Land of the Kangaroos

On Saturday, I went on the Blue Mountains tour. As expected it was raining during the entire hike, not quite pouring but combined with the freezing temperature, enough to make it slightly unbearable. I kept thinking, “I will not do any more tours in the rain. I will not do any more tours in the rain.” I’ve heard how spectacular the Blue Mountains are but I really couldn’t tell you because at every lookout all I saw was a sheet of white fog. Thankfully the weather did clear a bit later in the day, and I was able to get a nice view of the Three Sisters rock formation.

My two favorite parts of the day, neither of which included the Blue Mountains, were riding the steepest railway up to the top of the mountain after clambering down 1,000 muddy, slippery wet steps that wreaked havoc on my older-than-their-years knees and viewing Eastern Grey kangaroos in the wild. I quite enjoyed lunch as well. The railway is a renovated coal-carrying car that was used to transport coal from the mines to the top of the mountain. It is the steepest railway train and if it were any steeper, it would be straight up; it was almost like riding a roller coaster.

Before starting the hike the tour guide drove to a park where kangaroos roam free. They are quite cute animals and surprisingly unafraid of people as I was standing only a few feet from them and they happily went on eating grass undisturbed by my presence. An interesting fact about kangaroos is that the females are the only animals that can hold off on pregnancy. They have the ability to hang onto a fertilized egg until they are ready to become pregnant again. Imagine if humans had that capability; it would certainly cut down on the number of unplanned pregnancies. You’d be able to say, “I’m not ready for this baby yet. I think I’ll just save the fertilized egg for later.” Think how much easier life would be if you could schedule your child for an appropriate time.

Saturday night was my hostel’s Christmas party, which turned into a big rowdy affair. I had a great time and especially enjoyed watching the drunken Christmas pirates, Christmas skeletons, and Christmas knights. I suppose you can make any costume Christmas-y by throwing on a Santa hat or just by being drunk enough to think it’s Christmas-y. Regardless, it was quite the spectacle and fairly amusing to see the train wrecks passed out in the T.V. lounge the following morning. There were many rough-looking revelers dragging themselves around the hostel on Sunday, let me tell you.

I took an overnight bus on Sunday from Sydney to Byron Bay. I’m a real fan of overnight buses, especially when they are empty enough to claim two seats for yourself. They save you on accommodation for the night and rather than wasting a day staring out a bus window, they turn traveling into a painless process. You board at night, sleep, and arrive in the morning. I’m planning on taking as many overnight buses as possible from now on.

I arrived in Byron Bay yesterday morning to an impossibly sunny sky. I spent the day at the beach working on my pseudo-tan. I did get a bit of color but I’m diligent about sunscreen so not too much color. The sun in Australia can be brutal particularly because of the hole in the ozone layer over the country so I was careful not to let myself burn. I didn’t want to ruin the rest of my days here by getting sun poisoning on my first venture down to the beach.

Byron Bay is the hippiest of hippy towns and as a matter of course is big on alternative therapies, dreadlocks, and yoga so I decided to connect my mind and body last night at a yoga class. Shannon, my travel partner from California, and I took an hour and a half yoga class. We were the only two people who attended so it was almost like a private session. I've been so inactive since I started traveling because it's really not feasible to join a gym or anything, so I felt really relaxed and toned after the class last night and I hope to take another one tonight after my first surf lesson tomorrow.