Fun continued on our second day in OZ.
Obviously my orders went through all right and we have lovely weather, not too hot, a little bit of wind, a sky of incredible blue ... all you could wish for to explore a marvellous city like Sydney.
Nonetheless I was eager to get out of town and for several reasons. First of all the city is swarming with tourists ( and no, we are not tourists as well, we are travellers! Couldn't you tell?) as the "Queen Elizabeth II" is currently riding at anchor and the "Queen Mary" will follow tomorrow or the day after.
Then I picked up the car. What a car.... I wanted an economy car, a small, agile, frugal car. What I got is a battle ship! It's huuge! It has the turning circle of a truck and it has automatic transmission; my left hand keeps searching unconsciously for the gear change, as if it was not confusing enough to drive on the wrong side, mixing up winkers and wipers all the time. Oh, what the heck, I'll get used to it.
Thirdly I managed to flood our hostel. And all before breakfast! Well, I assume it wasn't all my fault; our host could have locked the bathroom or at least put up a sign that he had taken out part of the plumbing and the bathroom was not to be used. A simple comment would have done the trick as well. Okay , it was not the bathroom he showed us, but it was right next to our bedroom and being half asleep I tend to head for the nearest option.
I hope our liability insurance is up do date ....

Once we got out of town (difficult task, there were traffic lights every few metres (on a highway!) and needless to say they were all red) we headed for the Pennant Hills and a Koala Park which was absolutely fantastic and as soon as I figure out how to attach my camera to this computer there will be pics.


When we arrived at Katoomba we left our luggage in the hostel and headed off for a first look around. Which extended to a hike straight through town, down to Echo Point ( really a must see ), along the cliff trail to Katoomba Cascades and back to the hostel. The sight down Jamieson Valley is nothing short of stunning. Limestone makes for some fantastic rock formations with all the washed out parts, the delicate gradients .....
The ground was still very wet from the extensive rains they had here lately and the forest was steaming; a heavy scent of jasmine and eucalyptus was hanging in the air and once you got away from the crowds the birds were presenting an incredible performance.Such beautiful trees....eucalyptus trees with their bark hanging off down to the ground leaving the trunk almost white which makes for a lovely contrast to the dark green foliage. Heath banksia, unfortunately not flowering yet. Many more whose name slipped me again but were all awfully pretty.
Tomorrow will reveal more wonders as we will be on our way to Wentworth Falls and Lake Lyell were we'll meet up with Graham and Janet at last.