Sunday 3 February 2013

Kind of Black(heath)



I didn't have much of a plan for my trip to Australia, beyond spending as long in Sydney as it took for my new passport to arrive or to see in the New Year, whichever came sooner. Both of those tasks were complete by January 1st (can you work out which came sooner?), but faced with the prospect of spending the three weeks until my flight slumming it in hostels along the east coast or spending longer in my excellent pad complete with even more excellent dog, there was no contest.

I'd already planned to come back to Australia in a few months time when I was more in the mood for sightseeing (this kind of erratic, planet-destroying flight schedule is typical of me), and for some reason I wasn't even sick of the Sydney area yet. So I settled in for another fortnight of working on the train, walking around more of the Blue Mountains and writing more repetitive national park blogs.

Luckily for you, temperatures reached ridiculous heights during that time and I found it a chore even heading out for the thrice-weekly Pepsi run, so you only have to put up with two more of these. At least there's some mild peril.


Blackheath,
Blue Mountains National Park





Popes Glen Reserve



Kind of green bird



Kind of brown peahen



View from Govetts Leap



As unreliable local legend has it, a criminal hurled himself off this rather than surrender to the authorities



Nice try, but you're no Wentworth Falls



Mini Govetts Leap, for young offenders



Pulpit Rock, looking sort of like a giant turtle if you're very tired
(head at the bottom right)



Probably not a great idea to go clambering over precipices (precipi?) when you're tired, but we'll deal with that next time...




Today's irrelevant soundtrack: Anthony Horowitz, The House of Silk (BBC radio dramatisation)