Blue Mountains Part II

We went back to the Blue Mountains (see here for Part 1). Not just because they're awesome, but also because we have some friends who hadn't been there yet. There were also a few things the we hadn't done last time that we thought would be cool.

I guess I should mention who the friends are. We've got some peeps from Dr. Erika's lab that we hang out with on occasion. Alex and Anthea (Canadians), and Dr. Hilke (Belgian). Note that none are Australian. We have nobody here that we regularly hang out with who is Australian. I'm not even sure I can do an Australian accent unless I'm pretending to be a shopkeeper. Even then the majority of shopkeepers aren't Aussies. Where are all the Australians? I actually spent the first two weeks learning how to do a Thai accent before discovering that Australians don't speak like that. True story.

At any rate, we decided to head up to the Blue Mountains... wait. One more aside. We almost ran out of gas. How do you run out of gas with the cumulative weight of education we had in that car! Here's the degree list:

Alex: BSc, MSc, working on his PhD
Anthea: BA, BSc, MSc
Dr. Erika: BSc, MSc, PhD
Dr. Hilke: BSc, MSc, PhD
Paul: BSc, Diploma in Game Design, A+ Certified Computer Technician

I mean, c'mon people. That's 14 perfectly valid and totally equal academic qualifications in the car and we almost run out of gas? It would have been 15 but Alex is still doing his PhD. Sheesh, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, he was driving after all.

So we head up to the Blue Mountains... whoops. You don't know who any of these travelling academics are. I guess I should provide a photo:

From left to right that's Hilke, Alex, Anthea, and... well, that's me. Erika's not in the shot, and I'm not an academic. Here, I'll just Photoshop her in:

So that's Hilke, Alex, Anthea, and Erika. Much better.

Now on to the Blue Mountains! First off, I think I may have come up short on describing some stuff. For instance, you may recall from last time there was this pretty awesome waterfall:

What I failed to capture was this. It looks like a bit of water running off a ledge:

Yeah, well that shot is taken from right here:

I love it that the only thing blocking you from a colossal drop is some stone steps and a railing:

On top of that, this time we were looking forward to going right down to the bottom of the waterfall. It's a long haul, but worth the effort. Right down at the bottom you can cross the waterfall just as it pops over the last ledge:

Pretty gorgeous view isn't it? You want to know what a biologist does when they arrive at sights like this?

THEY SAW A PRETTY CRAYFISH AND WANTED TO CATCH IT!

Yes, there's this beautiful waterfall forty feet away and instead they were fixated by a small pond and spent 20 minutes trying to catch this:

It's colloquially called a Yabby, which means crayfish. In case you wondered. By the way, Alex is a jerk. I have 19 minutes of footage of him contorting himself over this pond and he didn't have the decency to fall in so I could put it on YouTube. Thanks for nothing Alex.

So that was our second visit to the Blue Mountains.


INCOMPLETE TANGENT:
This is an incomplete tangent because it relates to the post in general, but didn't quite fit the overall tone. I also think it might make me a bad person.

We went to a new viewing spot in Katoomba. There was one place we wanted to try because we saw this sign:

It was well worth it, check out the view:

Wait a minute. Let's go back to that sign:

Umm... ok. I guess they'll post signs describing the view? I mean, it kind of feels like taunting but what do I know.

Oh, ok! So they're describing what it is that the blind person is seeing. That actually makes a ton of sense. It would actually let them feel included in the group. Although, I'm not so pumped about this part:

"There are many spiky plants to feel", AKA "Hey blind person! Since you can't see the view why not get stabbed in the hand? That's almost as good."

So, yeah. I'm not sure this was the most well thought-out way to make blind people feel included. If I were blind I'd probably prefer a small carved model of the view over getting spiked in the hand.

But that's just me.

Sweet Merciful Crap!

Did I ever tell you about the time I dropped my asshole off a cliff? More on that later.

Last weekend Erika and I went to the Blue Mountains so Erika could catch fish for her research as well as doing some sightseeing. This is what we knew about the Blue Mountains before we left:

1) They are blue in some manner
2) They are a mountain of some sort

We’d also been told that they were an awesome must-see but we really didn’t know why. It had also been noted that when they say “Blue Mountains” what they actually mean is “Blue Hills” by Canadian standards, so in general we expected to be underwhelmed by the scale of things. With that in mind, off we went.

It was wet, and apparently far wetter than it normally is, which is to say that it was Vancouver wet. The morning we left it was actually raining so hard in Sydney that we didn’t bother leaving for several hours, so I guess the fact that it was wet in the Blue Mountains hardly qualifies as surprising.

We stayed in a place called Wentworth Falls at a little hotel above an Irish Pub. On St. Patrick’s Day nonetheless, which was cool.

*SIDE NOTE: It was so busy that we ended up waiting an hour and a half for dinner. Actually, it wasn’t – our order never got put in by the bartender. So when I told the server we’d been waiting an hour and a half for dinner she gave me this “Why the hell didn’t you say anything?” look, to which I responded with a “Lady, I’m Canadian. I didn’t want to bother you” shoulder shrug*

We figured that since we were in Wentworth Falls and had a few hours to kill before dinner we should at least go to check out these alleged falls, and conveniently there was a trail that led from right next to our hotel down to the falls.

Let me tell you about hiking the Darwin trail in the rain:

PROS:
1) No spiderwebs across the trail.
2) Did not get bitten by snakes.

CONS:
1) Got soaking wet despite my craptastic gore-tex jacket that can just go fuck itself already.
2) Had to take four lateral steps for every one forward to avoid the mud.
3) Was following Erika who is about a hundred pounds lighter than me, meaning she just skips over ground that I sink up to my ankles in.
4) Being at the bottom of a ravine with houses on either side the entire way, which is an oh-so magical experience.
5) Getting slapped in the face like a Japanese game show contestant every 8 steps by some spring-loaded Eucalyptus tree that is trying to violently moisturize my face.

To say my expectations were low when we finally got there after an hour and a half of hiking would be an understatement. And then we were rewarded with this:

ISN’T THAT SPECTACULAR!

Wait, let me put Erika into the shot so you have some perspective of scale:

Not exactly worth our effort. Dejected, we set off to return home. Along the way though, we saw a sign that said there was a scenic view ahead. Or we could walk to the carpark and call it a day. We figured meh, what the hell. Let’s check out the view.

And that’s when I dropped my asshole off a cliff:

Oh yeah, and those waterfalls? Apparently that was the Weeping Rock. This is Wentworth Falls:

So, yeah. Maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to jump to ornery conclusions.

By the way, you should check out the YouTube video I made, just follow this link. It does a WAY better job of expressing the scale of what we saw, although to be honest nothing can match the real thing. It was friggen amazing.


AND NOW A COMPLETE TANGENT:
You know what else is awesome? Eating at IKEA. You can jam back a plate of meatballs and mashed potatoes for $6, and you can even get them to substitute extra lindenberry sauce instead of the disgusting gravy. And that’s not all… hot dogs are a dollar! A freaking dollar! If this place were in walking distance I’d probably jam back an average of 12 hot dogs per week. Not only would I save money but the nitrates would likely preserve me so well that I’d live past the century mark. Top it off with a 50 cent ice cream cone and you’re golden.

For the record, I’ve never eaten a plate of meatballs & mashed potatoes, a hot dog, and an ice cream cone in the same visit. And a piece of schnitzel. And bought a half kilo of chocolate for $5, which would be a great deal if that happened. It’s all lies and conjecture if Erika tells you otherwise.


More visitors, as Erika’s grad school friends Amelia and Daniel, with their kids Cailin (Kaylen? Caylen? K’aylin?) and Hannah! And these one’s don’t even live in Australia!

Visitor update #3: Amelia, Daniel, and family
#1: Sylvia
#2: Timmaaaay!
#3: Amelia, Daniel, and family