More Adventures - Caving, Olympic Village

This week/end has been great. Low-key week but on Saturday I went caving just outside Bungonia State Park which was 2 hours away.

It was so much fun! The actual park, where we were planning on caving was closed due to baiting season (they kill foxes every year), but there were caves outside the park we went to instead. It was amazing how from the top, it just looks like a little hole in the ground but once you get inside, they went on for quite a ways. Makes me wonder how many cave systems I've walked over without knowing.

It was pretty difficult to take pictures both because I was busy having fun and because caves are dark. Here are a few though.

Wallaby! We were like 30 feet from this little guy. He didn't much care, though he left when we tried to get closer. 

 We did see a heard of kangaroos while we were driving into the park. They look really awesome, especially when they all jump away together. No pics tho :/

From inside one of the caves

Park of the crew

looking down into the biggest entrance we used. 

 I fell asleep on the way back to Sydney, ate dinner, and then went to sleep at 8pm and slept 12 hours. Woke up sore, but it was worth it.

On Sunday, a group of us decided to take a Ferry up Parrmatta River and visit the Olympic Park. On the way there we stopped in Chinatown to get ramen. But we passed the Doctor Who store so of course we went inside.

A dalek as tall as me. 

Me inside of a TARDIS!

Louise climbing this awesome jungle gym thing at Darling Harbor before catching the ferry. We were probably 30 feet up. So were 5 year olds. 

Ring Walk. This awesome ring was over a reservoir. It's just a tourist attraction, no real purpose. It's quite large. 

Idk what happened to this pic, but Ring Walk again. 

This is the key to my freedom. My Opal card gets me on every bus, train, and ferry in New South Wales. And on Sundays, I pay $2.50 to travel as much as I want. It makes travel so easy. 

 Miss you guys.

Everyday adventures

Despite school being in full swing, I still have a ton of free time (yay me for picking good classes). It's been raining here for almost 2 weeks now which has kinda sucked but also kinda impressive. However, it's warm during the day so it's not terrible at all. Hardly even jacket weather when then sun's out :) 

In the last week, I've:

 -gone to a party hosted by the surf club

 -gone to 2 bars and a club

 -surfed with massive waves (from an east coast perspective anyway) (okay, mostly just got destroyed, but still!)

 -had 3 parkour lessons: I can see improvement every single time

 -learned how to roll a white water kayak (in a pool with the outdoor club)

 -played a few quick games of Quidditch 

 -been sore every sickle day!

Life is awesome. 

Hiking - Blue Mountains: Rodriguez Pass/Junction Rock

Sunday I went on my first trip with the Outdoors to the Blue Mountains. This is kinda a misnomer cause it's actually more of a canyon, not a mountain. For geographical reference:

way zoomed out :)

So this is like a 1.5 hour drive, from the stars (which is campus) to the Park.

a not-very-helpful map of the Park

      I've decided to include these pictures as their full size instead of smaller (which makes it easier for your browser) so it they might take a sec to load. Mom, press Control and - (minus) to zoom out so they can fit on your screen easier. (Control and + to zoom back in).
      It had been raining the entire day and night previously and was still going when we started. It finally slacked off after about an hour or two. I was well prepared though (thanks, mom). This was supposed to be a beginner hike, but I'd definitely contest that. However, I felt like I had definitely accomplished something by the end. My knee was not at all happy about it, but I was. We crossed a river ~10 times during the hike which often meant just walking across it because of how high it was due to the rain. I also stuck my head in a waterfall. But the intense hiking meant I wasn't ever cold for long.

This is the view from the lookout where we parked. That waterfall on the right is the largest single-drop waterfall in this National Park (180m)

This is after hiking straight down the cliff, some of it on stairs fastened into the cliff wall. Those are two little waterfalls that were falling on our heads as we walked. That was pretty cool. The water was quite cold but it was so much fun.

A girl decided that she would go swimming. It was ~50degrees outside and the water was quite cold. But this was once we started climbing out of the canyon so we were pretty warm (at times you might as well use your hands to help, it was so steep).

Little waterfall, but you can see some of the cliffs here.

same waterfall. You might be able to see the rock structure here which was quite cool - it had kinda broken into bricks

This was after we had climbed out most of the way. The day cleared up really nicely.

After we finally got out of the canyon, we walked along a road for a bit and then went back into another trail to get to the parking lot we started out. Which included more down and then back up >.<  By this point I had to stop every now and then because my muscles were cramping and my IT band (knee) was hurting on every step down. (Still worth it)

This is from just to the right of that giant waterfall from the lookout where we started. Beautiful.

This hike was ~13km (8miles). We left the trailhead at 10am and finished at around 5.

p.s. I was supposed to start Parkour today (even though it's still raining) but the instructor didn't show. Hopefully will start on Wednesday. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I have a kayaking lesson in the pool where (hopefully) I'll learn to roll.

Zoo!

I went to the zoo last week! It was amazing. There were so many interesting animals that weren't even in enclosures. This is just gonna be a ton of pictures of animals with some captions. Whatever. Don't judge.

Had to take a ferry to get there. So here's another view of the Opera House. 

This weird bird was on the dock when we got off the ferry. It's neck was super long.

Tree Kangaroos are apparently a thing. These two are cuddling and sleeping. Adorable. 

No idea what this was. But it came right up to the fence to look at us in a really menacing way. probaly 4 feet tall. 

Black Swans!

A peacock. That wasn't in a cage. I later saw one right outside a eating place. There were 3 other (large) birds inside that diner, on the tables and floor just waiting for anyone to drop a crumb. 

obligatory koala. Later, he was awake and I was surprised by how fast he was. 

no idea what this was but its head was maroon and there were a lot of them. Not in cages. Just around. 

 

Look at these friends. Adorable. 

This dude might have been my favorite. Like a dinosaur. 

Komodo Dragon. This one was maybe 3-4 feet long. There was a larger one in an outside enclosure.

Look at those beautiful chompers! 

View of Sydney from the zoo. You can see the Opera house right above the trees

Skyline behind the giraffe. 

Went to a seal show. It was pretty amazing. They were REALLY well trained. 

So these two pelicans were actually in an enclosure. They would walk up to the fence and let you pet them though. Australia...

Really terrible picture of some red kangaroos. There was no fence here. Just a bundle of sticks about a foot high. I could literally have taken three steps and petted one. 

These kangaroos (red and regular (?)) were behind a fence. I'm assuming the bigger ones (not red) are slightly more dangerous.

A wallaby in the same enclosure

Lemurs! Again, no fence, just a river about five feet across.  There was a fence on one side. These guys were amazing.  

This was on the skytram thing back down to the wharf. It went over the enclosure so we could look down on the Tasmanian devil, elephants, ect.