Blue Mountains

I woke up at the crack of dawn (4:50am) to catch a 6:30am bus to Sydney. It was super quiet around Newcastle - i guess i was the only one crazy enough to want to get up that early and head to Sydney! The city was buzzing with rush hour traffic when we arrived three hours later - i was pretty excited, even though i would only be seeing Central Station that day! I hopped a train to Katoomba and got set for my next adventure in the Blue Mountains!

The coolness of the mountain air was definitely the first thing to strike me when i got off the train. It really reminded me of how i felt when i got to the Cameron Highlands - definitely time to bring out the long Lulu Lemon pants and hikers! My hostel (the YHA) was a short hike down the mainstreet of Katoomba - lots of little shops and cafes along the way. The YHA here is super nice - very clean, lots of families here too actually.

I discovered very quickly that i hate the telephones here in the Blue Mountains. Even when i had called the hostel to book, i was disconnected three times (and had to use $1.50 just to make a stupid reservation!) and then when i tried to call Cynthia to wish her happy birthday i couldn't even talk to her for more than two minutes - that was WHEN i even got through. So that was really frustrating! But that's about the only thing that i don't like about this place!

On the advice of Michelle Krepela (who did this about two months ago!) i went and saw the Jenolan Caves. The Jenolan Caves are a massive system of caves that each have something unique and different about them. I saw the Lucas Cave and the Orient Cave - the Lucas Cave is the biggest of all the caves, very grand and intimidating. The acoustics there are so awesome that they have concerts in there (cello concerts once a month, etc). When i was in the Orient Cave, one of the women there bravely got up in front of everyone and sang a beautiful song (from an opera, don't ask me what one!) It was really, really amazing. I decided not to do any canyoning or abseiling or plughole tours though - the thought of rapelling down a cliff face, or jumping off it, or being in a very tight, small, dark space didn't really thrill me and actually scared me a little bit! But i felt ok with that decision. If you want to hear about canyoning though, you should talk to Michelle because she is much braver than i am :)

I also did another big hike here - it was in the mountains and it was soooo beautiful and extremely hard! First i went over to Echo Point and saw the Three Sisters mountains (the view there is incredible), then i took the stairs down to the base of the Three Sisters (see the picture!) and then proceeded the rest of the way down the Grand Staircase. Apparently it's about 900 steps or something crazy like that. I did see a couple of crazy people making their way UP the steps! Anyways i went down all the stairs, and then made my way to Leura Falls. There's a bunch of cool lookout points along the way, and it's very cold in the forest there. It was weird to be cold (i could see my breath) but be hot at the same time because i was working so hard! After a long, flat area there was a lot of steep parts of the trail, and a LOT of steps to walk up. Once you think you are done, there are more steps! It was pretty fun, though, and very beautiful along the trails and to the waterfalls. (Some of my pictures of the waterfall turned out dark because of all the trees and stuff).

Once i got to the end of the trail and had lunch, i had to turn around and come back! I was definitely not looking forward to going up or down those steps again, but i'd definitely rather hike the trail than walk along the road. Turns out the way back wasn't too bad at all! I don't know how i did it, but i hiked along a relatively easy and flat trail, and it was perfect for the way home! :)

I really liked the Blue Mountains. In a way, again, it reminded me a lot of the Cameron Highlands. Both are beautiful! After this adventure, it's onto Sydney and the last five days of my trip. (Time flies!). You'll hear from me again very soon!

Love Lindsay :)

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