The Best Adventure Yet

Adventures are my favorite thing in the world

any kind of adventure

literally, any adventure that you could think of, I would have a great time

Today I had the greatest adventure of my life so far

I just got back from Thailand about two weeks ago, 

That is still my favorite place and favorite trip

but as far as adventures go, this one wins 

no question about it

Today I went to the Blue Mountains

5 friends, High n' Wild adventure company and a beautiful day

We started the day waking up at 5am on this lovely Sunday morning

We caught a two hour train to Katoomba

had a quick brekky & met up with the High n' Wild leaders around 9am

It's bush fire season right now because of how dry it is here 

there's currently three fires burning in the mountains

so there was a lot of fog and smoke in the air 

but by the time we got to the cliffs it was clearing up and the view was incredible

We started off easy with a 5 meter cliff 

we put on harnesses, helmets and sneakers 

climbed into the mountains and began the day

It was terrifying at first- and this was only the baby cliff

Casually repelling backwards over the edge 

our trip leader said, "It's just the same as walking backwards on the ground, 

keep your feet flat on the rock and take backwards steps down."

Yeah, right!

We did two rounds "walking backwards" down the 5 meter cliff

then we were off to a higher one!

The second stop was a 15 meter cliff

I felt more comfortable after successfully making it down 5 meters first

we did this one twice also

by then I felt like I knew what I was doing

Thinking about foot placement, or anything, too much made it a lot harder

It worked better to not think about it and just go, safely of course

it was really the coolest feeling 

The third cliff was AMAZING 

it was 30 meters, double the height of the last one 

and if that wasn't intimidating/exciting enough..

for the first 10 meters we were abseiling as usual, walking backwards down the cliff

but the final 20 meters, we were just hanging

off a cliff in the middle of the Blue Mountains

Literally, just hanging by the rope, feet dangling & hands guiding the rope

since our feet weren't on the cliff anymore the rope turned us around towards the mountains

this may have been my favorite moments of the day

the view was unreal & the feeling was like no other

suspended from a cliff, a rope helping me face these incredible mountains

turning me around in circles- facing the cliff, facing the mountains, facing the trees and on and on

I can't hardly begin to describe the feeling but those moments of:

intimidation, of the giant cliff I was hanging from

appreciation, that I was so blessed to go on this adventure

gratitude, that God gracefully created this world for us

awe, of the beauty of the mountains

amazement, how the trees, mountains, cliffs & canyons seem to go on forever

love, of everything and everyone around me

life, I just felt so full of life!

We had a really great lunch on top of the mountain:

tuna, avocado, alfalfa sprouts, cucumber, hommus, apples

then we trekked down for the canyoning part of our day

We were sweating from the heat, sun, hiking & everything else

but since we were about to get into water that was less that 40 degrees fahrenheit

we happily suited up

from head to toe we wore:

helmets, beanies, 5mm full wetsuits, thermals, backpacks, dry bags, socks & water shoes

I felt like I was dying of heat as we put all that on 

but a minute later I was so thankful when my first toe touched the water

it was colder than ice & my feet went numb within the first two minutes

the thermals, wetsuit, beanie and everything else kept my body really warm though

We had the best time scrambing over rocks, through cave-like tunnels & across logs

we jumped off the walls of the canyon into pools of icy cold, beautiful waters

Some of the jumps we had to do backwards because of the rocks: 

We finally reached the waterfall

30 meters, just like the last cliff we abseiled before lunch

except this time we were wearing wetsuits and abseiling through the water

I was slightly terrified but I was more excited than anything

I lowered myself over the edge, I knew the feeling of going down 30 meters

but this time there was water coming down all around me and the rocks were more slippery 

I ended up making my way down some of the waterfall on my knees 

my feet just didn't want to stick on the rocks

when we got down to the bottom 5 meters of the waterfall we jumped

we let go of the rope, pushed our feet away from the rocks and jumped into our last pool of the day

It was amazing to look up and see the whole waterfall for the first time after we reached the bottom

I couldn't believe I had just come down all that way 

at the bottom of the waterfall, while we waited for everyone on the rocks, we met a snake

a baby Tiger Snake

Tiger Snakes are the second deadliest snakes in Australia but the baby ones are the #1 worst

We got away from him quickly and made the steep, uphill trek back up out of the mountains

A lot of that might sound a little scary but it really wasn't

It was so exciting, exhilarating, thrilling & perfect

Working our way from the little 5 meter cliff to the 30 meter waterfall 

I learned how to abseil a cliff, go canyoning & repel a waterfall

Today was my favorite day in Australia

it was my favorite experience ever 

I would recommend it to everyone who likes adventure

It strengthened my passion for the outdoors and renewed my undying love for adventure

Abseiling & Canyoning in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia

what could possibly be better

It was the best adventure I've ever had