Purple Mountains II

Friday 22nd December

A delightful nights sleep at the YHA left me refreshed and ready for more today. The hostel is so well equiped, I had bought myself some breakfast at the local supermarket yesterday. Also worth a mention is my purple shopping bag for about 40p. Most backpackers seem to have one to put their food in (I remembered this tip from New Zealand backpacking). However everyone elses seem to be in green or blue, mine is purple so there. I was happy. My Blue Mountains train ticket included unlimited trips on the rail network throughout the Blue Mountains so I was ready to exlore, however not all went to plan. The first station where I had planned to do a walk was not very well signposted though I did manage to find the tourist information centre which was a good 2k out of town, where they directed me to the walk. Due to bush fires the short cut was cut off perhaps thats why they called it a short cut. So I went the long cut, but that was also cut off, perhaps I should have cut off today completely. Some two hours later I arrived back at the train station to go further up north to explore more of the mountain villages. I ended up in Mount Victoria where I had lunch and misread the trains back, so had a good two hours to play with before decending back to the hostel. It was just one of those days…but I did get my first Christmas greeting today from a shop keeper, “Merry Chrissy” he said in his strongest Aussie Accent, shame he didn’t call me Sheila either.

Purple Mountains

Thursday 21st December

I have been travelling for 5 weeks, it doesnt feel like it, I feel that I have only experienced such a small part of the travel phenonemon and looking forward to more. So I have exhausted my city quota, as immigration come chasing after me to tell me to leave Sydney and head for some fresh air and green blue and blueary. I get marched off to the Blue mountains today for 2 nights, the blue mountains are known so for their blue glow, coming from the eupolitious emmisions. The train has a number of backpackers (including the english, irish and scottish) in the carridge so this I knew was going to be easy. Some two hours later I arrived at Katoomba, a small town in the mountains buzzing with tourists and backpackers. I was staying at the renound YHA which was a gorgeous converted mansion, the most imaculate place I have stopped at (that includes the posh hotels in China). I spent the day doing the tourist thing, on and off the bus, completing numberous bush walks, some a little off the main tourist trail, most refreshing. I even had cheese after a Turkey sandwich and cup of tea lunch (it was christmas after all) – the cheese consisting of an open top London bus taking us around the mountain tops – including in the ticket I had bought. The cheese stunk a little but fun all the same. A satisfying day if ever I had one.