another one from our time in sydney! this is me in the park behind bondi beach so thats the infamous bondi beach in the background. lots of people told us it was a disappointment compared to beaches up the golden coast but we both thought it was alright, nice golden sandy beach, clear sea (although i reckon its as warm as brighton sea) and hot sunshine - what more can you ask for? we went to bondi a couple of times, one time we met up with some friends living there with some australians - they were all very nice and we had a good time but some of the auzzis had a bee in their bonnet about how great australia is and how crap england is - yet theyve never been to england and apparantly were all bitter because we dont live in the worlds best country - i kinda told them to get over themselves! it was a fun night though, happened also to be the night we lost the final ashes match! another time we went to bondi we did the coastal walk its about 5km which isn't far but in the heat it felt far enough! the beaches along the way were really pretty and the up and down cliffs were a bit of challenge after having no exercise for ages, all in all a nice day out at the seaside!!

whilst in sydney we took a trip to the blue mountains which is about 2 hours inland from sydney. our first stop was at a wild kangaroo park and although we had seen loads and weren't that fussed about as soon as we saw the joeys I couldn't help but take about 100 pics! isn't that the perfect postcard pic!

Once up at the blue mountains national park we went on some hikes with our driver. this waterfall has a bit of a story! at the top round the corner was just like a water pool we didn't at this point know what was around the corner. i decided to edge closer for a better look and slipped fell into the water pool and almost fell down the waterfall. luckily i managed to grab onto a rock and pulled myself up, the driver jumped in after me but he sliped and fell to. Obviously i was a bit embarrassed by the whole thing and had a wet arse as a reminder! it wasnt until we turned the corner i realised why the bus driver was so panicky! not sure it would have been a pleasant fall! pretty water fall though eh?

I guess this isn't the best pic of gav and i but in the background are the infamous 3 sisters rocks of the blue mountains. the aborignes have hundreds of formation stories for the mountains but the most famous is the 3 sisters - and these rocks have many stories of their own. the one i liked best was: there were 3 sisters and a dad. the dad told the 3 sisters not to enter the valley because of a human eating monster that lived in there. the dad was ok to go into the valley because he was a medicine man (very high up in the clan) and had magical powers and a magic wand to keep the monster at bay. However, one day the 3 sisters walked into the valley and as they walked one knocked a pebble over the edge of a cliff and as it landed it woke the monster. the monster woke up hungry and chased after the 3 sisters. the dad looked up from the valley and saw his daughters being chased, he used his magic wand to try to stop the monster but he was too powerful, so instead he turned his daughters into stone to prevent them being eaten. at this point he had full intentions of turning them back, however the monster then came after him so to prevent himself being eaten he turned himself into a bird. turning himself into a bird was not a good action though because birds dont have hands so he dropped the wand - no longer able to use the wand himself and his daughters would never go back to human form. (the monster didn't eat the bird for some reason). and thats the end of the story. they use these stories to teach their young morals ie do what your dad tells you! i guess they are kinda silly but since the aborigines have been around for 60 000 years - longer than any other race you can't really judge them!

anyway, gav says ive given you all an information overload so im stopping, my lesson on aborigines is now over!

message to elmo and dave: gavs hair is now half way down his neck, covering his ears, german curls surrounding his face - yes it looks aweful, but no sadly he has no intention of doing anything about it! gav obviously disagrees with my opinion.