Camping it up...

The sun is shining, summer is here. So what have we been doing? Camping! Oh and getting horrid colds of course.

Had a stinker of a cold - horrible to feel that ill and not be snuggled up with a duvet - because it's too hot! Danielle and I moved into our flat two weeks ago. It's a bit of a squeeze - there are four girls in one room and officially two lads in the other but we currently have two friends staying with us as well! It's lovely - got a balcony and big living room and the people are great. Unfortunately we can't use the pool or gym as the lads were banned when they first moved in - due to friends of their's 'making out' in the pool. ho hum.

But this weekend, a group of us decided to head for the hills - or more aptly - run to the mountains. On Saturday afternoon, seven of us loaded up Paul's van and bought supplies for the trip...



This is officially the best thing in Australia - drive thru booze shops. Amazing.



The campsite felt a bit Blair Witch when we got there - an almost deserted clearing at the end of an immensely bumpy track and many kilometres from civilisation. What, we pondered, would happen if one of us was bitten by a spider in the dunny? Luckily, we did not have to find out.

Taz had the boy scout skills and got us all collecting twigs - the girls (apart from Dani) gingerly picking our way through the bush trying to avoid anything creepy or crawly which may do us some damage. Once the two tents were up, we lit our fire and cracked open our cider (me), beer (most people), whiskey (Irish Michelle).







It was then time to attempt to cook our food. Suddenly cooking sausages on an open fire seemed a tricky task. Using our best Ray Mears skills, the boys put a rock in the middle of the fire and we flambed our sausages - it was a long, slow process but eventually we all got to eat some sausage sandwich.

It was a great evening, sat around chilling and chatting. Playing 'I've never ever..' and telling stories about where we had been and so on.

Danielle and I slept in the van. We were all up early the next morning and re-lit the fire for some more sausages. This time we had a new method of cooking them - placing the sausage in tongs and resting it at the side of the fire - a quicker way to cook them but it did mean we had to do them one at a time. Crisp sandwiches suddenly seemed very appealing...

We then jumped in the van and headed for Katoomba - site of the Three Sisters (below). It was a beautiful day - hot and sunny and we started a walk around the cliff tops. Taz, Paul and Michelle headed back to the van to drive around and meet us and the rest of us continued on. It was a lovely walk - looking down into the valley, hearing birds calling and walking through rainforest and scrubland.



Dani, Danielle and I lost Tom among a group of Asian tourists but continued towards the bottom of the valley and the train back up. It is the world's steepest railway (52 degrees) and it is pretty scary. The carriages are open, there is nothing to hold you in and you get into it and are almost lying down in the seat so that when it goes almost vertical, you don't fall out. We sat right at the front so we could see the ground dropping away below.




At the top we met the group and headed off to Leura - a nearby town. It's very touristy but quite quaint. It was almost like being in a touristy part of the UK - Bouton-on-the-Water or something. We had a picnic under the shade of some trees on a strip of grass in the middle of the road. we then decided to see where the road took us and directed ourselves randomly - ending up in the middle of nowhere along a bumpy dirt track up into the moutains.

High up, we disembarked and climbed to the top of a flat mountain. It was scorching up there and with no shade - just a withered tree and lots of short, stubby grass and boulders. The view was great though - across valleys of very dry and dead-looking trees to purpley mountains in the distance. Easy to see how bushfires start and spread so quickly.

Then it was homeward-bound for a friend's leaving party. Many of our friends have left in the last two weeks with a large contingent leaving on Jan 6. We lost Christine and Kim, our fab fab fab Canadian friends who went up the coast and the Welshies (including the guy I had been seeing, Gareth) among others.

It was also the day Danielle's father Brian and sister Laura left for the UK. So the Friday night was a big farewell party which began with a lovely meal at the Bavarian Beer Cafe - Dani, taz, Danielle, her father and sister, Kim, Christine and me - before heading out to Cerutti's.





The previous Wednesday was supposed to be Team Canada's last night so we had celebrated at The Steyne in our usual style...