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March - July 2001

Australia

Brett Voegele
2005-11-14 17:31:04

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was painted on the roads near the curbs in the CBD - 'look right' or 'look left', depending on the location. Must have been so as to minimize the number of Olympic visitors that experienced the outback road encounter from the kangaroo's perspective!

Blue Mountains

We next headed into the Blue Mountains west of Sydney and the town of Katoomba. The namesake bluish haze is a result of the fine mist of oil given off by the eucalyptus trees. We did some short hikes in the region - both along the top and down into the gorge, to see falls and the Three Sisters rock formation. We also spent a few nights in Blackheath and enjoyed the lookout from Govetts Leap, but the highlights of the area were the Jenolan caves. To begin with the drive in was fun, as it is a very narrow, winding road which makes you question whether or not you're on the correct road. Just when you decide that you're hopelessly lost you reach the valley floor and drive through the Grand Archway (essentially a natural arch through the mountain) and into a small community of a few buildings. There are 9 'show' caves in the area - all branching off the Grand Archway. We took a tour of one of the caves and found it quite spectacular, though there were far too many people in the group. The following day I returned to the caves to do some 'adventure' caving. We donned coveralls, hard hats, battery packs, and climbing harness' before heading out. We rapelled into a sink hole, removed our harness, and then entered the cave proper. The next 2 hours were spent crawling over, under, and around cave formations, and through spaces that appeared far too small to accept my aforementioned ice-cream girth. In fact, I became momentarily stuck in the first obstacle, but was finally able to wriggle myself free and continue. It was great fun, and something I'd love to do more of in the future.

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