Because I confused the hell out of everyone with the journey story – total fact, remembering the first holiday Trev and I took – I’ve had a re-think and decided they must be made into two separate post series.
So, we’re back to Fact or Fiction.
When our kids were teenagers, Trev and I had a choice to make. Do we continue in England and have the constant worry of redundancy hanging over our heads, or do we make a break for it and emigrate to Australia?
Obviously, it’s a difficult choice –
Beautiful weather, friendly people, lots of outside space, better standard of living, and most important, a secure job.
So we booked a ‘semi-working holiday’ and Trev arranged a few interviews while we were out in Australia.
Of course, the kids had to come too. We organised a hire-car for places we stayed at for more than a couple of days and on one occasion, we took a trip to the Blue Mountains.
Road-trip!
Off we went up into the beautiful countryside, pointing out things of interest as we always do – both kids say that was one of their favourite things we did as a family, we talked, made things up and pointed out interesting things in the car.
When we got to the top of the mountain observation platform, the views are utterly spectacular!
There is a large platform with sturdy metal and glass fencing around it, so you have an unimpeded view of the valley below.
There are a number of info-boards dotted around and they tell you the particularly interesting landmarks – the blue forest of eucalyptus trees where the ‘drop-bears’ live. They are Koala-like marsupials that attack anything passing-by by dropping from the trees and knocking the victim out. The Bunyips and giant auk (a giant emu-type bird, believed extinct for hundreds of years) and other seldom-seen semi-mythological beasts hidden from human sight because of the density of the forest.
We went to see the Three Sisters, a massive collection of columns standing out on the mountainside. There’s a paved walkway that leads to a less-well maintained walkway and on to the steps carved into the side of the mountain, leading around and down, down, down. I started to wonder how difficult it was going to be if we encountered anyone else coming back up.
The views, however, are magnificent! We spent a little while taking pictures (and because this is Fact or Fiction, I’m going to post Google images so you’ll never know for definite).
Then we went back up to the platform.
Dani (
In the whole of that walk, down the steps, back up the steps, past foliage that had set itself there (wasn’t planted) and the mini-jungle we walked though, she saw not one spider.
We got back to the platform and decided to take a few pictures of the family looking out over the forest below.
You know the kind of pictures, all standing there with scenery in the background, looking into the sun so your eyes are all squinty…
There were quite a number of other people arrived on the platform by then and we waited for a good position to take pictures in.
The railings shone in the bright sunlight. The glass around the area was clean and well-maintained and we’d not seen a spider…
”SPIDER!” Dani squealed. She pointed to the railings where people were crowding to see the valley and the Three Sisters.
The place evacuated! They scooped up their children and herded their family to safety en-masse and we stood there bemused at what was happening.
Everyone ran from the railings like it was on fire!
Because we’re not Australian natives, and we don’t have venomous, poisonous, deadly arachnids in England, we were the only ones standing at the railing.
I looked to where Dani was pointing.
There was a spider.
It was not a funnel-web or a redback or mouse spider, it was a small huntsman spider.
She cleared the deck for us so we could get all the pictures we needed.
I’m pretty sure we were glared at as we left the platform…
So is any of this truth? Is any of it fiction?
Let me know in the comments.
