A stroke of luck and an awesome lady took me to the Blue mountains.

While I was couchsurfing through Australia in 2017, I also frequently used the Discussion boards. As a solo traveller, I was looking for ride share options or just someone to grab a coffee with and it worked out pretty well many times. When I was in Sydney I surreptitiously posted something about wanting to go to the Blue mountains, although I didn’t have high expectations on that one, as most people go out hiking for several days and I did not really have that much time.

However, fortune came through and a wonderful lady messaged me if I would be interested in going with her. Her name was Sonya and she was an incredibly smart middle aged computer programmer who loved to travel. She was one of those people who can afford to travel for half their time, working on paid projects the other half, and can actually sustain the lifesytle without making it big on the internet. As she liked to frequently walk in the Blue mountains, most of her friends were losing the will to join her every week, so she decided to offer the chance to travellers instead. She figured there was no point of driving out with an empty car, so she tried to fill it with amicable travellers from the couchsurfing boards as often as possible and wouldn’t even accept gas money.

We started out early in the morning at the Central station in Sydney and drove out to several spots in the Blue mountains area, which I covered in this post here. A Taiwanese girl named Ann, who was about my age, also joined us that day and the two of us ended up exploring Sydney together for a while afterwards. She was quite funny and easy to get along with most of the time, but got fierce when discussing China or the stereotypes about Asian women, which was understandable and rather eye-opening after hearing it from her perspective.

The three of us got along straight away, finding common interests in not only travelling, but also languages, culture and politics, and Sonya turned out to be a great and knowledgeable guide through the forest. I believe it made her happy to see others marvel at and enjoy her beloved mountains and the entire experience was somehow heartwarming, because it is rare to see someone who cares about nature so much. All in all it was a great day spent in the misty blue nature and another positive couchsurfing experience, so humanity is not doomed quite yet. 🙂