for the first European settlers to make a successful crossing across. It was deemed so impenetrable that the convicts actually believed that China (thus freedom) was on the other side of this great divide! I decided (inspired by Harry OBOC) to try a bit of canyoning. This is where you follow a path of water through a canyon. In order to do this you have to jump, swim, crawl and abseil your way through the canyon. I would be leaving from Katoomba early on Sunday morning so I thought that I should spend Saturday night there and spend a day around and about Katoomba. Luckily, depite it's size, there is a few things to do around Katoomba. Most popular would be Echo point which has a fantastic view of the Three Sisters. This is basically three spectacular rocks (you will see the photos) named after an Aboriginal story. Legend has it that three beautiful young sister's fell in love with three brothers from another tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry. The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle. As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the sister's tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come. Echo point is also the home to Scenic World which allows you to ride on the worlds most inclined railway. Unfortunately it was shut when I got there, so I will have to plan another visit. I actually think that the Year 7's have an excursion there, so I will try and blag my way onto it. I stayed in the "No. 14" hostel in Katoomba which was fantastic, and one of the best hostels I have ever stayed in. It took a while to find but I kind of treat it like a warm up for the following day's activities. The day started at around 6am; luckily I didn't have too much beer the night before. I was kitted up with a wetsuit, helmet, dry bag etc and introduced to my day's companions: a bunch of French people!! They where a good laugh so I can't complain. It was around about and hours drive to the canyon we would trample through. It was called Serendipity. I chose to do this canyon as I hadn't abseiled for a year or so, and this one was recommended to me. They actually had an introductory course but it looked too easy (in other words b******s!!). The canyon was awesome, and included three abseils and a bunch of water jumps. It was great weaving yourself through little holes, swimming through dark bottomless crevasses and plummeting down mini waterfalls. We luckily stopped for lunch by a great water jump, so not much food was eaten. On the walk up I was actually chatting to one of the instructors. He suddenly tripped on something and ran into me, so I held him up and pushed him back in the direction he had came from. Little did I know that a 1.5 meter long Tiger snake (second most venomous snake in the world) had just taken a swipe at him and was currently slithering about 30cm away from me. I ran like hell! A lesser man would of been taken out, but not me!vvThe actual walk down and canyoning itself was challenging, but not freakishly so. The problem though was getting out the canyon! It was VERY HARD WORK, especially when you have been doing minimal exercise for the past 8 months. After the canyoning I only had time for a quick beer before I was back on the last train back to Sydney; I had to go to work the next day! This didn't bother me though as it is a fantastic ride through the Blue Mountains, especially when you have a bit of music to listen to. The seat(s) where also a welcome comfort! Well, that was my weekend. The pictures of Katoomba should be up, and the canyoning ones will be up soon. Enjoy!!