View from the back paddock.

[Candace]

I spent 8 days in Australia, visited the Blue Mountains, Sydney, and fell in love with your country and the people. Awesome views.

 

[Roy]

The Blue Mts are nice Candace and there are so many little towns throughout that are unique. Sydney would be the Australian version of New York I think & I won't comment any more or I might upset Eric......

 

[SlipperFan]

Dot, there are very few tracks to walk in the Park that are user friendly to every one. Most are very steep, rocky and have a big drop to the bottom on one side. There is no water anywhere & in summer many walkers don't take any or enough water & suffer dehydration. We would average 2 major rescues a week in summer because someone has heat illness or fallen down a cliffe. Many have to air lifted out by Chopper because of their injuries, once they have been rescued and taken to a suitable chopper landing location. Probabaly get one LOST person search a week also because there is very little signage and if you walk off the beaten track too far you cant see where you are. Because of the terrain, there are few roads so if you walk down many of the tracks and get lost, you may not hear cars or other walkers and mobile phone don't work in 99% of the park. Its usually human stupidity that causes the problems. Includes car crashes, 2 crashes on one of only 2 major roads in the park on Saturday, requiring all major services, the roads are narrow and people drive on them like they would a multi lane freeway. As part of the local Fire Brigade, I've been to 2 fatal crashes in there.
The Grampians cover 167 000 hectares.
http://archive.bigben.id.au/victoria/maps/pdf/grampians.pdf

OKay, thanks! Now I understand.

 

[NYEric]

Cities were formed by necessity to ease commerce and organize institutional and government centers.

 

[streetmorrisart]

It's not a remotely original thing to say, but that is really beautiful. I love the lone tree.

 

[cnycharles]

Cities were formed by necessity to ease commerce and organize institutional and government centers.

...and to think I thought it was more that they were settled by people who arrived by ship, and were too lazy to leave! that and all the farmers who got tired of wrangling cows and headed in to check out the bright lights and never left oke: besides, once they found out that there were hookers in cities they never went back to the country (humor!)

now, if the tourists in the mountains had a compass and a topo map with them, and/or a gps they would have been fine. I also learned while living a few winters in jackson hole that often 'tourist' was a four-letter word to many locals

 

[Roy]

now, if the tourists in the mountains had a compass and a topo map with them, and/or a gps they would have been fine. I also learned while living a few winters in jackson hole that often 'tourist' was a four-letter word to many locals

If is the biggest word in the world, generally speaking tourists here are from almost every country in the world and are the ones most likely to get into trouble. The tourists from Aust' that are used to Mountain areas are fairly good because of experience. The ones that come here for the 1st time from Major cities and think they know it all fit into the O/seas tourist class. ( idiots )

 

[NYEric]

besides, once they found out that there were hookers in cities they never went back to the country (humor!)

One word about that statement! Parumph! :evil: