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Published: January 4th 2009
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Leaving Sydney we head off to the train station to catch our train to Katoomba in the heart of the Blue Mountains. A two hour journey, with about 22 stops before ours - and it was packed. We found our YHA, dropped off the bags and decided to go for an afternoon walk - well this turned into a 4 hour hike. We started at Echo Point where you look out into the valley below and the distant mountains, as well as a close up view of The Three Sisters, three large rock formations, which are part of the aboriginal dreamtime. Then its off down the Giant Staircase, which is basically 900 narrow steps grafted onto the back of The Three Sisters. Then a 2.5 Km walk over uneven and hilly terrain on a well marked trail near the valley floor. It even tells you when you are under the Three Sisters ! And there are great views up the cliff edge. We arrive at Katoomba Falls, which are quite nice, but not much water in the fall - more a trickle. We carry along the trail which is by now heading uphill again. We reach the old mining area, but
decide not to take the Cable Train up, but to carry on further round the trail to the Cable Car (Scenicsende). This has a bit of a queue, but we eventually get on and manage to get next to the window at the front - giving us good views on the way up to the top of the cliff edge. We then take the Skyway, which is a cable car on the flat - going between two cliffs. Not very exciting you might think - but as you move off you realise you are standing on a glass floor which magically turns clear to give a great view of the valley and trees below. A good first afternoon in the Blue Mountains.
Next day we have booked to go on a walkabout. We catch the train from Katoomba to Faulconbridge, about 30 minutes down the line. There we are met by Evan - our aboriginal guide for the bushwalk and dreamtime. There are just 10 of us and after intros we set of on a short trek to a rocky ledge at the edge of the forest. Here Evan explains about Dreamtime and how to start to get rid
of our negative thoughts and absorb positive energy. All from focusing on a leaf - and it works. A great feeling, we were there for quite a while, not sure how long as our thoughts were on achieving a basic level of dreamtime. Evan talked for a while and led us down a path that enabled us to achieve a hightened positive awareness - certaily when Bill opened his eyes he really saw all the different greens and black trees in the forest from a new perspective. We were also taught to tread lightly, so as not to damage the earth, again an old aboriginal perspective on life. We then set off into the bush down a well trod path, but it was real bush hiking and rock scrambling and it started to get challenging (little did we know this was the easy bit). We then reached a sacred aboriginal place, a large stone clearing with carvings of kangaroo, joey (baby roo) and a man. Evan went through lots of aboriginal lor (this is the correct spelling), initiation rites and women's business and men's business, which are very distinct activities. Evan is not allowed to know the womens initiation rites,
Katoomba Falls
Not much water ! so could only really talk about the mens - but at least one is very painful; bone through nose, long chest cuts and circumcision - and the men could not scream or they were not seen as fit enough to marry - being good at dreamtime would enable the men to get through this. Its then off again to another cave for our mid morning snack. The bush trek is much harder now, along the way we feel trees to keep up our store of dreamtime and positive energy. The cave is fantastic when we get there and well worth the effort - it was created by the sea serpent. After a short snack break we head off again on a long hike over difficult terrain to reach the Billabong. Our lunch stop. This is a big clearing with a waterfall and rock/sand freshwater. There are Yabbi's in the water - these are freshwater crayfish. Evan produces a set of aboriginal paints and explains what the symbols mean. We have a quick lunch and then onto our first fun part - first of all painting tree bark with the symbols and then our faces - you can see the result
😊
Then its off on another hard hike/rock scramble to another clearing, where we learn more about the aboriginal lor. Then another fun element - time to learn a basic aboriginal dance, there are separate mens and womens dances, we can't remember what the mens dance was called but the womens one was the emu dance - and yes Sue did look funny - where was the video. And its men's business to hit the rythme sticks for the dancing - Sue was not allowed to touch.
Off again for another challenge. This is a physical challenge - 15 minutes uphill scramble - optional, but Bill went for it and came in 3rd, beating all the youngsters except one - must have been the dreamtime energy 😊. Once eveyone had caught up we hike to our last cave. Here Evan shows us original cave paintings and reads a poem about dreamtime and the aboriginal way, followed by him playing the bullroarer - a flat piece of wood on a string, but very impressive sound - and very moving, everyone was silent at the end. We then have to get out of the bush - basically rock scrambling on
Looking Down Through The Glass Floor on the Skyway
And yes - those are Sue's boots - just to prove she was standing on it very tired legs. Eventually we get to a pub in Springwood, 8 km and 8 hrs later - totally exhausted, but also exhilarated - the hardest hike we have completed, but very rewarding. And the beers in the pub were very welcome 😉
Next day we decide to visit Jenola Caves - about 80 Km from Katoomba. We travel by coach, which included a ticket to 2 of the caves. When we arrive we are a bit late and need to go to the entrance to the Lucas Cave straight away to meet our tour guide - along with 60 other people, as we found out when we got there 😞. Up lots of steps on very shaky legs from yesterday, we enter what is a series of large caves, some very big indeed. And very impressive, its just a shame there are so many people. But we did see some great cave formations built up over millions of years, and all on a very large scale. Ninety minutes later and we pop back out into the sunshine for a quick lunch. Then its onto Orient Cave and we were pleased to find only 20 people waiting. We enter
via an airtight tunnel (to protect the crystal) which was blasted through the rock about 50 years ago. These series of caves are much lower down the mountain than Lucas and are much smaller with fantastic crystal formations, not just the standard stalegtites and stalegmites, but leaves which are so thin the light can shine through and tiny twisty crystals - absolutely amazing. 😊 Most of the photos on the blog are from this series of caves. And the guide was much better - explaining the formation and lots of other interestings facts, most of which we have forgotten. Another 90 minutes later we arrive back in the sunshine to rejoin the coach straight away 😞 so we didn't have much chance to look around. This is a shame as it is a nice area and there are lots more caves to explore with much smaller group sizes, but you have to be in the know to book well in advance - looks like we will need to come back and stay for a couple of days !!
Tommorow we are taking the train back to Sydney to catch a flight to our next stop - Singapore.
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