Dear Family and Friends!

I have just gotten back from Katoomba, a town in the Blue Mountains about a two hour train ride from Sydney Central. I had such a great time there. It was kind of weird actually. You catch the train and you go along for a couple of hours and then you reach Katoomba and you’re like “There aren’t any mountains” – it looked (approximately) flat! But it turns out that Katoomba is basically on top of the mountains and these great canyons drop down around you on either side. It truly is quite stunning.

For the first time though, the weather turned bad in Australia. I was there for four days and for three of them, it was raining. Not so great for going hiking about the mountains. I did manage to get out but all the tracks and trails which I wanted to do (i.e. anything greater than 10k) seemed to be closed due to recent amounts of heavy rainfall resulting in land slippages being common. So a sensible reason, but still disappointing.

Instead, I did a bunch of hikes which were more like morning/afternoon strolls really. I saw the three sisters, saw a bunch of waterfalls and gawped at the amazing scenery being shown to me.

Katoomba itself was also quite a fun town. The hostel I stayed at was delightful! There was a roaring fire going at all times of the day (apparently only in Winter and Spring) and it was so comfortable. The town itself reminded me of an old Western really. However, I spoke to some locals and it turns out that there are a bunch of religious cults here – primarily one which ran a restaurant called the Yellow Deli across from the hostel. But I would like to stress, it was such a wonderful place nonetheless. There was a shop – The Little Lost Bookshop – which was dedicated to book and board games. My second home.

I am now in Sydney for a stop over before going to Melbourne and Tasmania. I’ll only be a couple of days in Melbourne before I ship out on the ferry. However, before going to NZ at the back end of October, I might try and go back to Katoomba once more, just to get some of those hikes in that I missed!

Sending my love,

Al

25/09/2022