The village of Leura is the next stop down from Katoomba, our base while trekking the Blue Mountains. We visited Leura twice, once just to walk around the town and a dubious area called “the everglades”, and on this occasion we did the treks round Leura, which included a few waterfalls, many hikes and some…
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Sydney itself is the place most people end up in Australia at some point. Yes its big and great and yes it has some amazing things to see, but don’t get caught in the “rut” of Sydney. There’s more to Australia than the city of Sydney. Although for the benefits of this post, I’ll outline…
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Ask me a year ago if I knew where Parramatta was and I’d not have had a clue. That’s why life is so unpredictable, and now I’m living in a city called Parramatta, in New South Wales, Australia!! Parramatta doesn’t even appear on most maps of Australia. It’s hardly part of Sydney, though some class…
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The Golden Stairs get the honour of being in my first blog post of this new decade. The Golden Stairs were first mentioned by Martine to Dan and I in the pub one night in Katoomba. It sounded interesting, and the very next day we walked past the entrance/bottom part of The Golden Stairs, on route…
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Katoomba itself is a bit special. Situated 3,336 feet above sea level, it appears to be the largest settlement in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales. I’d never heard of it until I arrived in Australia. It was mentioned in passing a few times as part of Blue Mountains trips which were organised by our…
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If you were asked where the world’s steepest railway line was, you’d probably think it was in some mountain range in America, or even mid Europe. You’d be wrong. It’s in Katoomba, a small village in the Blue Mountains, in New South Wales. Right here in Australia. It only has two stops, two stations: the…
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** Please note that a video of the pool we played on this evening WAS MADE. But I no longer own the rights for that video and have removed it. Yes, it’s sad to delete memories from our lives on any blogs and this is the first time I’ve had to do it, but please…
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Live music often helps you have a good night – but this was an unexpected rock gig in the middle of The Blue Mountains – one that we didn’t even know about as we paid to get in. We were staying in Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains Central Backpackers and had been out one night…
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Halloween in 2009 crept up very slowly and took us all by surprise, especially in this new land and new environment – life in Sydney. As a child Halloween had always been special. Living in Kilmaine in Bangor, Northern Ireland Halloween meant Church Services, Remembrance Day, Harvest, School Plays, Guy Fawkes Night and fun for…
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Blackheath was another planned day out in our last few days in The Blue Mountains. We had pretty much exhausted the entire area of a hat-trick of villages: Leura, Katoomba, Wentworthville. Next one down on the map was Blackheath. Living in Australia I have noticed so many different place names stolen from the UK. I…
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