Oli Reveals: XIII (13)

Another installment of Oli’s round-the-world emails:

Oh yeah, late again….

Melbourne was great, relaxed and busy and bussling at the same time. Found
some great cafes and tasty food in China town, but it was good to finally
leave. Hired a car and hit the “great ocean road” for 3 nights, checking
out Torquay (where a lot of surfing takes place and subsequently where some
of the most famous surfing brands were conceived). Had great hot sunny
weather, taking in the beautiful coastal scenery including famous “Bell’s
beach” (where the movie Point Break was filmed), the fashionable art deco
town of Lorne, lighthouses, soaking in the seas, a beautiful waterfall set
in a bush forest, sheer cliffs, rock arcches, viewing a pod of Dolphins
tracking along the coast. Of note, I saw the famous “12 Apostles” (cool
rock stacks). My favourite part of the ocean road trip was driving on my
own at night along 60km of road, a full moon illuminating the sea waves
slamming against the bays and cliffs and listening to some surprisingly
decent music on the radio. Not a soul around

After 1100km drive up the interstate and unsealed bush roads, we arrived in
the beautiful Blue Mountains, inland from Sydney. Spent our two days there
mavelling at the incredible valleys that constitute this huge elevated green
sandstone plateau. I remember doing a bush trek to an aboriganal cave,
moving on to the cliff edge to see the collosal Nepean Gorge unfold in front
of me. It’s so magnificent that I’d put it in the same league as the Grand
Canyon- it stretched as far as the eye could see, undulating
eucalyptus-filled slopes forming a blue/green carpet, dissected harshly by a
river carving a stark stone channel through the base of the gorge…a green
grand canyon. Aside from this walk, we drove a picturesque loop around the
whole national park and did a 6hr trek into the Jamison valley to a rock
formation called “ruined castle”, which again offered great views across
another portion of the national park. The “3 sisters” rock formation was
beautiful to see at sunset, from Echo point, although Ben wasn’t quite the
romantic company that people would envisage. Me being me, I checked out
loads of cafes in Katoombe town and hunted for a new camera…..rip

The last couple of days were spent in the beautiful cosmo city of Sydney.
My second time there, I checked out its southern districts of Darlinghurst,
Paddington, Surrey Hills and basically the laid-back inner city districts
that you don’t see many tourists, so great to relax with a coffee…which I
had to do.. Did the cheesy tourist stuff too, like Sydney Fish Market and
Darling Harbour, but my attraction to Sydney lays in its architecture and
abundant cafe culture, shared by a plethora of people. Bondi beach was an
average beach worshipped by a loada posers. Beautiful people everywhere, an
outdoor gym and subtlety isn’t in their vocab. Nice to see, but I walked
around the headland to a much nicer, quieter beach to spend my day. Stayed
in an amazing hostel too, which is the closest thing to home since
leaving…home..?

3 nights were ample for me in Sydney, it’s time for me to roll up the coast!

I’ll try and write within a week next time…but don’t quote me.

Take care and cheers,

Oli