A few Aussie runs

Getting around under the power of your own two feet is a great way to see the sites and I have been having a great time running in Australia. Canberra, although not a "rad" city, is a great place to train, with some wonderful greenspaces, parks and rolling hills.
Lauren had a break from structured training over Christmas, so we took some time to head to Sydney for a couple of days and then headed north to the Blue Mountains (apparently I should look at a map before posting, the Blue Mountains are West, not North, of Sydney).
We did the usual Sydney tourist trek, checking out Manly and Bondi beach and the other main city sites on Christmas and Boxing Day (in case you were wondering, Boxing Day is just as crazy in Sydney as it is in N. American cities, but Christmas itself is subdued). Lauren got in an ocean swim with a training partner at North Bondi (an important distinction I've been told) and I ran along the coastline. I didn't have a camera for that run, but it was neat to see all the main surf spots and little coves. I enjoyed the run more than I thought I would.
From there we headed into the hills just north (west) of Sydney, the Blue Mountains. We did a fairly lengthy hike/run in the Blue Mountains, heading deep into the Valley of the Waters. It was a great trip, with amazing bush, rugged trails, with some very steep sections and stunning streams and waterfalls, until Lauren let out the loudest blood curdling scream that I have ever heard, pretty much as far in as we could get to on our route. She discovered that wet "jungle" type treks also have leeches in them. We spent the way out stopping every 5-10 minutes to do a leech check. We ended up giving up a bit of blood to the little suckers, making our anniversary hike even more memorable.
The next day we drove about 45 minutes out from Canberra to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, where we ran surrounded by kangaroos and a few emus as the sun was setting over the hills. It was quite spectacular.

I was just pointed in the direction of some other local mountain runs, so I will make sure to bring the camera along for those outings. The route takes in some of the Australian Alps Walking Track and I also plan on doing a day trip to run Mount Kosciuszko , mainland Ausralia's highest point.

For now, here are some snaps:

CANBERRA





SYDNEY



BLUE MOUNTAINS














RUNNING WITH THE KANGAROOS