I just had my first week of classes. It was a little different than I'm used to, but I don't really want to talk about school.
This weekend, my program ran a trip out to the Blue Mountains, a national park west of Sydney. On Friday, we took a train out to Katoomba (a town that borders the park).
When we got there, we dropped our stuff at a hostel and went to the Echo Point lookout. From there, we could see across the massive Jamison Valley and into the mountains. We were there in time to watch the sunset, which was breathtaking.
I don't think I can adequately describe this valley to you, but as I am writing a blog, I'm going to try anyway. Imagine you're on a cliff, overlooking a sea. Instead of water, though, the waves are made of treetops. The canopy is dense and the green of the leaves changes as the clouds overhead cast shadows on them. This body of trees stretches back until it blends into the mountains on the other side. And for the record, the Blue Mountains do look blue from a distance.
This morning, I threw a boomerang. (For the record, I did get it to come back to me. Even though I had to throw a righty boomerang with my left hand.)
The last thing I did before coming home to Sydney was go abseiling, known in the US as rappelling. I've rappelled before, but it's always an exhilarating and slightly nerve-inducing experience. First, they took us to a 3 meter (10 foot) cliff for practice. After we all learned the ropes (pun intended), we got to move on to a 15 meter (49 foot) cliff. The last cliff they brought us to was over 30 meters (100 feet). This one was a little different. Instead of a mostly vertical cliff face that you walk down, the rock jutted inward after about 10 feet. This meant that we were hanging. That sounds scary (and it is a lot more intense), but it means that you can twist around and look out instead of just at the rock. To be able to see a valley from the air is one of the coolest things I've ever gotten to do. And this valley was spectacular.
Now that I'm back home and writing a blog, I'm supposed to come to some conclusion about my weekend, so that I can wrap it up in a nice little bow for all of you back home (or wherever else in not-Australia you may be). I won't. I believe that to experience nature, you have to be in it.
Obviously, it's not realistic of me to expect you all to be able to come see the Three Sisters (pictured below) in the Blue Mountains of Australia. It's also not possible for all of you to go rappelling, or to go on a nature hike. You might not want to do those things. But I still can't explain nature to you. We all connect to it differently, but we're all a part of nature, and nature is a part of all of us. I'm glad I got to get away from the city for a little while and recharge.
Thanks for reading about my nature weekend. Now for the pictures!
(Hint: this next one has multiple photos. You can scroll through them.)
I'll see you next week!
Emily
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