First impressions about Sydney

Saturday morning I headed to Sydney. My plan was to check out some cars and I went to see them in traveller's autobahn and King's cross car market. The first one was a little bit expensive but offered some kind of guarantee and payback options for their cars. The latter was a great place for everyone who is looking for a cheap car since the place is packed with backpackers who are in urge to sell their cars. Most of the sellers have to leave overseas and that's why you can hear really impressive sales speeches and watch as the prices go down when the departure date gets more close. I didn't buy a car yet but probably this week you will get more update on this matter.

The king's cross was a really weird place. I got there about the midday and was lured to buy doner kebab from a genuine turkish place with loud playing techno music. Well I didn't get disappointed, good kebab, good music. Things that seem to be common in king's cross are backpackers, pimps yelling at the street and massive nightlife.

After king's cross I went to see the harbour bridge and opera house. They are more impressive when seen with your own eyes than in pictures. A bit earlier I wrote about the big screen of IMAX theatre in Kuala Lumpur. Well here in Sydney they have the world largest screen and I went to see a "walking on the moon" 3d-movie there. Summarum: Impressive screen, impressive effects and crappy documentary.

The first impression about Sydney was that it's really beautiful. There's lots of water elements around and many cafes/bars around harbours. I have no doubts against people who say Sydney is their favourite city.

Bushwalking in Watagans

It was the st Patrick's day on Friday and it's the day when Irish get drunk. Most of the Aussies are the grand grand grand children of the convicts who were shipped here from Ireland in the 19th century. The others just pretend to have some irish blood in them and get a pretty good excuse for another big night out. I also went out on friday to see this carneval but it was nothing special since all the people were packed in clubs and the only thing that reminds you of the day were the green shirts, jameson hats and non-sober guys.

Saturday morning, two clocks alarming at 6:45. After 4 hour sleep, fresh as usual, I headed to the mountaineering club and was ready to make a 18km bushwalk in Watagans national park. The weather was perfect for walking, not too hot, not raining. The walk was part of the great northern walk which runs 250kms from Sydney to Watagans. I've heard that people can do that in 12-13 days. Sounds like a challenge.



The trek was literally bushwalking. I just couldn't stop getting astonished when surrounded by 100year old bush, ridges, eucalyptus trees and huge, 35m tall, gum trees. Sometimes the trees were fallen over the track and I had to crawl to get through the branches. I used the breaks to get all the leeches out of my shoes. Luckily it wasn't raining, because then the leech levels would be soaring.

In the evening we went to see some glow worm caves. These little creatures produce light to attract prey to their hanging sticky web. After wandering around the dark forest with torches, we finally got to our destination and, to my delightment, saw dozen worms emitting blue light in the ceiling of the cave. There was also a little waterfall inside and the experience of the sound of falling water combined with starry-like ceiling was really impressive.

After we got back to our camping area, it didn't take too much effort for me to fall asleep. It started raining during the night but luckily the mountaineering club rents tents without holes so I could just enjoy the sound of drumming water without getting wet. I was awaken 6:30am to the sound of screaming kookaburras. Those birds just are loud!

Surfing

I got my surfboard week ago on monday afternoon and headed straight to the beach with a dutch guy Sjord(Stewart). The first surfing experience here in Australia was with the setting sun and calm ocean. Even if the waves were not good I still had fun just carrying my board towards the beautiful nobby's beach and thinking that this is the moment that I was so keen waiting for. There are many beaches around Newcastle but so far I've liked the Nobby's beach with fine squeaky sand, lighthouse, pier and green grass the best. We have been wondering why the sand keeps loud squeaky noise when you walk on it. Never heard that before.

I was surfing on mon,tue,wed,fri and sat last week and also yesterday on monday so you could say that I don't have problems with my free time anymore. I think I haven't got a much better in a week, but it seems that I can spend more time in the water before getting too exhausted in paddling. I have also learnt to know my board a little bit better and are getting used to balancing it in the water. Yes, I also manage to catch the wave and stand up, sometimes. Sometimes I end up nose diving, flying to the water like a vendace, and rolling couple of seconds in the washing machine caused by the collapsing wave.

So I have been surfing with my school mate Sjord who is living just next to the beach. He is living with 38year old aussie surfer, who is also studying in university. Their whole apartment is packed with old surfboards and old surfing and fishing stuff including some trophies. I am considering myself very lucky because I can temporarily store my board in his apartment as well. Since I don't yet have a car, travelling to the beach by bus with 2.6m board would take heaps of effort. Sjord has been surfing a bit over 1 month now and had his first experiences in Portugal. He is already training with 6.7foot shortboard. Respect.

Rock sports

There are plenty of different sport clubs in our university. I joined the mountaineering club which seemed to be a good decision. In addition to normal outdoor/indoor climbing the mountaineering club also arranges kayak, alpine and mountain bike trips. I also heard about canyoning which combines bushwalking, abseiling and many other outdoor activities. There's also a scuba diving club Newcastle University Dive and Exploration Society(N.U.D.E.S.). I probably join that too, because it's only 80aud for a year and I'm keen to get under the surface. The best thing is that you can lend the scuba diving gear freely and only pay for filling the scuba tank, cheap.

I had my first trip with mountaineering club on saturday. We went to Watagans national park to have some training in abseiling and rock climbing. Abseiling means that you come down from a cliff with the help of a rope and a suitable device to give you some friction.

Watagans was a beautiful place and it was actually my first time to see some real Australian nature. Lots of eucalyptus trees blackened by bushfires, leeches and even a wallabi which I unfortunately missed. We had two nice spots to practise the abseiling. The first was probably around 7meters high and the second one was around 20meters. The view from higher cliff was amazing. The valley was covered in blue 'fog' which is probably caused by vaporizing oil from eucalyptus trees. That's why there's also place called blue mountains west from Sydney. Matti has some nice pictures at his picture gallery.

I had no bigger problems with abseiling, gravity did the most job. We tried climbing after abseiling...All I can say is that I need to spend few weeks climbing indoors before taking another try at Watagans.

I just won a bidding in ebay and bought 2nd hand 8.6foot/2.6m surfboard for 285aud. Let the surf begin!

(I probably need to buy a car to move the board around...)