Over the Australia Day weekend Scott, Jess, Catherine & I went canyoning in the Blue Mountains. We did South Bowen Creek (I think), which was a nice easy introduction for Jess & Catherine who hadn’t had the pleasure of Canyoning previously.

There were a few abseils, including three into water, and one down a little waterfall. All in all a lovely day out.

We spent Sunday relaxing at Scott’s parent’s house in Sydney, we swam, got takeaway and watched some DVDs (anyone remember what?).

On Monday we headed out to the Spit Bridge, where we hired Kayaks and paddled up the river. It was a bit freaky for me, not being very comfortable with deep water, but I got over it. The weather was beautiful and the water was warm. Despite a few speeding speed boats, most of the big boats were wary of us and gave us room to move around.

We stopped in a little bay for lunch which was nice. Unfortunately there was lots of rubbish and flotsam. But we cleaned it up and it looked a lot better when we left.

I used the rest of the film up on a hike with Mum, Dad & Ange in the Snowies. It was sad to see the burnt areas on the north of the Snowy river.

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On boxing day 2003 I headed up to Woodford with a whole bunch of friends. I didn’t have a camera at the time so I’ve only got Scott’s pictures.

They’re actually mostly of the trip, rather than the festival, even though we spent a week at the festival. Needless to say the festival itself consisted of lots of lazing around, listening to great music, swimming in the heat, and generally behaving like hippies.

On the trip there (and back) we went past an awesome water hole near Byron Bay. It has about a 12m drop to the water, which is a long way, trust me. It’s far enough that you can think for a few seconds while you fall, quite freaky. And it hurts your bum when you hit the water too.

On the way home Scott and I climbed Mt Beerwah which is an awesome mountain in the Glass House Mountains NP. It’s an old volcanic plug and you can tell from the shape, it’s cool. We were feeling energetic so we ran up in an hour, and down in about 25 minutes, just for fun.

From Beerwah we drove to Bribie Island, Port MacQuarie via Dorrigo, and then down to Sydney via Wisemen’s Ferry.

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