This morning we had a 2.5 hour drive in our new rental van to a place called the Blue Mountains. We stopped in a town for lunch, and then some of us rented mountain bikes to check out a trail. First we had to ride from the town to the trail entrance. There were some really steep sections that I got serious speed on, but for every steep downhill there is a steep uphill, which is a bit more work. I've got a lot of training to do before my bike trip this summer. More on that later. Unfortunately, after the 45 minutes it took us to get to the trail entrance, some dark, ominous clouds rolled in. I've lived in Florida long enough to know that riding a metal bike on top of a mountain ridge with a thunderstorm approaching is pretty stupid, so we turned back. Philip and I biked pretty hard to get back to town, and fortunately we found a good shelter before it started pissing down rain. Lindsay took a nice spill and scraped up her knee and elbow, however. Here is a photo of the view from the beginning of the trail that we didn't get to go on, and the second photo is of a cool flower.
After the storm passed, we rode to a place called Echo Point to check out the Three Sisters, which are 3 big rocks of significance to the Aborigines. Here are a few photos of the great views.
After the returning the bikes, we went to the local IMAX theater to see a movie called The Edge, which was about the Blue Mountains. The IMAX cinematography was spectacular, and the movie discussed this ancient tree species called The Wollemi Pine, which dates back to the age of the dinosaurs and was recently discovered to still be living in the area. Exactly where the small number of these trees are located is a secret, and the camera crew had to be blindfolded while they were taken to the location in a helicopter.
After the movie we drove to a town called Black Heath where we stayed the night at the Scout Den. The Scout Den had a cricket field, basketball courts, and tennis courts. We didn't get a chance to play any sports, but I did get to see some cricket being played the following morning.
The next morning we drove an hour and a half to a place called Sheep Dip to do some canyoning, which basically involves traversing down a canyon. Sometimes we were walking on land, and other times we were going through water (cold water, that is). It was a ton of fun, especially the parts where we had to jump a few meters down into the mysterious black water. Pictures might do a better job explaining what we actually did (I got the pictures from Lindsay's camera since mine isn't waterproof).
After the canyoning we set up camp at a site nearby. There were massive termite as well as kangaroos all over the place. Here are some photos.
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