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Published: April 15th 2008
Katoomba - Leura Hike
Our Hike - about a 4 hour tripWe finally took our first trip outside of Sydney -- it was only a day trip, but it was a great change of scenery. Matt had just landed a job as a freshwater ecological consultant with a company called The Ecology Lab and we fit this in just before the reality of a 9-5 work week was going to set in. Just about 2 hours West of Sydney (by train) are the Blue Mountains. Apparently they look "blue" as a result of a fine mist of volatile oil given off by the eucalyptus trees...But don't worry, it’s not volatile enough to be noticeable! Anyway, we hopped on the train in Sydney in the morning and hopped off in the town of Katoomba. From the map it looks like the most popular (and largest) town in the Blue Mountains, but there are also a bunch of other smaller ones with good hiking as well.
From the Katoomba train station we walked through the town and out to the ridge, where you have a beautiful view out across the mountains. From here you can see the "Three Sisters", which is a rock formation that has an associated story about a sorcerer, unwanted
young men, and three sisters turned to stone and never turned back...(We didn't read the sign very well so we apologize for the lack of detail). If you want to take it easy, you can stop here at the well paved and managed look out. Feeling ambitious we decided to hike and set out along the ridge to Katoomba falls, and then doubled back down into the valley on route to Leura.
It’s an absolutely gorgeous hike that starts out as a ridge walk and then leads down a cliff with about 1,000 stairs all the while passing cascades, waterfalls, and incredible trees and plants. We were both surprised at how lush and tropical the area in the valley was - we were both expecting much drier conditions. Not so at all. Anyway, about halfway down the cliff it dawned on us that at some point in the day we would have to get back to the top. There is a little scenic rail car/gondola thing, but unfortunately we didn't plan our hike to take advantage of that. So about 1.5 hours after steeply descending, we started the trek up another 1,000 stairs. We eventually made it to the
3 sisters again
View from Echo Point top (it felt like forever), and the hike eases up again back around the cliff. At this point it was getting late, and we walked a little more and then headed back to the Leura train stop and made it just as the sun was setting and the rain was began to come down.
Sadly the camera died about 10 minutes into our hike, so all the pictures here are from the beginning of the trip. There were some great views and waterfalls that we wish we could have captured, but even though we didn't have pictures to take with us, our legs didn't let us forget the uphill climb for about a week!
That's about it for the Blue Mountians, we are trying to get better at frequently updating the blog, so keep an eye out. We hope you're enjoying it and hope that everything is well back home.
Cheers,
Matt and Heidi
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The CA Harpers
non-member comment
Blue Mountains
Hey, Guys! Good to hear you are getting out and about! Never knew about the volatile oils-glad neither of you smoke! Beautiful country. More pictures, bigger batteries are required. How is work, Matt? Fun! ?!? Cheers to you both!