The One That's Awesome!

(Sunday 5PM)
Okay, don't panic! I thought to myself as the road I had been walking along for over an hour suddenly turned into gravel. I literally was out in the middle of no-mans-land, by myself, and it was getting dark...this was not the right way to town.

(Friday)
When Natasha enthusiastically told me "you have to do Spit to Manly" my reaction was she wants me to spit on who? I later figured out that what Tash had meant was that the Spit Bridge to Manly Harbour bush walk was amongst the best in New South Wales. I gladly took her suggestion. About an hour and a half into the hike my cheeks started hurting from smiling so much. It was as if i couldn't stop. Every corner brought about even more spectacular views of the pristine white sand converging with clear blue ocean waters. I wasn't even annoyed when a party boat blasting very bad techno music decided to anchor in on one of the harbors i had stopped at to admire.

I got so caught up in my walk that i was almost two hours late meeting up with some fellows at the Gordon Social Club. Andi (rugger extraordinaire) had made a few phone calls for me, and all of the sudden, i feel like I'm VIP at this posh rugby club. Did i mention rugby teams here are big business? They had a dress code and a receptionist at their two story clubhouse for God's-sake! So like any proper rugby player, I proceed to get pissed with the rugby boys (and by boys I mean the men aged 25-75 that were ordering me drink after drink. I was savvy enough to figure out their evening objective was to get me hammered, so I played my cards accordingly). I won't go too far into the details, but lets just say it was fun enough to sustain a two-day hangover.

(Saturday)
Around 6 o'clock I finally managed to choke down a meat pie. It was, well, meaty. The delicious indigenous Australian dish was almost as good a hangover cure as an Aca Taco burrito...almost. By the time i checked into my hostel - which smelled of fresh up-chuck and dirty laundry, it was time for me to immediately head out to the WALLABIES VS ALL BLACKS RUBY MATCH!!! I had no idea how to get to the Olympic Stadium, where the match was being held, and so followed the throngs of mildly to highly intoxicated folks sporting yellow and black rugby jerseys. Once on the train, i spent a half hour being entertained by a dozen or so Kiwis (some of whom had flown in from New Zealand just for the game) singing rugby ballads and rock songs I'd never hear of; I enjoyed this immensely.

The sound of 80,000 people singing, in perfect unison, Australia's national anthem would have been eerie had it not been so incredibly moving. What was even more amazing was the deafening roar in the stadium as both the All Blacks and Wallabies took to the pitch. The spine-tingling sound and intense feeling will never be properly captured on television. The game was brilliant. I got a slightly humorous personal commentary as announced by the 8-year-old sitting behind me that knew every possible thing you could know about both teams and the game of rugby. The match, a 19-18 thriller, ended in the Wallabies falling just short of scoring a winning try in the last seconds of the game. The All Blacks, of course, came out victorious. It was a sporting event that i will never forget. The athleticism displayed by both teams, the intense rivalry, how sexy Dan Carter and Matt Giteau are, and the sheer magnitude of an Olympic stadium filled to near-maximum capacity with die-hard fans was just incredible.

(Sunday)
After a three hour bus and train ride, I finally arrived in Katoobma around midday. A short 20-minute walk brought me to the entrance of Blue Mountains National Park and a spectacular view of the World Heritage listed Three Sisters Rocks. I enjoyed a beautiful 180 degree view of the immense park (which actually looks blue) before heading out on the hiking trails. What began as pleasant boardwalks eventually tuned into more strenuous trails followed by hundreds upon hundreds of stairs headed straight down a steep ravine. I eventually stumbled into a quaint mining area that had been revamped as a major tourist site (complete with the worlds steepest train to get the less enthusiastic outdoorsmen down there). I passed through the area on my way to more challenging trails and zoomed by a funny sign involving a stick figure falling off a cliff. Little did i know i was about to tackle trails that made even the hardest hikes of Upper Bidwell Park seem like a piece of cake. There were points where i was making my way through cliffs of sheer rocks hoping that i was still actually on the trail.

(Sunday 4PM)
Too exhausted to actually hike back, i grudgingly forked out the money to take the worlds steepest train back to civilization. It was the scariest 5-minute ride of my life! No safety measures were provided other than a measly rail to hold onto as you speed up the mountain almost vertically (praying that you don't slip and fall out). Not ready to get on anything else that moved, I decided to take the short walk back into town. Apparently I mixed up the directions and ended up meandering down Cliff Drive rather than Cliff Street (which led into town). But really, who (besides Chico) would put two roads with almost the same name in a tourist area?! By the time it was getting dark (two hours later) i made it to a paved road and picked the direction that all the cars were coming from and prayed that it led to town. Bingo.

I will officially be sorer than i've been in months in perfect time to sit on a plane and do nothing on my way to New Zealand. I only hope everything continues to be so adventurous!

-Ashley

Fun Fact: MacDonald's is the it place to be around here. Only its not called McDonald's or Mickey D's even...its referred to as Maw-kays.