9/10: Come Explore the Blue Mountains with us!

As the guidebook says, the Blue Mountains (Mtns from now on) offer breathtaking views, rugged tablelands, sheer cliffs, deep inaccessible valleys, enormous chasms, colorful parrots, cascading waterfalls, historic villages and stupendous walking trails. The area was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.

It’s colder up in the Blue Mtns than in Sydney. We had planned to visit the mountains days earlier but the forecast had consistently been darn chilly which is why we had delayed our visit til now, our last day in the city.

The main jumping off point for a visit to Blue Mtns National Park is the town of Katoomba, the largest of the 4 towns in the mountains, and a 2 plus hour train trip from Sydney’s Central Stn. 

Suellen and Ron: I thought of you both here! I had seen this sign when the trolley driver entered the Fairmont Hotel Golf Course. I asked him to please stop
on the way out so I could take a photo of it for you!

There are several options for visitors without a car to get around the Blue Mtns; we chose to take the Trolley Tour, a kind of tram on wheels with commentary that offers hop on and hop off service to 29 attractions on a 2 day pass.

What stupendous views as the guidebook promised us – we soon knew
that our day trip up to the Blue Mtns would be a highlight of our stay in the Sydney area.

We got off at Stop 10 which was Gordon Falls (above) so we could do the hour long bushwalk (aka hike for non Aussies!) on the Prince Henry Cliff Walk to Leura Cascades. There were 4 others who alighted from the trolley stop with us so we all hiked/bushwalked together which was tremendous fun.

These 2 views above reminded us so much of the Grand Canyon but with vegetation.

Pretty scary looking down into the valley so far below us. We didn't kow it at
this point but we ended up hiking all the way down there.

We knew that in order to get the next trolley at beautiful Leura Cascades, i.e. at Stop 13, we couldn’t dawdle, as the trolleys make stops only every hour and we sure didn’t want to wait another hour before continuing our tour. 

In case you’re wondering, the Blue Mtns derive their name from the ever-present blue haze that is caused by light striking the droplets of eucalyptus oil that evaporate from the leaves of the dense surrounding forest! 

It was really hard for me to take photos that reflected the true colors of the Blue Mtns because of the haze. I see now that so many of the photos are not up to snuff but they're all I have so please bear with me.

Hiking in the rainforest.

Does anyone know who is Prince Henry off the top of your head?

Leura Cascades, our goal for our first hike.

The hike to the rock pool was timed perfectly as we got to the stop in enough time without having to rush at all along our hike. The 6 of us all thought we had missed the trolley when the appointed time for the driver to arrive had come and gone. The exuberant Aussies with us all bowed to the ground and almost genuflected in appreciation as the driver, Marco, approached a few minutes’ late. He sure remembered us when we saw him pick us up at another stop later, I can assure you!

This shelter at Leura Cascades looked like Fred and Wilma Flintstone's home!

Ah, the Blue Mtn haze.

Marco made a quick photo stop at Kiah Lookout where several of us trooped out of the trolley to get a wonderful view of the Jamison Valley far below. Marco idicated this lookout is one of the most photographed places in the world - lovely, specatacular maybe but most anything in the world? Not in our humble opinion.

Stop 17 was Echo Point where most people got off including us. On the massive viewing platform we had our first sighting of The Three Sisters, iconic rock formations for many Australians. 

Charles Darwin wrote this on seeing the Three Sisters in 1836.

I had done somuch research onthe BlueMtns but didn't know it was a
 National Park til we saw this sign.

For you, Janina, aka the bench lady, right?!

Rather than seeing the marvelous cliffs from just the platform, we took the very narrow stairs way, way down to The Three Sisters to gain closer views of them. Doing that was well worth it although my knees sure felt the last few stairs as we ascended to the platform again.

We walked down the stairs all the way where the people were standing. That was the easy part!

I wonder what the rest of the message on the step was before it was covered with concrete?

At the bottom where the people had been in the photo above.

Now the hard climb up and up and then up some more.

Got back on the trolley again to Stop 23 and Katoomba Falls for a much longer bushwalk this time deep into the valley below. The hike again was just remarkable especially as the weather was much warmer than we’d thought and planned on for the day. We had seen ‘rainforests’ in the Canberra Gardens which were great BUT hiking through the actual rainforest in the Blue Mtns was out of this world for both of us and an incredible treat.

Thought the second sign was worth heeding!

This spot was called Rainforest Lookout.

You could hear the calming sounds of the babbling brook from a long way before ever seeing it.

The distance markers were generally non-existent so we had no idea once we began hiking down how far we’d need to go before reaching the skyway, cable car or scenic train to take us back up the mountain. As long as we didn’t have to retrace our steps and walk back up, we didn’t mind the further distance down or the cost to get back up!

Silver cockatoos

At last a sign pointing us to the bottom of the valley.

Thank goodness we only had to keep going DOWN the Furber Steps and not up them.

A beautiful view of The Three Sisters from Furber Lookout.

Vera's Grotto

No signs, few people but we were still happy.

We walked under lots of overhanging cliffs like this one.

This sign didn't help us much as those were we'd come from, not where we were going.

Right when we were both wondering how much further we still had to go, our next turn brought us to the Scenic Railway Station. I was so delighted as I had wanted to take the steepest train in the world upon hearing about it when we bought our Trolley tickets on arrival. 

The issue then was that we could only buy, for an additional AUD$ 40 each, a pass that covered all of the additional modes of transport and not just the train itself which we were not interested in doing.

The train goes over the edge of the mountain at a 52 degree angle, so definitely not for the faint of heart! The train consists of a carriage on wheels that is lowered 1,361 feet into the Jamison Valley.

Before taking the train we walked on the 2.4 km Scenic Boardwalk 

to Harry’s Station, an old coal mining area, and beyond in the rainforest.

We ended up walking all the way from the bottom of the Katoomba Falls Bushwalk
to the Cable Station, then beyond to the mining area before returning to the
Scenic Railway Station for our most exciting rain ride ever.

These seats were in the Cliffhanger position and we left them just like that!

The train ride back up the mountain was all too brief for me and I wanted to go 

back down for a different view and then up again. I guess I was channeling my inner child!

Once atop the mountain, we got a bus this time to take us back to Katoomba, the beginning of the tour. We wrestled with getting on another trolley and get off at stops we had missed the first time around. We ended being sensible and taking an earlier train back to Sydney than planned as we still had laundry and packing up to do for our flight to Ayer’s Rock in Australia’s Red Centre in the morning. 

These signs and shops were ones we had passed most ecvery day for a week while we stayed in the King's Cross area of Sydney. Included for some 'color.'

Ivy: Wonder whom I was thiking of here?!

More than 3 million people a year visit the scenic lookouts and waterfalls of The Blue Mountains; we feel very lucky to be counted as 2 of those. What an absolutely ideal way to end our fantastic week long stay in Sydney, we thought. 

 Look for us next in Australia’s Outback!