Blue Mountains 21/09/2012

Friday was my last full day in Sydney and my last chance to go to the Blue Mountains. I bought a return ticket to Katoomba, hopped on the train and hopped off in the middle of the Blue Mountains two hours later. On the way there I was already able to see the famous blue mist that gave the area its name. Very beautiful indeed. In Katoomba I went to buy a day ticket for the Blue Mountain Explorer, a double-decker bus that drives to all the main sights in the area, getting to the stops every thirty minutes. In hindsight this was a waste of money. I had only about five hours there but was still able to get to more than half of the attractions pointed out on the maps, and I only used the bus for two five-minute rides. Everything else, I did on foot. There are trails that get you pretty much everywhere you want to go. A little warning: the hikes are only for people who are into physical activities. It’s very exhausting because you have to climb a lot of steps and some of the paths don’t really feel like paths at all. You have to climb rocks, crawl through undergrowth and be really good on your feet as you will trip a lot. It’s inevitable. If you have a tendency to sprain your ankles, do yourself a favor and wear hiking boots. Lucky for me, my joints are very robust, otherwise I would have broken my ankle on at least two occasions.

When it comes to nature and landscapes, the Blue Mountains are right up there with Kangaroo Island. It’s fantastic. And how amazing that these places still exist despite all the messy humans on this planet. I got off the bus at stop 10 to go on my first and shortest hike. It takes you about 1.5km along the Katoomba Cascades, and when you stop from time to time to enjoy the view, it takes about 30 minutes. The paths here are very good and you don’t have to climb a whole lot of steps either. You start off at the waterfalls, and then get a spectacular view of a valley with millions of Eucalyptus trees, mountains on the horizon, and white cockatoos flying above the tree tops. There is also a Skyway that crosses the valley, but at that height, I don’t think I would have enjoyed it very much. After that first short hike, I had to wait a little bit for the bus to come around again and pick me up to take me from stop 12 to stop 14. At stop 14 is Echo Point with a prime view of The Three Sisters, a spectacular rock formation. There are a lot of tourists at this point, but as soon as you leave the viewing platform and go on the hikes, you’re mostly on your own. What followed was my mammoth hike of the day. Four hours with a brand new cold and cough was hard at times but missing out on the views you have from the trails was never an option for me. I took so many photos that I went through a new pair of batteries in about three hours. Most of the time, I followed the Cliff Top Walk, which was quite adventurous because the path is hard to find at times. And there’s a lot of climbing along the way. All together it was about five kilometers of trails but it takes a long time because you can’t walk very fast and because you have to stop SO many times to soak in what you see, smell, and hear. On the hike, I saw The Three Sisters, went to several lookouts over Jamison Valley (the Honeymoon lookout among others), Bridal Veil Falls, Leura Cascades, the Pool of Siloam, and Lyre Bird Dell. Google them if you’ve got a couple of minutes to spare, they’re spectacular. Towards the end I got a bit worried and walked as fast as possible because it gets dark in the valley way before it gets dark on the Cliff Tops, and the end of my hike was down in the dark valley. But I got out in time and treated myself to some chocolate after I spent the day power-hiking when I didn’t even want to leave my bed in the morning.