Koolewong

Earlier this week I spent of couple of nights in Koolewong. COO-lee-wong is a distant suburb to the north of Sydney located more or less in the middle of a national park. I hesitate to call it a suburb because it didn’t look like any suburb I’m familiar with, but if most of the residents there commute to Sydney and back (about a 75 minute train ride) to work, then I suppose that’s at least part of the definition of a suburb.

Koolewong lies next to Brisbane Water, which is an inlet, something like a bay and means that the water is salty but nearly still. I’m still confused as to what a Water really is, and after looking on GoogleMaps, the official name of this body of water really seems to be Brisbane Water (even though it’s not remotely close to Brisbane). Being the former Geography Bee champ that I am, I was never taught what a Water is. I think the Aussies are just making shit up.

I was welcomed to Koolewong by an internet turned irl friend Josh and his family. Josh, who leads a life of whimsy and adventure, suggested we climb a hill in the Brisbane Water National Park, conveniently located right behind his house. It was a bit more arduous of a hike than I’m used to (I’m pretty sure at one point we were climbing up something steeper than a 45 degree incline and I had to go back down on my ass for fear of falling and rolling to my death), but it was highly rewarding. The scenery was stunning. The rain held off, and we could see towering clouds towering over the really big hills/really small mountains that were covered in thick, deep green. The rolling verdant hills seemed to go on forever into the hazy horizon. I almost thought I was looking onto a rainforest, and I’m sure had the rain come I would have felt like I was (and had the rains come, we would have likely been stuck on top of the hill).

I’d like to take the time here in my blog to publicly thank Josh and his generous parents for welcoming this stranger from a distant land into their home (and cooking me homemade meals!).




Here we see a wild Kyle looking all too indifferent to his beautiful surroundings, looking all too metal for his own good, his decade old Radiohead shirt contradicting the metal hair, the gathering storm clouds perhaps insinuating that nothing good can come out of this caption: