Last week, I chaperoned Gabby's gastronomical tour of Southeastern Australia. Highlights included fish and chips in Sydney, fish and chips in Katoomba, fish and chips in Melbourne and chocolate mud cake.

We began our tour with a trek out to the Blue Mountains. There we made a careful examination of each other's bums, and the bums of a certain Ninah and Spike. Here are Gabby and Spike's bums.


Here they are again.


Spike had just let out a stream of farts so loud and noxious that I, and quite possibly a large proportion of New South Wales, experienced respiratory distress. Gabby convulsed with silent laughter because she didn't want Antonio, our guide, to know that horse farts make her giggle. I didn't laugh because breathing requires oxygen, and I didn't have any at that moment. Also, I was still recovering from Ninah's attempt to bolt home at full speed with me clinging to the saddle for dear sweet life.

We spent the night at a hostel in Katoomba that really deserves a blog post all of its own. That and a wrecking ball.

The next day we dragged our aching bums out to the Three Sisters and hiked down the Great Staircase.


1,000 great stairs. Not as bad as the CN Tower, though, of course, the CN Tower stairs are a bit less steep, a bit more even and a bit less lethal when it's raining.


We climbed to the bottom, hiked through the Leura forest and climbed back up at the other end of the trail. There we stopped for lunch and had us some quality bushfood.


Yes, that's Subway.

And then it was on to Wollongong! More later. Bedtime.