Well, it was now the long weekend. (I am writing this several days later...) Brendon and I were trying to figure out what to do. The weather, clearly not cooperating simply because I am from Vancouver, was overcast and nearly raining. I, being from a place where rain was invented, was not discouraged by slight cloudiness, but Brendon, born of sun and perfect blue skies, was pretty unsure of the whole idea.

Anyway, after much Googling & Google Mapping, we decided to head down South to a park to hike / snorkle / swim ... The Royal National Park. This park, incidentally, is the 2nd oldest National Park in the world, behind only Yellowstone. Pretty intense.

The park itself was mostly ... shrubs. At least from the parts that I saw. We drove randomnly through the small town of "Bundeena," until we just happened to find exactly what we were looking for: The Coast Walk! This "walk" is actually a 26 km (or, as the photos later will show, 23.5 km) coastal trail that runs the entire length of the park. We didn't intend to do the whole thing though. I do, however, have faint memories of Bronwen telling me she's ran it once. Anyway, we didn't really have a plan, but that non-plan did not consist of running 23 km.

Sam (we picked him up on the way) insisted that we bring a weight belt and snorkle gear for our hike. "Neutral Buoyancy!" was really what we were after, it seemed. Anyway, I wasn't sure how much snorkling we were going to do, but we headed off.

The first part of the hike was like a 4-wheeler track, but soon we made it to the rough coastal cliffs. Very high, very cool. We lost the trail immediately, but hiked along the cliff edge without too much trouble. It was fun, however death defying in places. We saw some cool stuff, including the "Cheese Wedge" and a crazy overhanging rock that Sam crawled out onto, and started howling like a wolf. "It was like the rock from the Lion King!"

Eventually, after hiking for what seemed like forever, we made it to "Big Marley" beach. It was pretty damned nice, lots of great sand, clear water, etc. We looked at sea life in rock poolls. We saw a really cool little anemone thing, and Brendon stuck his finger in it, and the little guy closed up on it. I tried, and it was like a little octopus. It made me want to eat it. I'm craving sushi these days.

He also found a big shell, that was moving. He picked it up, expecting a hermit crab. Instead he yells out, "Look! It's a sucker thingy!" to which Sam replies "Don't pick it up! It might shoot poison at me!" ... I hadn't yet heard of things actually "shooting" poison, but in Australia, you never know...

We chilled out for a bit then move on to the next beach, called "Little Marley". Here, I was excited to get in the water. And I did. Up to my ankles, then I pretty much yelled because of the cold and got the hell out. Damn! It was as cold as Vancouver! So much for snorkling.. I would save the swimming for another day.

Eventually we decided we were going to get caught out in the dark if we didn't head back. We jogged back to the car, most of the way, anyway. It was fun.

ON our way out, hungry and thirsty, we stopped for an ice cream in Bundeena. It was here that Brendon, was enjoying a delicious caramel Magnum bar, fond a tick eating his calf. Now the question was: How do you remove a tick properly? You think you know, until you're faced with doing it. Suddenly, the details become important. Finger nails? Tweezers? Fire? Hair spray? How to keep it from regurgitating it's Lyme disease into your leg? Tough questions, when you're being actively eaten.

We didn't know. We made some phone calls. Eventually, Sam just pulled the damned thing out. We freaked out Brendon with stories of Lyme disease (turns out there's none in Australia), then headed back to the city./p>

When we got back to the city we came home and Jason and Duncan came over for some pasta, beer and fun. Afterwards, we headed to Broadway and watched "Tropic Thunder" which was a goddamn hilarious conclusion to a perfect day!

Photos from our Royal National Park trip can be found here: http://www.mitchleblanc.com/gal-frame.php?cat=sydney&set=016

Mitch out.

PS: I'm heading up to Cairns today for our Northern Journey, so might not be able to update every night. Will try though!! Keep visiting.