Sorry about the super-late post. Been heaps busy these last few days. Will be better, I promise!
Up and down these cliffs!
That was definitely a weekend for the ages.
Before I arrived in Wollongong, I had booked a trip sponsored by the University specifically directed towards international students. One of the trips offered was a weekend in the Blue Mountains, which are roughly two hours west of Sydney.
On Friday afternoon, I left on a bus of 35 fellow international students for the Blue Mountains with Ecca, our tour guide for the weekend. Picture yourself your typical Australian surfer, loosen up a few screws, and you have Ecca. Ecca made guys laugh all weekend while making all the girls swoon, and he definitely made the trip that much more enjoyable.
After multiple bathroom stops and a rather long stop at liquor shop to store up for the weekend festivities, we arrived at our hostel at around 7 in the evening in Katoomba, a former mining town in the mountains. After getting settled in and downing several dozen pizzas, we headed to a local pub to have some drinks and take in the live music. There was really no one at the pub, and those who were there were your typical old, creepy townies (Ecca kept asking people if they had ever seen the movie ‘Deliverance’). The live music was fantastic, and we had a good time just taking it easy and getting to know one another.
At 7:30 Saturday morning, the real adventure began. After a quick breakfast, we loaded back up in the van (driven by ‘Chris the Pirate’ as Ecca so affectionately called him) and headed straight into the mountains for some abseiling.
My friend Kevin abseiling down the cliffs
Before the trip, I really had no idea what abseiling was. A quick Wikipedia search told me it was the opposite of rock climbing (repelling) down cliffs and peaks, which to me sounded pretty tame. But even though I knew the definition of abseiling, I guess I never really considered it to be too extreme.
But dangling off these giant cliffs down 30 meter (or ~100 feet for the Americans) drops with rope slithering through your hands was definitely a mind-blowing experience. Falling (or dropping) in the air is the easy part – the hardest part is getting your footing right on the rocks before. You have to position your body perpendicular to the rock, and the balancing act on the bumps and crevices is definitely tricky.
The video below is from the company’s website and is of the exact same cliffs that we did. The view from the cliffs – especially while abseiling down – was absolutely incredible. We did the most basic abseiling, and I’m looking forward to going back to do some more trickier cliffs.
After a few hours of mindblowing abseiling, we headed back up in the bus to check out the rest of the Blue Mountains from designated, fenced-in areas. The views of everything we saw were incredible. They are Australia’s version of the Grand Canyon, but a lot more expansive and with actual mountains – and much blue-er.
Afterwards, we headed to a local restaurant/pub that has an arrangement with the travel provider that was hosting our trip. We were to enjoy a nice meal there and then a night of drinks and live music.
Deprivation. Ridiculous.
Following a long wait and some shotty service, we enjoyed our dinner. As we were enjoying our drinks, we were informed that the live music for that evening would be Deprivation – the self-proclaimed “best heavy-death metal band in Australia.”
We weren’t quite too sure how to handle it. We could either stay and enjoy some music that clearly none of us really listened to, or we could change venues.
We decided to do both.
Ecca and Hiro rocking out
My first heavy-death metal concert was definitely an experience, and I definitely had a blast watching some people with too many drinks in their system rock out to a screamo-band none of us had heard of.
But after half an hour or so, our eardrums were ringing a bit too much, and we moved pubs to enjoy a quieter, more peaceful night on the town.
The next day, we took a hike down a pathway down to the foot of the Blue Mountains (the town we were in was at the top of the Mountains), and then took the world’s steepest railway back up to the top. The views were incredible, and we got to see some really cool birds.
Stevie in the pouring rain.
After grabbing some lunch, we headed back towards the Sydney area. Before our trip ended, however, we stopped for some go-karting. Right when we were about to go on, the sun disappeared, the winds began to howl, and it started raining cats and dogs.
There are few things in life comparable to go-karting in hurricane-like conditions. But hey, you only live once, right?
Like I said, the weekend was a blast. Got to try some really cool things, take in some beautiful views, and best of all – meet and get to know some really sweet people.
_
Two things on the agenda
- Get a phone
- Gather enough courage to try vegemite
Tour guides like Ecca make the whole experience that much better. Sounds like a great weekend!
Vegemite looks delicious…
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