Postcards from the Blueys
Not Bluey, but the Blue Mountains, a national park west of Sydney.
I was last in the Blue Mountains in January 2024 when I attended a 10 day silent meditation retreat (I tried to search my blog to find a post about it but there isn’t one yet — add it to the list!). I loved (silently) eating my breakfast while looking out to mountains, enjoying the silence and letting the sounds of nature envelope me during this quiet morning ritual.
We had a long weekend thanks to the British monarchy. Australia is part of the Commonwealth which means we still celebrate the royal family, which means that we had Monday off for the King’s Birthday. Strangely it’s not actually the King’s birthday, but just a day to celebrate his birthday (when there’s a Queen, then we celebrate the Queen’s birthday, so I’m curious if this is just a standard day or is a legacy of the Queen’s actual birthday). A couple of friends and I made our way to the Blue Mountains, about an hour or two’s drive from Sydney depending on where in the national park you go.
It was bitterly cold (there were snow flurries!), especially at night (below freezing!) but totally worth it to be immersed in nature again, even if just briefly. I do miss spending the majority of my day surrounded by the mountains and sometimes wonder if it’s worth returning to that lifestyle or if it’s only because I’m struggling to make this current life work.
