Choose another map, showing:

• Australia
• Oceania
• Eurasia, Africa & Pacific
• The World

Other entries in Blue Mountains

Mountains That Look Blue (Aussies Are So Simple!)

As some of you will already know, and all of you will definitely find out in the next few entries, the Aussies really aren't very imaginative when naming places of interest.  I can only put this down to the fact that they are all decended from, or were themselves, thickie convicts (well, if they were clever convicts, they wouldn't have been caught now would they?).

A very early start after a very late night did nothing to get me into the mood of my first organised tour in Oz.  The over-chirpy Alex, our tour guide, had a similarly weak effect and was actually quite annoying (as anyone expressing chirpiness tends to be at 07:00 in the morning after having very little sleep and nursing a slight hangover).  I met up with Martin, Laura and Ben (Laura's man in case I haven't explained that already) and we all boarded the Oz Experience bus for our 2 hour-or-so journey to the mountains.  Being on a bus with Laura and Martin again got me all nostalgic about South Africa, remembering how much of a good time we all had there.  I'm 99% certain that I'll be back there at some point.

When we arrived at the Blue Mountains I caught my very first glimpse of the animal that first got me interested in Australia all those years ago....the Kangaroo.  They're pretty dosile creatures and will let you get quite close before they become weary and hop away.  We also saw cockatoos, loads of them in fact, and I really couldn't have guessed what an annoying sound they make!  I think I've found a bird with a call that's even more cutting than that of the crow.

After lunch, and a go on the didgeridoo (which is a lot harder to play than it looks), we went for a decent bushwalk round the mountains, through temperate rainforest, passing waterfalls and eventually seeing the "Three Sisters".  Legend has it that one day an old Aboriginal witch-doctor was in the mountains with his three daughters when a big centipede scared him.  He threw a rock at the centipede which tumbled down the mountain and disturbed the great, nasty, troll-like Bunyip living in the valley below.  The Bunyip got angry and headed towards the three sisters and so, in an attempt to protect his daughters from the evil creature, the witch-doctor pointed his magic bone at the girls and turned them to stone.  The Bunyip was now even more angry and chased the old man into a corner.  Not knowing what to do, the father then turned the magic bone onto himself, changing himself into a lyre bird and dropping his magic bone whilst escaping.  It is thought that the scratching motion of the lyre birds' feet in the ground is the old witch-doctor still looking around for his magic bone so that he can turn himself and his daughters back into people.

I made the rather clever observation that the old man would have fared a whole lot better if he had just turned the Bunyip into stone at the beginning!

Unfortunately the photos posted are not mine.  For reasons that will be explained in the next entry, it was necessary to get photos from other people.  These first ones were kindly donated by Martin and hopefully there will be more to come from Laura.  Once they are posted I'll let you know.

Add to del.icio.us Add to reddit

Photos / videos of "Mountains That Look Blue (Aussies Are So Simple!)":