The blue mountains trip!
Well, without informing my supervisor, I stole another holiday this week. My tally of leaves goes to 5, and leaves w/o informing Dianne goes to 2! I had this trip via the
Uni. International Student Services for a trip to the
Blue Mountains for a day @ 60$ pp.
Pretty cheap, and a quick way to add one more place to my list of visited places in Australia! The bad thing was that
I was required to get up by 0630 hrs and that was tough! Well, I managed to get through the tough test, and then made my way to the Uni. main gate by 0730 hrs. Was required to be there at 0745. So that was good! There, I happened to meet Thomas (he's a chap from
Tahiti, a group of Islands east of Australia) an exchange student. I had met him at
Julie's B'day. Felt good to know atleast someone on the trip. As soon as the clock hit 0745 hrs, our travel guide, Nicole, was there, and so was the rain! I thank God for the perfect timing!
After scrambling onto the bus, and having checked our names off the list, we (there were 36 students in total) started on our one day journey, to-and-fro from Sydney to
Katoomba. Soon, we were to realise that the traffic in Sydney is worse than that in Delhi, and we would have to shift the trip to the
Sydney Olympic Park from the morning to the last thing of the day! So, we made our way beyond the city of Sydney limits, and climbed into the winding roads of the Blue Mountains. It was now that we found that the DVD player on the coach was not working properly, and of the 6 DVDs on the bus, only Simpsons would play!!Watching Simpsons, we reached the
Featherdale Wildlife Park, where the best thing that I found was the ticket. At this park, with the ticket, one is provided with a 'passport', which is to be stamped near every animal enclosure! So, they give you a 'free' souvenir, other than the small koala that you are gifted!! Nice huh!! I felt the same thing! Other than that, you can get really close to the
koalas and the
kangaroos! After infinite fun with the Australian wildlife, and some great pictures of the birds,
we headed to our next destination, the village of Leura. A nice place, this was our lunch destination. Me and an indian guy, raghu (we both were the only vegies on the trip) had a vegie burger and some chips, and this was really cheap, as considered to the Kuranda village near Cairns! Then I managed to get some good pictures of the roads around the main circle of the village, and finally visited the "largest lolly shop" in the world. I did manage to by some chocolates for ecell juntax, so I really hope they'll be happy!
After lunch, we made our way to the
Echo Point, and
the 3 sisters lookout. I did manage to get some nice pictures of the valley from here. The most impressive thing were the regions where the sun beamed through the clouds. The valley here was green, and surrounding it was a pale blue shade!
After an hour here, we made our trip to the official final destination, the Katoomba Scenic Railway. This rail track happens to be the steepest railway in the world, with the maximum gradient being 52 degrees!! The best way to see the entire area is to walk down through the ever famous australian 'bushwalks' and then take the train back up! We, being the stupid tourists, (as all are!), followed our guide the same way. The only thing that was worth noticing was the single waterfall, (quite similar to the one at Kuranda, this too was a drip in the name of a fall!) and the different scenic views of the valley. After about an hour on the walk, we finally got on the train, that took us at the speed of 4m/s up the 178 metres! The worst part: this rail ride was $7!!! Other than that, it was fun!
Lastly, me made our way to the Sydney Olympic Park, just to see the
Telstra Dome (this the the only place where indoor cricket matches are held!!) and the mention of the names of all the 72,000 volunteers who worked for the Olympics!
Then we made our way back to the city, and I was back home by 1900 hrs. Not a bad day, finally, I managed to make myself some cheese sandwhiches, and slowly made my way back to bed.
Guess, thats all,
cya
aashish
I'm back!!!
aah!!!
After a week long holiday to the
city of Cairns and an island near by, the last thing u expect to find is that u are locked outside your home, because one of ur flatmates has robbed the other of 200$ and run away!!! now that's something to think about... :) (will try to update on this issue soon!)
Now, coming to the week long trip, I must say, it was fun!!! Though we ended up with a boys vs. the girls fight by the end of the week, and with the tiff off not taking any good turn in the end, it was a kind of an anti-climax.. but other than that, and the fact that the stay on
Fitzroy Island was a rip-off in ways more than one, the trip was fun for one and all. Look at the top right corner of the map below to locate Cairns.
So, coming to group, it was quite a multinational one, an Indo-American girl, Shreya, a Swiss bloke, Flo (short for Florian) and a Welsh lass, Nia. The trip was a long one, lasting for 6 days and 6 nights, and I was dead tired when I returned home yesterday! By the end of the first day, Flo and I had learnt a couple of things about Shreya: (a) She can't get off her mobile, and (b) her die-hard fantasy of cuddling Koalas :) (the cuddling of Koalas was probably one of the tips of the huge iceberg of tiff-offs). The first day was
Hartleys Wildlife Tour where by far, the best thing was the crocodile attack show! they have this 3.8 meter long croc, who is used to show attacks on one of the trainer. Check out this page for some of the
pics that I took of the attack show. At this tour too, Shreya was mad for the koalas, and i was feeling a bit too sick of that ;) After the tour, we made our way back to our hotel, and waited for Nia to arrive (she was to come to Cairns in the evening), so that we could go for dinner. Finally Nia made her 'grand' entry at about 7 in the evening, and we made our way to the
Esplanade an hour later. We ended up in an Italian pub, where the three of us (Flo, Nia and myself) ordered pizzas, and beer, and Shreya had the guts to get a burger and fillets from
KFC and eat it in the pub :O. The worst part was that I, unexpectedly was eating a pizza with FISH, and that made me feel a bit awkward when I realised that:). but must say, the pizza was gr8 :)) After the dinner, we got ourselves some stuff from a near by
Woolworths so that we could have cheaper dinners in the nights to come.
The second day was by far one of the best i had had for quite some time. We all went
white water rafting on Tully River with the
Raging Thunder Adventures (our complete package was with them, and it was a ripoff, but I would say all the tours are ripoffs in Cairns). 5 whole hours on the river, with grade 4 rapids, our raft turned over once (all the 6 of us and our guide in water), tilted to one side to topple 3 of us (including me) in the water, and finally I lost my padle as it got stuck in the shallow rocks :) and not to forget the name that our raft guide used to call me, HASH :)) The BBQ lunch, and the ripping off cost of the photographs were the other highlights of the trip!! coming back to the hotel, and eating some shitty readymade lasagne was the worst part of the day.
Wednesday saw us getting ready by 4.15 in the morning, so that we could get to the
Atherton Tableland, Mareeba district, at daybreak for a 30 minute
baloon flight, which we made at about 7!! phew!! the view was amazing, but the timing was a bit odd!!! finally after the champagane breakfast with loads of pancakes, we were left in the village of Kuranda, at 10 AM, with the only thing for us to do : the
syrail over the rainforest back to cairns at 1.15 PM!!! Here the group split big-time, with Shreya going once again to cuddle the Koalas, and Nia quick on her footstep! Flo and I decided to take the 4 km hike to the
Barron falls, with a painting of the falls, similar to this pic
tempting us to go there X-(. And when we got to the falls, this is what we saw!!
So, I think every sane person on this earth would understand the pain and agony that Flo and I went through. The good point of the trip to the falls: we managed to get a hike back into the village, where we got ourselves a beer!! next was the long 1 hour wait that we had to bear for the clock to him 1 PM.. the destined time for us boys to meet the
lasses of the west at the skyrail terminal! even though Shreya kept mentioning for the entire 1st couple of days that she was a punctual human, the girls were 16 minutes late, and that blew the head off me!! (and Flo too felt the same, I think). We decided to pain the girls for a few minutes, till we get on the skyrail, and I dont understand till this day why were the faces of the girls so down for the entire wait!! Well, now that you already know that Flo and I had a bad start with the falls, we hid rock bottom, when the first of the 2 skyrail stations was the
Barron Falls Station!!!! Man!! I was so pissed off with this!! We ran through the lookout points, saw the Rainforest Interpretive Centre :
and made a rush out of the station, beating the girls to the next station by just one gondola!!! the next station, called the Red Peak Station was a much better place than the first one!! We had a guided tour of some of the plants and trees around the place, and saw a couple of gold-headed spiders (I think thats what they are called) which looked amazing!! From the Red Peak Station to the Caravonica Terminal we all were in the same gondola, and that didn't help matters much! The 4 of us just made it to the 3 o'clock Bus, which dropped us at the hotel in 15 minutes flat!! Flo and I were so tired, that we scrambled to bed for a quick sleep! It was half past 5 when we got up, made some thing to eat, and hogged it in a couple of mintues. Then, we all left the hotel to find an internet cafe, to check mails, grab a few beers and have a nice nite. But the evening was spoilt with the fact that we couldn't have beer on the Esplanade as the area was patrolled by CCTV's and a security guard came us to tell us that as soon as we had our 1st cheers!!! So we walked back home, with Flo telling a joke, for which he was called a 'SEXIST' by Nia, and Shreya and I wondered what was the fight about :)) Finally, arriving at the Tropic Towers Hotel, room 332, we packed our stuff, to get to Fitzroy Island the next day.
Next day saw us getting up at a much more humanely time of 7, and making our way by ferry to Fitzroy Island.
The odd thing about this place was that the guests were supposed to check out at 9.30 in the morning, but one couldn't check in till 2 in the afternoon!!! So all they did was make us rent lockers to keep our stuff, and that was 5$ per day! Now thats the height of making money!! Flo and I dumped our backpacks in the bunkhouse common room, and went to check out the only beach on the island : the 'Nudey Beach'!! Dont go by the name, it wasn't any good :( But other than that, we met a german lass who was kinda cute. I'll check if I have a pic of hers on my camera. Other than that, we had a chance to snorkel in the Moore Reef and the Flynn reef, where we went on the Thunderbolt, a boat that takes us from the island to the outer reef, at a speed of 80 km/h, in less than 30 minutes!!!
Snorkelling experience in the reef was amazing, though I got bitten by a few Blue Bottle jelly fishes, below is a dead one on the beach!!
(image Copyright Damien Du Toit - digicam.co.za)
The pain didn't seem that bad when I was underwater in the sea but my arm started to feel a little numb so I went back to the boat. When I got on the boat and was out of the water the stings really felt painful. They feel a lot like a bee sting at first but not so 'under the skin' as they feel. The lifeguards on the boat gave some ice to rub on the bites, and that did cool down the pain! It was over within 10 minutes, and I was back in the water with my camera!! Not bad at all! Now, coming back to the experience, the reef rocks!! and what else can I say about the place!! We snorkelled for about an hour in both the reefs, and made our way back to the Island at about 4.30 in the evening. Dead tired, we hit the pool to cool off, then the shower, and were ready for the expensive dinner by 7. The only thing that we could afford was the Backpacker's option, and Flo took the non-vegie one and me the vegies option. That was 9.80$ each, and man! wasn't that expensive!!! We shared 2 jugs of beer, and called it a night! Our accomodation, the bunks were were one could make naan by just putting the dough in the room!! just one fan, that too a kinda table fan, didn't suffice to the 'body-heat' of 4 'young' people in the room!!!! All that I could manage was a couple of hours of good sleep, before I started to turn from one side to the other waiting for the next day to start!!
With just 2 days remaining in the trip, the tiff off in the group was not getting any where, and that wasn't helping anyone. The breakfast was expensive - 12$, so Flo and I decided to have some slices of bread (that we had from Cairns) with the Island's supply of butter, and some coffee, which sucked big time! On the b-fast table, Nia said something, I didn't hear it, and instinctively said 'WHAT' and man! wasn't she pissed! This was the time that I felt the ignorance of the British!! They don't know how to take others speaking methods with a pinch of salt, but just that they want everyone like them! That got me off!! We then went for sea kayaking around the island,
with a break at the Little Fitzroy Island for lunch! This is where the girls screwed up!! Flo and I were on one kayak, and the girls on the other. We managed to get to the lil island 4th, among 13 kayaks, and the girls a far distant last, later I learnt that they had managed to hit the rocks!!! Then they had the guts to ask us if we would swap partners! I simply can't understand a girl's mentality. When they want something, they get all this 'kind and good hearted' people, and when they have got their way, they are their own 'bad' selves!! (Nia, if you read this, for heaven's sake, I am NOT a sexist!) We put the decision for later, had a picnic kinda lunch, snorkelled more around the island, Flo picked up a shell from the ocean floor as a gift for the trip! and it was free!!! the guides then took us to a guided tour of the little island, up to the light house, and back, the hike being fun! Finally, when getting off, we were given the option of taking the long way around the island, or the short way back from where we came. We put the option to the girls, both Flo and me wanted to go the long way, so if interested, they could join us, and we would swap partners! else, sorry rahega! aapka kat gaya!!! :)) the girls, as expected picked the short way back, so Flo and me got into our kayak, and made our way with 6 others. On the way, we had small races with each other, and that was good fun! And the best part of the day : we beat the short way takers by more than 5 minutes to the starting point!!!! Finally out of the kayak, we got fresh, and with a Canadian traveller, took the hike to the summit (269m above sea-level), to the lighthouse, and back the other way, to complete the circuit, in 1.5 hrs (the map said, it would take us 3 hours for the round trip!!). Back for dinner, we had the same backpacker's meal, with the canadian guy, took 3 jugs of beer, and I was pretty bad when I managed to make my way back to the room!
Finally, coming to last day of the tour, I woke up with a big hangover, but having to check out at 9.30, packed my bag, dumped it in the bunkhouse, and went to the bar to have a juice. I signed up for a single scuba-dive (a whopping 65$), managed to get my self a lunch for a little over 10 bucks, and finally, got into the dive-suit and hit the water with my 'dodgy' kiwi instructor Phil! (Nice chap though, I have no idea why the Aussies are so hell bent against the Kiwis). Now, coming to scuba-diving, an experience in its own, it does have some wierd hand communication symbols. Some basic ones are described below:
1. OK. Raise your right hand to shoulder height. Then, with an open palm, make a circle with your thumb and forefinger.
2. Going Down. Raise your right hand to shoulder height. Make a fist and extend your thumb downward. In short, a thumbs down.
3. Going Up. Raise your right hand to shoulder height, with palm toward your body. Make a fist and extend your thumb upward. In short, a thumbs up.
Now the problem is that you may give a thumbs up for an 'everything is fine' situation, and your instructor will take you to the surface like a fool!!!! Though that didnt happen to me (luckily) the other beginner with me made the blunder, and he was taken up !!!! Other than the dive, we met a dutch guy, Emile, working at the island, and he gave us some free food voucers at a restraunt in Cairns, the Woolshed (before clicking on the link, I take the pleasure to inform that the site is for above 18 only, and contains that kind of shit!), meant for backpackers! We upgraded our meals by about 5$ and got a nice dinner in return! I, feeling uneasy, decided to get back to the hotel, and finally managed to get to the room and grab some sleep before the 5.45 flight back home in the morning. At the airport, Shreya once again got onto her mobile (I'll post the pic soon!) while Flo and I tried to grab some sleep in the waiting lounge! With our seats together, and Shreya in between us, I thought she was going to have a 'ball' of a time, but for some reason, she got her seat shifted to some other place, and Flo and I got a nice place to stretch on the plane. Thank You Shreya for that!
Well, finally we landed in Sydney, got our luggage, and made our separate ways back home, with me to find that the door was security locked, and I had to enter the place through my room window! Thanks to God for having the apartment on the ground floor, and to me for leaving my room window open, and thanks to the house land-lord for not having window grills in place! But that's another story. So for now,
adios!
