My major reason for going to Australia, other than the fact that I had never been there before, is to climb Mt. Kosciusko, the country's highest mountain and controversially one of the seven summits.

My trip had a shaky start. I had booked a flight that left Beijing at 3:00 PM on October 11th and arrived in Sydney at 9:00. Not wanting to have to deal with finding a hotel at that time of night, I booked and paid for my first two nights at a hotel by Internet. When I arrived at the Beijing airport to check-in for my flight, I discovered that I needed a visa to go to Australia for which I had never applied. Fortunately, the people at the Special Service Desk of Air China were able to contact the embassy and get me an electronic visa before my flight left.

When I boarded the plane, I found that what I thought was to be a six hour direct flight to Sydney was actually an 18-hour three-leg flight through Guandong and Melbourne which arrived in Sydney at 9:00 AM the next day. I read or slept for most of the flight. We had to get off the plane at both Guandong and Melbourne for about an hour which served to break up the flight and make it more tolerable. I collected my luggage upon arrival in Sydney and took an air-porter to my hotel in downtown.

I checked into The Park Regis Hotel, which, although it has a good location, was disappointing otherwise.  I took a bus tour of Central Sydney to orient myself.  The 2-hour tour passed by most of the major sites and I disembarked twice, once to see the Star CIty Casino and again at a large Information Center to get some ideas as to what to do in the area.  Sydney is a beautiful, clean city which I discovered as I spent about an hour walking back to my hotel.

Wednesday I was up and out by 7:30 AM and headed over to 'The Rocks', a section of Old Sydney built by convict labor.  The Rocks is the location of The Sydney Harbor Bridge, an international landmark spanning Sydney Harbor.  One of the most exciting things you can do in Sydney is climb to the top of the bridge so I found the BridgeClimb office and signed up for a noontime ascent.

It cost $160 for the 3 1/2 hour adventure, and we were outfitted with special suits and radios so we could hear the guide.  After an hour of preparation, instruction and training our group of twelve headed out onto the steel bridge with Helen, our guide.  The temperature was 40 degrees Celsius, the hottest day ever recorded in Sydney in October.  Starting at 55 meters above the waterline, we climbed on the catwalk out to the pier.  Inside the pier we climbed ladders up through the roadbed and then onto the arched eastern span of the bridge.  After about one kilometer, we reached the highest point where we were treated to a spectacular view of the city and harbor.  During the climb, we were attached to the bridge with a special harness.  The harness does not prevent you from falling, but will keep your body from landing on the roadbed and causing a traffic accident.

After crossing at the top to the western arch, we descended back to the western pier where we climbed down between the two rail lines that cross the bridge. 

From there we took the western catwalk back to the starting point.  This was a fantastic adventure and I would certainly recommend it to anyone visiting Sydney.

I checked-out a couple different hotels in the afternoon and decided to move to the InterContinential tomorrow.

Thursday morning I spent an hour on the Internet and then went back to my hotel where I checked-out and moved to the InterContinental.  This hotel is much nicer than The Park Regis.  I used the business center to plan my trip to Kosciuszko National Park, then I headed down to Circular Quay where I boarded a boat for a 2-hour harbor cruise.  It rained late in the afternoon so I headed back to my hotel and ate dinner in my room.

Friday I walked over to the Sydney Aquarium and spent an hour looking at the sharks, crocodiles and Great Barrier Reef Exhibit.   Then I went to the National Maritime Museum en route to The Star City Casino where I spent a few hours and ate lunch.  Late in the afternoon, I went to the IMAX theater where I watched two movies - one on Nascar and the other on Cirque du Soeile.  At 7:00 PM I took a taxi back to my hotel and ordered room service again for dinner.

After breakfast on Saturday, I checked out of the InterContinential and took a taxi to Central Station.  I took a 9:15 AM bus to Canberra, the capital of Australia.  Canberra was purpose-built as the capital and is very well laid out.  There was not much going on as it was the weekend, but I walked around town for awhile.  I had made reservations to stay at the Novotel, just above the bus station, as there is only one bus per day to Thredbo at 10:30 AM and I had already missed it.  Saturday night I finished my book and then watched a movie.

By 6:45 AM I had reached the top of the chairlift.  The route is considerably easier from here as the National Park Service has installed a 6 foot wide metal grate walkway to protect the plants from being trampled by the hikers.  The path is very gradual, ascending only 1000 feet over 3 1/2 miles to the summit.  There was still no one up here except me and I covered the last portion quickly, arriving at the summit at 8:15 AM.  As soon as I reached the summit, the sun came out for a few moments and I took some photos to ensure that I had proof that I had reached the top.  I headed down at 8:25 AM.

Just above the top of the chairlift, I met a group of Germans heading up.  I took the chairlift down, returned the snowshoes which I had never used and got a 'Climbers Certificate'.  I was back in my room at 10:00 AM.  I had originally planned to stay here for at least two nights, but this was to allow for weather and since I had completed what I had come to do, I decided to leave.  I took a 2:00 PM bus back to Canberra where I checked back into The Novotel for the night.

I checked back into the Novotel Hotel and went to the Internet Cafe to plan my next few days.  I want to go to The Blue Mountains, an area about two hours west of Sydney.  They are not actually mountains at all but a huge sandstone plateau which has eroded over time to create breathtaking valleys - similar to Bryce Canyon in the US.

Tuesday I took the bus back to Sydney.  I saw my first kangaroo along the side of the road.  At Central Station, I took a train to Katoomba in The Blue Mountains where I visited the Tourist Information Kiosk in the station to locate a hotel and get some local information.  I took a room at the Mountain Heritage Resort for the next two nights and had a delicious dinner in their restaurant.

Wednesday I went for an early morning walk before breakfast.  It is very foggy here and has been raining on and off for the last several days.  I ate breakfast and then prepared for an all day trip to Jenolan Caves.  The bus left at 10:30 AM and I joined about a dozen other people on the 2-hour drive out to the caves.  The visibility as limited, but we did stop at one vista where we could see the immense valley and the cable car which crosses the valley below.

We arrived at the caves after noon and ate lunch in the cafe as we waited for the start of our 2:00 PM tour.  The cave system is huge.  Several tours are offered and the one I took was 1 1/2 hours and involved about 1000 steps. The tour proved to be an interesting thing to do on a rainy day - but these caves aren't any different than other caves I've seen.

We left before 4:00 PM as the road closes at that time.  Our bus got back to Katoomba before 6:00 PM and I was able to spend a half hour on the Internet before having dinner and then returning to my hotel.

Thursday, I ate breakfast, did some laundry and then moved to a different hotel which is in the center of town.  I'll stay at The Carrington Hotel for two nights before returning to Sydney.

The Carrington is an old Victorian hotel with comfortable rooms.  It was still cloudy today so after spending a couple of hours on the Internet, I decided to go to the theatre where I watched two movies.  I walked back to my hotel in the rain and ate dinner in my room.