Hi guys,
After a fairly uneventful week, Easter bank holiday finally arrived. It started a little early for me as I got bored on Thursday at uni and decided to go into the city in the afternoon. I went with Alejandro, and just walked around Darling Harbour, an area in Sydney which I havn't been to yet. The weather was lovely; clear blue skies and not too hot (25ish). We decided to have a few drinks in a bar and you know what comes next; one drink becomes another which becomes another....Soon it was 12 O'clock and time to head home - I had to be up at 5.30 the next day ready for my Good Friday adventures.
So I was awoken at 5.30 by my alarm having had 4 and a half hours sleep ready (perhaps not so willing) to head off to Royal National Park. Royal is the second oldest national park in the world (after Yellowstone) and located about an hour away from central Sydney. We got the train as far as we could, and then hopped on a ferry to take us on a 30 minute journey to the outskirts of Royal. Once arriving at Bundeena (the port for the ferry), the day hiking began......
The walk was actually really good - it incorporated a lot of different areas as the park has great diversity. We began with a coastal walk, taking in fantastic views of the cliffs and secluded beaches, before heading further into the centre of the park to enjoy walks through scrub, woodland, waterfalls etc. After 15km I was absolutely shattered, and still had ~10km to go! Luckily, after about another 5km, we reached a small touristy place that had a cafe which meant it was time to have a nice cold drink, an ice cream, and relax for an hour before completing the journey. However, this was not before I was drained enough of energy to fall over :( I'm blaming it on a lack of energy anyway...it was pretty embarrassing really, I was just walking down a fairly steep rocky path, slipped, and went flying forward. Luckily I wasn't too injured, just a small scratch on my hand, a bruised hip/ass and wounded pride! HAHA!
Anyway, the little stop was great, there were loads of greater sulphur crested cockatoos about and they were not shy AT ALL! They came right up to us to try and steal our food, it was really funny. I was even just minding my own business, when one fly and landed on my shoulder!!! It scared me to death as I wasn't paying attention and it came at me from behind! Alejandro found this hilarious! After stopping, the final step of the hike was pretty hard going, especially as it involved a 30 minute uphill hike up some steep steps (thankfully not as steep as in the blue mountains!)
We finally reached Loftus, the place we were to get the bus home, after ~25km and 9 hours of walking, I was well and truly pooped, but the excitement wasn't over! On the bus to Hertsville where we were to take a connecting train to Sydney, some weirdo old guy kept on turning around and staring at Alejandro and I. We weren't making any noise or anything but he kept on turning around, looking at us, and then turning back. He did this again, then got up and went to sit at the front of us. This didn't stop him looking at us though...I was just like what is your problem? Anyway, I was sitting with my head and arms rested on the seats in front, completely monged and just relaxing....the guy got up, swapped to another seat, turned around and looked at me again. This time I happened to catch his glance! He shouted to me "are you ok" so I replied "yes, are you...". He proceeded to shout at me over the bus, saying how "cool" I looked sitting with my head rested on the seat in front and just rambled on. He obviously thought that I kept looking at him and was trying to make a point, when he was actually the one that was looking at us! Stupid Australian weirdos! Wow, that took a long time to describe and probably isn't even very interesting.
I woke up this morning and was basically unable to walk. My legs were like jelly and I was stumbling all over the place...exercise is never good. I think the rest of the day will be spent recovering and then maybe do some work over the next two days. I really want to get this paper finished!
Here are some pictures from Royal, enjoy!
After a fairly uneventful week, Easter bank holiday finally arrived. It started a little early for me as I got bored on Thursday at uni and decided to go into the city in the afternoon. I went with Alejandro, and just walked around Darling Harbour, an area in Sydney which I havn't been to yet. The weather was lovely; clear blue skies and not too hot (25ish). We decided to have a few drinks in a bar and you know what comes next; one drink becomes another which becomes another....Soon it was 12 O'clock and time to head home - I had to be up at 5.30 the next day ready for my Good Friday adventures.
So I was awoken at 5.30 by my alarm having had 4 and a half hours sleep ready (perhaps not so willing) to head off to Royal National Park. Royal is the second oldest national park in the world (after Yellowstone) and located about an hour away from central Sydney. We got the train as far as we could, and then hopped on a ferry to take us on a 30 minute journey to the outskirts of Royal. Once arriving at Bundeena (the port for the ferry), the day hiking began......
The walk was actually really good - it incorporated a lot of different areas as the park has great diversity. We began with a coastal walk, taking in fantastic views of the cliffs and secluded beaches, before heading further into the centre of the park to enjoy walks through scrub, woodland, waterfalls etc. After 15km I was absolutely shattered, and still had ~10km to go! Luckily, after about another 5km, we reached a small touristy place that had a cafe which meant it was time to have a nice cold drink, an ice cream, and relax for an hour before completing the journey. However, this was not before I was drained enough of energy to fall over :( I'm blaming it on a lack of energy anyway...it was pretty embarrassing really, I was just walking down a fairly steep rocky path, slipped, and went flying forward. Luckily I wasn't too injured, just a small scratch on my hand, a bruised hip/ass and wounded pride! HAHA!
Anyway, the little stop was great, there were loads of greater sulphur crested cockatoos about and they were not shy AT ALL! They came right up to us to try and steal our food, it was really funny. I was even just minding my own business, when one fly and landed on my shoulder!!! It scared me to death as I wasn't paying attention and it came at me from behind! Alejandro found this hilarious! After stopping, the final step of the hike was pretty hard going, especially as it involved a 30 minute uphill hike up some steep steps (thankfully not as steep as in the blue mountains!)
We finally reached Loftus, the place we were to get the bus home, after ~25km and 9 hours of walking, I was well and truly pooped, but the excitement wasn't over! On the bus to Hertsville where we were to take a connecting train to Sydney, some weirdo old guy kept on turning around and staring at Alejandro and I. We weren't making any noise or anything but he kept on turning around, looking at us, and then turning back. He did this again, then got up and went to sit at the front of us. This didn't stop him looking at us though...I was just like what is your problem? Anyway, I was sitting with my head and arms rested on the seats in front, completely monged and just relaxing....the guy got up, swapped to another seat, turned around and looked at me again. This time I happened to catch his glance! He shouted to me "are you ok" so I replied "yes, are you...". He proceeded to shout at me over the bus, saying how "cool" I looked sitting with my head rested on the seat in front and just rambled on. He obviously thought that I kept looking at him and was trying to make a point, when he was actually the one that was looking at us! Stupid Australian weirdos! Wow, that took a long time to describe and probably isn't even very interesting.
I woke up this morning and was basically unable to walk. My legs were like jelly and I was stumbling all over the place...exercise is never good. I think the rest of the day will be spent recovering and then maybe do some work over the next two days. I really want to get this paper finished!
Here are some pictures from Royal, enjoy!
The view from Cronulla Harbour (where we got the ferry)- luckily this cloud cleared away!
Marley Beach
Deer Pool
Royal National Park
The view towards Sydney
A Massive Lizard - over a metre in length
Greater Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
As I said, they came really close!
The Hacking River at Audley
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