Keep Hope

Yesterday was not a very good day.  To start with I woke up with a slight cold, thanks to all the sick people staying in our hostel, which grew into flu like symptoms.  That in itself is going to make this week hard, since I will be dealing with congestion, body aches and a fever while sleeping in a van and traveling.  That is only the beginning though.

Concert Week

The week is finally over.  Not that it was a bad week.  There was just a lot of music in it and I didn't get a lot of sleep because of late concerts.

Lendfield Bouldering

Leighton and I made a new friend last week in the Boarders book store in Chatswood.  He noticed that we had our climbing gear and commented on his interest in climbing which of course made us hit it off right away.

Reservoir Dogs

80 meters off the ground pulling through a difficult overhanging roof and all I can hope is that the howling wind won't blow me off the cliff face.  Sounds like fun climbing doesn't it :).

Sydney Botanical Garden

I took a trip into Sydney today to the Botanical Garden.  Its located just next to the opera house and Sydney bridge and its a wonderful place.  I only was able to spend a few hours there and so I couldn't see very much of it but what I did see made me really want to go back. 

The Block

Finally I have been able to climb.  The weather was good and both Leighton and I had the day off so we got our gear together, called our friend Tyler, and caught the train up to the Blue Mountains.  We had climbed a bit at "The Wave Wall" outside of Blackheath the week before, but decided to try a new area we had read about in the guide book that was near to the town of Medlow Bath. 

Black and White

I am working on a new photo album on Picasa that is full of only black and white shots.  I have not worked around with black and white much, but I have always really liked other peoples photos and the way that black and white can really bring out contrast and shadows.

The Blue Mountains

We were able to go explore the Blue Mountains climbing scene today.  The weather was not the best, but we made due and ended up finding quite the exciting climbing area.

Blue Bottle Jellies

Known to many people as the Portuguese Man of War, the Blue Bottle Jellyfish is not a creature to be messed around with.  We found this out the hard way yesterday afternoon on Narrabeen beach located just north of Sydney.

Curl Curl Adventures

With a name like Curl Curl Beach you know there is going to be adventure and today was an especially good day for it.  The weather was warm and overcast but turned mostly clear by noon.  The tide was quite high when we got to the beach which caused us to spend most of our walk running from the large waves that would sporadically crash above our knees and threaten to get our pants wet.

The Ashes Fifth Test

The Ashes is a cricket game, or series as they say, that is played twice a year between England and Australia.

New Years Eve 2011 Sydney

New Years Eve 2011 Sydney Fireworks from Hunter Bloch on Vimeo.

New Years Eve on the Sydney Harbor

Last night I had the most amazing firework experience of my life.  Leighton, Alina and I found a primo position right on the Blues Point in Sydney harbor.  We had scoped it out the day before and although it was on the backside of the bridge it still afforded us an amazing view of the fireworks on the bridge and those on a barge not more than 20 yards to our right.