Bridge Climb

Had a brilliant day yesterday doing the Sydney Bridge Climb. Roz, Richard and Callum enjoyed a lovely lunch at the Fish Market and cruise round the harbour, while I climbed up Sydeny Harbour Bridge.
It was fantastic and the engineer in me loved looking at the joints, bearings and repair work and hearing stories of its construction and then the view from the top is breathtaking. I have always wanted to do it after seeing my friend Sophie's pictures and I am so pleased I did do it. I did the Discovery Climb for those that know about these things or are interested and I thoroughly recommend it. I think if you click here you should be able to see the photos.

OK must finish packing as we are off to Sydney in an hour for our final lunch and I have not packed yet! I have to repack into a borrowed bag, as mine has broken!

This is not the end as I still have to tell you about the flight home and plugs and driving in Australia. Stay tuned!!!

Blue Mountains

Last weekend was spent in the beautiful Blue Mountains about an hours west of Sydney. With the aid of the sat nav (have hired one with the car) we got to the cottage in Leura in about 1.5hrs, which was a painfully slow Australian driving experience (more in next blog).

The Blue Mountains are actually neither Blue nor Mountains they are called that because the range of sandstone mountains (1000m at highset point) which are part of the Great Dividing Range, are covered in Eucalyptus trees who's oil creats a blue haze in the sun.
OK geography lesson over, it has to be said when we got out of the car we were hit by the cool (about 15degs) fresh air, which was lovely. Our cottage was adorable and beautifully laid out even providing their own blends of soap, shampoo and conditioner etc. The beds were really wide and actually in the morning Callum jumped into bed with us for a cuddle and went straight back to sleep - this has NEVER happened before.
We spent our time up there, eating in lovely cafes with beautiful views and visiting Scenic World - which includes amazing views while travelling on a combination of cable cars and old railway trains (see picture above - yes I took that).

We also visited the zig zag railway, which was a big hit as firstly it was a steam train and second it had to keep stopping to switch the engine from the front to the back of the train. Lots of excited boys of all ages watched in delight from the bridge they had erected at "Top Points". It was Fathers Day in Australia so there were a lot of happy Dads.
It was a wonderful weekend and the fresh air made us all very tired but happy and Callum learnt how to play Uno as well.