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No Worries - I Went on a Walk About Today
By John | May 1, 2008
I finished up my training session in Sydney yesterday and I still had a few days before I need to go to Poland. So I decided to take a train out the “Blue Mountains‘. I wound up in a small town called Blackheath and I found myself in one of the local pubs (there are only two pubs in Blackheath). Some bloke asked me if I was a Yank (it must have been my Goofy T-shirt that gave me away). I said yea, and we struck up a conversation about how stupid yanks are (When in Rome!). I kept expecting “Donk” to show up and I would have to knock a beer of his head or somthing like that. However, everyone got a kick out me being a yank and in the end they were very nice to me. One gentleman asked me what I was planning on seeing in Blackheath. I told him I was going to go to Katoomba (a popular tourist area). The bloke I bought the beer for (Ashley) got real mad. He was pretty drunk at this point. I was not the only one who was buying him beers. He told me that he would loan me his “U” if I didn’t go to Katoomba. He hated the fact that people come up to this area and only see the tourist attractions and not the real stuff. He told me about a place called Anvil Rock and some other not well known spots. Nothing ventured, nothing gained however I was a little skeptical about what a “U” was. I told him sure, I would love to borrow his “U” to go to those spots, but first he needed to explain what a “U was. Interestingly enough even thought we were both speaking English it took quite a long time to translate what a “U” was. I finally said “oh you mean a pick up truck”. He said, “A what?” Then he started making fun of me saying yeah, you can borrow my piiiiick ep truuuuck. So the next day I showed up at the garage he worked at and he threw me the keys to his “U” and made my way to Anvil Rock. He was right it was unbelievable. If you have never heard of the Blue Mountains, they are the Australian version of the Grand Canyon. This Anvil Point is a ledge that hangs way out over the canyon and it actually has a Anvil from some Australian Navy ship cemented into the top of the ledge. It was the bomb. I then ventured over to a place called Pulpit Point (see the picture). These both points were way off the beaten path. The brilliant thing about these spots was that there was no one there and I was all alone. I was able to sit out and look at the canyons walls for hours all by my self. In fact at one point I started to sing “Oh Danny Boy” shouting into the canyons. It was magnificent.
So my advice to you is that the next time you have a few extra days and you are in Sydney, take the train out to Blackheath and go to the Gardners Inn Pub. Ask for Ashely and buy him a beer or two and ask him about Anvil Point. Tell him John sent you.
BTW, you will need to drive a stick and don’t forget they drive on the wrong side of the road.
Topics: other |
May 1st, 2008 at 10:24 am
And who said business travel isn’t fun? Glad to hear that you figured out what a “U” was. Last time I met some Aussies, they called trucks “Utes” (short for “utility”), and that was a fun discussion (along with referring to the hood as the “bonnet” and the trunk as the “boot”). Pulpit point looks amazing though — what a treat!
May 7th, 2008 at 12:03 am
Aha. Ute.. I knew there had to be some logic behind that.
Thanks