The Blue Mountains are one of the best places in Australia for climbing. There are always some people at the hostel who have some gear and today Jenn and Elliam invited us to come along to a nearby climbing site. It’s been almost a year since the last time I was on the wall and I wasn’t totally sure if I’d wanted to go. But after watching the others for a while I was eager to give it a try myself.

Aussies are relaxed, that includes the ambulance. Last night one of the girls in the hostel stumbled down a step and broke her ankle. We called 000 expecting to get quick help. The phone call took a long time and the operator was asking the same questions repeatedly (we had a native speaker on the phone so it certainly wasn’t a language problem). They even asked for directions as if they didn’t have a navigation system.

2010 is gone and I spent most of it in Australia. It was by far the best year of my adult life and even in troublesome times I never regretted having come to Oz. December was a month that brought a lot of problems. It ended with more problems and Hiro and me spending New Year’s Eve in different places (all good in the new year though). Together with a dozen people from the hostel I spent the evening around the BBQ.

Just a couple of minutes from Katoomba on the Great Western Highway towards Sydney lies the small town of Wentworth Falls. It’s named after a nearby waterfall and the whole area offers some nice walks. One of the tracks leads across the top of the waterfall on stepping stones in the water. Such warning signs are one thing I like about Australia. It doesn’t just say “Danger, do not cross” but rather explains why crossing would be dangerous.

We’re still in Katoomba. The weather has been a bit unstable during the last days but yesterday it was good enough to go for a little walk. We wanted to see the hanging rock. Even though that place made it to the cover of the Lonely Planet Australia (backpacker travel guide) it’s on none of the maps the local tourist information hands out. Main reasons for that are that the place is rather hard to reach and basically as dangerous as it looks on the picture.

On Monday I gave the wreckers in Lawson a call to ask if they’d have time to fit in the fuel pump. Unfortunately they forgot about it and asked me to call them back on Wednesday. I guess if you’re more laid back than an Aussie you’re gonna fall over. As I wasn’t too sure if they’d do it on Wednesday I asked the mechanic next door for a quote for fitting in the part from the wrecker.

Yesterday I stopped by a mechanic next door to the hostel. The car recently made some noises that made me suspicious about some damage on the wheel bearings. They asked me to come around Saturday morning and they’d have a look at it. This morning I got in the car to drive it over to their place. It started a bit rough but I never started it at temperatures this low (12° night time) before.

70km or two hours west of Sydney lie the Blue Mountains. They got their name from light reflecting off vapours from eucalypt trees which gives everything in the distance a blue touch. The mountains aren’t really mountains but rather gorges that have been formed over the last couple of million years. Rock climbing probably is quite popular in the area. I had a really relaxed day with some easy walks, sitting on lookouts and catching up with emails at the hostel.