Day 6: Up Over Down Under: The Blue Mountains

Early morning starts are not my forte. Some people who have known me for a few years might also know that my definition of "early" can mean a wide range of early morning hours. Today, the definition can be understood as a 6:30 downbeat. Though instead of having to be at the band field with my drum setup and ready to go at 6:30, I just had to be ready to leave at 6:30. I was running about 2 minutes behind, so I had to run about 2 city blocks to catch up with the group walking to Redfern train station. (I was awake after that!) 

Today's travel arrangements included a walk to Redfern train station, ride a train 2 stops to Central, then hop onto Platform 12 and catch a 2 hour train ride west to Katoomba. Destination: Blue Mountains. Though my early jog woke me up at the time, a wait at the station and the following ride to Central reminded me that I was tired. It did not take long on the train ride to Katoomba for me to fall fast asleep. This uncomfortable bliss lasted only a short while before the train stopped at some station and picked up new passengers. I didn't feel the train stop, but I did wake up when the seat in front of me (which had a foot rest attached that I was using) moved. Now when I say that it "moved" I mean that the two people who just got on the train decided that they needed to face the opposite direction that the seat, whose foot rest I was using fast asleep, currently faced. Instead of just sitting down in the seat, they pressed a lever and moved the back of the seat so that they could sit facing me. Now my intention here is not to complain (I wasn't exactly comfortable to begin with), but merely to point out that I now had knee-knocking buddies whose age was advanced. It was all I could do not to burst out laughing at the way they chose to sit facing me with no leg room. I lost count how many times we bumped knees before some other bloke got off the train, after which I moved to the newly opened solo seat!

In the solo seat, I didn't have to worry about anyone sitting down to face opposite me, so I used the foot rest there proudly and the window to fall back asleep. Some time later, Anoop came and tapped me on the shoulder to give me the five minute Katoomba warning. We rolled in to Katoomba around mid-morning and took a few minutes to grab a proper meal before setting off on our hiking journey through the Blue Mountains. I chose a Subway sandwich, blue Powerade Isotonic (a slightly weaker version of Powerade in America that actually tastes better in my opinion), water, and a cappuccino to get a little caffeine. Properly nourished, the group set off down a street in the direction of Echo Point where we would begin our walkabout.

1,829.6  miles later, we made it Perth and were on the train headed back to Sydney after the most abysmal and terrifying march/swim through the jungle and snake infested waters. On the whole, we only lost Professor Hein to a passing party bus and 3 students (including myself) managed to save Anoop from going over the edge of a waterfall. The remaining 12 students went on an Aboriginal walkabout near Alice Springs trying to find a mythical train station near 3 sisters and should show up in Cairns within a matter of months using the sonar birds as their guide. The upshot is that part of this story is true. The exact details and recounts of the fateful trek will forever be lost in the Australian bush, destined to become stories that might get 3 inches at the bottom of page 8 in the local Katoomba newspaper, as is typical of Australian disasters.

Actually I decided to tell you that story because no matter what words I use to describe our trip (it was actually around 8-10 miles), I am confident I would fail miserably. (It was that epic.) Thus, I decided to intentionally fail at recounting the story. To properly relay this incredible story of survival onto readers, I am going to use a series of pictures. Readers might also enjoy the side note that myself, Anoop, Patrick, and Ben had a delightfully refreshing drink out of the waterfall, only to read later that the water contained bad bacteria. So, if any of us stop blogging, please send flowers. Enjoy!

Once we arrived back in Sydney, I went out in search of a temporary structures case study to use for Sydney and within about 5 minutes I found an excellent specimen - a massive construction trailer resting on steel columns, beams, and joists 12 feet in the air over a small, cramped parking lot across the street from Wesley College at the Uni. (Australians shorten the word "university" into simply "uni.") Thankful to have found something so close, I took several pictures to incorporate context, detail, and scale then headed back to the room to blog and post more pictures to facebook.

I started out blogging in the dorm room, but I moved to the breakfast room so that I would not fall asleep before I finished everything. This is important for pretty much one reason. It enabled me (while walking back to the dorm room about 11pm) the exhilarating feeling of accidentally punting a bush tailed opossum about 3 feet into a wall in the second floor hallway. Welcome to Australia.

Shortly thereafter I skyped with Brittany for a few minutes while we did our devotional and then it was off to bed, awaiting an eight o’clock start time and a trip to the Taronga Zoo!