This Sunday Christen, a collegue from the Sydney office, took me out for a bike ride through the Blue Mountains.

The Blue mountains is a region west of Sydney consisting mainly of sandstone plateaus, gorges and woodlands with the highest point being around 1km. It gets it’s name from the blue haze you see when looking out over the stretched land.

Christen frequently does roadtrips together with other members of the New South Wales HOG (Harley Owners Group) and they were kind enough to bring me along. Of course I wouldn’t jump on the back of a bike without proper protection so he hooked me up with a leather jacket and tough lookin’ helmet with a skull on the back!

He picked me up in the morning and drove to the meeting point at a Harley dealership to meet up with the rest of the guys. Most of them looked like you expect Harley rides to look, tough, bearded and wearing a lot of black but really were very friendly and welcoming.

Around 10am we all left together which was an impressive thing to see, 30+ bikes all riding together making a lot of noise. After about an hours drive the scenery started to change indicating we we’re getting near to the Blue Mountains. After stopping for a re-fuel we took off and had our first steep descent. The scenery was really amazing here and I felt comfortable enough on the back of the bike to take out my camera to shoot some pictures and movies.

About two hours later we took a turn into a dusty back road where the real fun started. The road had a lot of twists and turns so almost felt like a long rollercoaster ride. At the end of the road we arrived at a pub in a small town called tarana where we all had lunch together.

This marked the end of the trip and from there on the group split up into several smaller groups. We took a nice ride out through a dense forest area, stopping at a lunchroom for some drinks where we spotted some nice cars as well. The day ended with me and Christen riding into Sydney over the Harbour Bridge at sunset.

Got up on Saturday morning Juli 31st ready for my trip down under! Laura picked Astrid and me up around 8am and drove us to the Airport.Astrid bought me a small going away present, a really nice silver alarm clock with an engraving in it. Then after an hour waiting it was time to say goodbye… I could walk straight through to the plane and settled myself in. The seats were really good, could almost drop flat and had a lot of leg space. This really made the trip a lot more bearable, couldn’t imagine doing the same 24 hour trip in economy.

After a long journey someone from Coorporate housing was waiting for me at the appartement and showed me around. It’s a real nice apartement in the middle of the city and only 2 minutes walk from the office. Had a small stroll through the town and went to bed trying to get used to the different time zone. The next day I had a nice walk around town, went to Hyde park watching some guys playing a life sizes checkers match. Everyone seemed to be very relaxed and I think I spotted John Lennon’s son there…

I continued my trip up north through the Royal Botanic Gardens up to the Opera house. I have to admit that the building looks better on pictures but I guess it’s just one of those things you have see when you go to Sydney. Relaxed a bit and then took a walk through Circular Quay back to my Apartment. Since I’ll be staying here for about three months I decided to go out and buy a guitar. Found a guitar store about 5 minutes walk which specialised in Fenders so bought myself a cheap Fender Squier Bullet. To finish my day I took a dive in the apartments swimming pool and had my first Skype sessions with Astrid and Pepijn. 

Tomorrows my first working day! Looking forward to meeting the guys and starting the project