The trip so far, part 1

I've just booked another hour on the internet here at the YHA in order to try to bring this up to date. I used up an hour's worth this morning just checking and responding to emails and trying to book the bus from Hervey Bay to Bundaberg tomorrow. I'm staying in the Railway YHA in Sydney tonight, then getting a flight up to Hervey Bay (Fraser Coast) early in the morning. Arriving in Bundaberg 4.40 p.m. They are an hour behind here. My scuba diving course starts on Tuesday, but I'm going for the medical on Monday.

It's 1.40 p.m. now and I've only left the hostel to get coffee from the bakery next door (at breakfast time) and just now to go to Coles supermarket to get some salad and stuff for lunch and dinner. I've just had a good lunch, my bread, cheese and salad added to by some free food left by other hostellers - butter, salt and a tea bag. Unfortunately I put some mayonnaise on my sandwich (another freebie from the leftover section of the fridge) and then couldn't eat it all - too greasy and tasted more like salad cream. I'm feeling a bit crook today. I've had a busy time these last 10 days or so - no real rest days. In fact no rest days since I got here I don't think!

I want to walk up to Echo Point (view point) and to Scenic World before I leave here today. Having spent yesterday in the bush I haven't rally had a view of the Blue Mountains at all. They were shrouded in mist when Wendi and I travelled past last Sunday, and when Viv and I set off to get the train to Faulconbridge for the bushwalk yesterday.

So here's an outline of the trip so far:

Arrived at midnight on 7th Feb. (time difference GMT + 11 hours)

8th-13th Feb - stayed with Mark and Kim (and Sam, Jack, Lucy and Emma) in Melbourne.
13th - 18th Feb - stayed with Wendi and Derek in Hornsby Heights, N of Sydney
19th - 22nd Feb - Wendi and I took off in the camper van for my tour of New South Wales, taking in Canberra (Australian Capital Territory on the way).
24th-25th Feb - Blue Mountains YHA Katoomba (about 150 km west of Sydney)

I hadn't seen either Mark or Wendi for 35 years. I got in touch with them though Friends Reunited. Mark and his family used to spend holidays in the village that I lived in as a child. He later went to the same school - Sibford Friends School, near Banbury in Oxfordshire. This was a co-ed Quaker boarding school, where I was sent aged 10. Wendi also went to Sibford and was in my year - but she didn't start there until the fourth year.