BLUE MOUNTAINS

James advises us to spend some time in the Blue Mountains, Sydneys biggest National Park somewhat 150 km north of the city. So on a saturday morning we hop on the train to Leura. After an email we can stay with Servashosts in this touristic village in the middle of the National Park. We arrive there just before lunch. In the afternoon we do a somewhat improvised walk from the village to Echo Point, a famous stop for busloads of Japanese and US tourists. From Echo Point you have a superb view on the rocks of 'The Three Sisters'. After that 3 hour walk we're welcomed in the lovely house of Ian and Jane. Their boys aren't at home this weekend, but their funny dog Sparks is.
Ian and Jane know the Blue Mountains very well, and very recently they did most of the walks in this area in order to get prepared for a challenging trip earlier this year to Nepal. We enjoy the stories about the 4 weeks they spend over there and we're thinking that Nepal might be on our list for next travels. (actually, it's wrong to assume that a round-the-world trip shrinks down your list of countries to visit, it's rather the opposite)
Jane entertains us that evening with indian spiced chicken and adventures in China, where she'd been living for 2 years, while Ian sums up the advantages of living in Denmark - he'd been traveling in Scandinavia for a long time, too.
On sunday Jane and Ian take us out on another 3 hour walk, where we get to see the Wentworth Falls and Sublime Point. It's all crisp clear skies today, so we have nice views. Jane and Ian explain a lot about this region during the walk.
The blue in Blue Mountains refers to the blue-ish evaporation 'steam' that comes off the bast of the thousands of eucalyptus trees that grow in the National Park. As soon as the sun arises, you can indeed see a blue kind of haze in the distance. That's the evaporating gum.
That evening we watch the first 2 episodes of Summer Height High: this is a highly amusing Australian mockumentary show about a public school. Laughing with teacher that get abused by their pupils: this is so much fun!
On mondaymorning it's raining. We visit Scenic World in Katoomba, walk along a rainforest (actually you don't feel the rain so hard if you're walking in a rainforest when it's raining), catch some nice pictures of Kaketoes, and take the train back to Sydney in the afternoon.