Bushwalking for the first time

Blue Mountains from the Wentforth Falls National Pass track

The whole reason I originally found out about Macquarie University was because I participated a scout camp in Canada in summer 2013. There I met a girl from Sydney and she told me about the school and she also knew a rover crew near the uni which I could join for the time I’d spend here. She also took me to bushwalking for the first time!

So this one morning I woke up early to walk to the Epping train station to catch the train to Wentforth Falls with Laura and her friends. It was the first time I walked that route and it was fairly scary as the sidewalk just ended at one point and then I had to walk on a side of a 4-lane road. Luckily there weren’t too many cars around at that hour on a Sunday morning. Anyway, eventually we reached Wentforth Falls station but didn’t make it out of the train on time as we didn’t know that it was our station. So we got out on the next stop and then returned with the next train...

Then of course we were already hungry for a piece of cake and we stopped for a coffee at a café that used to serve as a post office. Really nice old building. The walking track itself started literally in the bush an after passing few smaller waterfalls we came to the big one, which had the sign depicting that we were on the edge and below us there is a 100 meter drop.

 

The annual bushfires had burnt these

Blue Mountains are blue because the sunlight hits the oil on the gum leaves

 
 We continued descending the path to the bottom of the valley and saw really magnificent views. The day was again quite warm and all the descending and climbing up really needed some effort.

This "Black Boy" grows one cm each year and bushfires burn it, but it still keeps on going

The track ended to a café where we had lunch and then started back to the train station. At that point we found out that we really needed to speed up the pace to make it to the next train. However, after half walking fast and half running back to the train station we had absolutely enough time to catch our breath before the train came.

In the evening we had a bit more authentic Aussie BBQ with also flavors from Europe, as the girl from Spain provided us with a huge bowl of self-made sangria. It was really tasty!

The First Weeks

After the first weekend excursion around the Sydney area it was time to start discovering the uni life! Of course by participating the trips they had organized around the city.

On one sunny and hot day we walked from Coogee to Bondi Beach and had a BBQ. The sceneries were nice, but it took one and a half hours to get there by bus (which was packed, so some people had to stand up the whole trip!), it was so hot day, the helpful “I’ve never seen such a big camera”- mates want to help me by taking pictures (the outcome: I’m blurred and the horizon is focused. Even my selfies came out better), it was so hot and I finally found out what the traditional Aussie BBQ means (a slice of white “bread” and a sausage). And it was a hot day.

The Manly Beach

City from the Manly to Circular Quay ferry

Another trip took us to Manly Beach and again the sceneries were magnificent. This time the day was rather painful due to my new fabulous shoes that I decided to wear whatever the cost. After seeing the beach we took the ferry to Circular Quay (pronunciation is not as ‘quay’ but as ‘key’ which I find interesting) and wandered a little bit around the city. And we saw the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge for the first time! The spectacular day ended with the uni-provided Harbour Cruise and very beautiful night-time lights of the city. Funny fact: all the train stations have free public toilets that are in a fairly good condition. Remarkable.

The Sydney Opera House

The Harbour Bridge

 

Eventually the first real day of uni had arrived. In the orientation event we met a representative of the Dahrug-people, the aboriginals of the area, who welcomed us to their land. In here all this kind of official events are started these days with the announcement of acknowledging the aboriginal people as the original and righteous owners of the land.

One highlight of this session was the Mac Warrior who came to see us and advertise the uni’s Sports and Aquatic Centre. He’s really a big man with big muscles and a big hair. Wonder if I’m gonna be like him after these 4 months of yoga, Zumba and swimming...

The other orientation session included the scanning of the student card for the first time. All this is so modern, we don’t have this kind of things in Finland. So, we had to fill up a form on a tablet provided, then they scanned our card with their smartphone, and then we could enter the lecture theatre. And above all, someone had decided that I had just started studying Science, and I was put to listen to their lecture. No way! I kept my head and at the end was allowed to stay and listen the Arts Faculty lecture. (Gosh... science?! Really?)

And so the adventure had started!

Wild Feelings

Lincoln's Flat Rock, the magnificent photo opportunity

I was really finally here! It is a magnificent feeling when you actually achieve something you have been working for a long time and never really believed it could come true. This whole thing has been like that. The cost of it, the visa, finding a school… But now I’m here, awesome! :)

Before the real uni life begins there are a lot of different kinds of pre-orientation activities around the campus and trips around Sydney. The first one was a free lunch - how convenient on my first day here! Well, it was a cup of nice sweet corn soup and a piece of some bread, maybe something foccaccia-like. But I hadn’t eaten anything after the plane had landed at 5 am. 

I spent my first weekend having an amazing Wilderness Weekend organised by the uni and the Colourful Trips. The bus picked us up from the uni and then we spent the whole weekend driving around and seeing some really awesome things! That is Blue Mountains National Park, the Three Sisters rock formation, the Jenolan Caves, free kangaroos, an authentic Aussie pub, had an authentic Sausage Sizzle Aussie style, took the magnificent photo opportunity at the Lincoln’s Flat Rock and in the Featherdale Wildlife Park we saw KOALAS! Among many other authentic Aussie species.

Wild kangaroos!

The train tracks to go up from the valley in the Blue Mountains

And all the way up, back first

Koalas use 20 hours a day sleeping. Featherdale Wildlife Park.

Wild koalas suffer from chlamydia

The glittering: diamonds on the way! Jenolan Caves.

The Three Sisters