Blue Mountains

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Nick: On Monday morning, the air bright and crisp, we said goodbye to our Sydney hostel for the last time and made our way to the area around the international airport, to pick up our hire car. For the next eleven days, we would have the services of a silver Toyota Camry to deliver us from place to place. Although we had a rough idea of some of the destinations we planned to visit, we hadn't booked any accommodation and as such the road trip was something of a blank canvas - the only requirement being that we were in Brisbane by the 21st May to return the car. Since Brisbane is located north of Sydney, some distance up the Pacific coast, the idea was to make our way up there slowly, stopping for a day or two at some of the towns along the way - but our first destination required us to strike out to the west of Sydney, to get to the Blue Mountains.

Having signed our lives away with the car hire company, we were all ready to set off and the first order of business was to get to grips with the car. Neither of us had ever driven an automatic before, and so the kind lady from the company ran us through how things worked (made a little more complicated by the fact that ours was a semi-automatic and therefore had some bonus gears, labelled with references like 'D4' and 'L-2'). Off we set into the hustle and bustle of the traffic around the airport, the sat-nav trying to guide us through the maze of streets and out of Sydney. Whilst simple in principle, it certainly felt unusual driving an automatic for the first time, and I found myself reaching for the gearstick every time I brought the car to a halt, an overpowering sense that the engine was about to stall if I didn't use the clutch (which of course wasn't there). A little while later, however, I had the hang of things and we were pushing westwards out of Sydney. Our destination, the town of Katoomba, was around ninety minutes drive away. It was a straightforward drive, and I got the impression that Aussies are relaxed drivers; everyone sticks rigidly to the speed which we had been told are strictly enforced. Soon enough, we'd arrived at our hostel in Katoomba.

It was my favourite kind of hostel, a homely place with not too many rooms and a well-equipped kitchen. We dumped out bags in our upstairs room and finished off the last of the leftover curry for lunch, before heading out to explore the local area. Our first port of call was 'Echo Point', an area from which we would be able to look out over the adjoining valley. Despite the name, our journey so far into the Blue Mountains had seemed relatively flat, notwithstanding the large hills we'd driven up and down as we got closer to our destination...certainly, there hadn't been any obvious mountains looming up as we'd made our approach from Sydney, nor as we walked from our hostel to Echo Point. The reason for this became clear as we arrived at the lookout point. We were stood on the top of a huge plateau, looking out over a broad valley full of trees. Out across the valley were other 'table-top' type mountain peaks, rising up gently front the valley floor, before plateauing. The overall effect of this was that the plateau we were on had huge, sheer cliffs dropping away below us, from which we were looking out. The 'Three Sisters' were basically three columns of rock, formed from the erosion of a section of the orangey-white cliff. Despite having snuck up on us, the view was mightily impressive.

The lookout point was a popular area, with plenty of fellow tourists ambling about and taking photos. Keen to get away from the pack, we found the start of a walking trail and began heading away from the hubbub. Unlike Sydney, it was far cooler here, and very windy to boot, so we were suitably wrapped up. The trail followed the cliff face, and afforded plenty of views out over the valley, and was mercifully devoid of other tourists, with only a handful of other walkers. We passed a cable car station (part of 'Scenic World') from which it was possible to take a ride down into the valley, but gave it a miss when we saw the hefty pricetag. After thirty or forty minutes or so, we decided to start heading back; time was pressing on and we still had a few practicalities to take care of, including shopping for dinner. We had seen enough, however, to convince us that it would be worth staying here for another day so as to fit in a good day's walking on some of the bigger trails. As if to remind us we were in Australia, heading back towards Katoomba, we saw a Kookaburra sitting on a branch, and shortly afterwards a 'Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo', with a big head of yellow feathers, sitting on a streetlight making a real racket!

We stopped into the local supermarket to pick up some grub for the evening. Having a car at our disposal meant we could afford to buy a few ingredients without worrying about having to use them all up in a day or two - we could lug them around with us. We picked up some supplies for a pasta bake and got back to our hostel. As I said above, the hostel was a homely place, and cosy, and what with the cold weather outside it was good to stay in and relax. Sarah, as is her way, seemed to effortlessly whip up a delicious creamy pasta bake (we'd overestimated on the amount of ingredients and so had enough to feed an army), and after dinner spent the rest of the evening chatting with a young Aussie/Malaysian chap who was from Perth and out here on holiday, as well as 'Troy', the bloke whose family owned the hostel and who was looking after the smooth running of everything; he proved to be a useful source of information and furnished us with maps for a couple of decent length walking trails for the following day.

With a good amount of walking planned in, we were up bright and early the next morning to get going. The weather was ideal, bright and sunny and crisp and fresh, so soon after a straightforward brekkie of porridge we were out the door. The first walk was to 'Wentworth Falls' and required us to drive a short distance back towards Sydney to get to the starting point. Setting out from the car park, it was down-down-down, descending the stone steps cut into the trail. As we continued down the cliff face, the view out over the valley was fantastic. We did have some trepidation about the final leg of the trail: Troy had warned us it was a tough ascent, and with all of the steps we were taking down, we were all too conscious that we would ultimately need to be climbing back up later on! Regardless, we were having a wonderful time doing what we like doing best, and thanks to our early start there were scant other walkers around to share the beautiful vistas with. Being so far below the top of the plateau, we encountered a number of waterfalls cascading down form above, or running down the rock face and collecting pools and streams, compete with stepping stones for crossing them. As an added bonus, and to demonstrate that they are not found just on top of streetlights, we passed a tree which was chock full of screeching Cockatoos. After an hour or so, much of which was spent heading away from the car park and down the cliff, the trial curved around and began heading back the way we came.

The cliff face was imposing above us and for much of the trail we were beneath a huge overhang of rock, such that we passed behind - rather than directly underneath - many of the waterfalls. In other areas, the cliff jutted out so that we had to walk some distances stooped down, so as to not bang our heads. After about two hours of walking, were getting back to the area from which we'd started, which meant only one thing: we were approaching the dreaded ascent back to the top! Sure enough, we were soon climbing a series of steps cut into the stone, or in many cases steel ladders and railings that had been fitted. On our way up, we started encountering a huge number of people coming the other way, and assumed that a bus had just recently turned up. With the trail being so narrow, it necessitated much waiting and 'after-you'-ing, so we were all the more grateful for out early start and having missed out on all of this for the most part. The angle of ascent was very steep indeed, and before long we were both huffing and puffing, but with such a steep climb meant that it wasn't long before we were back at the top, taking a moment to catch our breath. I'm sure that, what with all of the hilly and mountainous walking we've done since setting out on our travels, we now are better at dealing with these climbs, nonetheless it was pretty knackering!

We'd completed our first walk in good time, and it was still a little before midday as we jumped back in the car to make our way to Blackheath, the small town on the other side of Katoomba from where we'd start our second walk. In some respects, this trail followed a similar pattern to the first, starting with a lot of walking down from the top of the plateau, continuing along a flat section before a big climb back to the top at the end of the circuit to reaching the starting point. This time, however, we'd be going right down to the bottom. Before long we were clambering down once again, amidst similar waterfalls and streams. Our path took us along the inside of a canyon (hence the trail's name, the 'Grand Canyon Circuit'), and it was most certainly deep: for much of the distance it was not possible to see the bottom of the gorge. At one point, poor Sarah slipped and fell, grazing her elbow in the process. We stopped and sat on a rock to eat our lunch of leftover pasta, but didn't hang around and were soon back up and pressing on. Eventually, we'd made it to the bottom of the canyon, the path criss-crossing the small stream that ran along the middle. It was a strange place to be, with the cliff walls soaring up on either side, and we were both enjoying the change of landscape, being as it was unlike anything else we'd experienced on our travels so far.

As we all know by now, what goes down must come up and once again we found ourselves working against the force of gravity. We'd come down even further this time and so the route to the top was long. Thankfully, this path did not have such hideously steep steps, and so whilst our ascent was over a longer distance, it was less punishing and taking our time over the next forty minutes or so we worked our way back to the top of the cliff without too much trouble. The reward at the top was another spectacular view out over the valley, and looking down into the green carpet of tree-tops, it was possible to make out the thin, winding line where the stream ran. It was strange to think that only an hour ago we had been all the way down there, it looked so distant from the view at the top! A weird haze had settled over the valley, I'm not sure where from, but it had a bluish tint to it and perhaps that is where the Blue Mountains get their name from...? Again, we'd made pretty good time finishing the walk, and it was only two o' clock or so but after all those ups and downs we'd had our fill of walking for the day so we opted to head back to Katoomba, stopping via one final viewpoint on the way. We made a pitstop at the supermarket to pick up some further ingredients for dinner, having decided to treat ourselves to another little taste of home - sausages, jacket potato and baked beans!

Back at the hostel, over a cup of tea/coffee, we spent some time planning out our next couple of days. We were planning on heading a few hours drive north of Katoomba, to Hunter Valley: wine country! We found ourselves some suitable accommodation for a couple of nights, and booked in with a bike-hire company so ensure we'd be able to partake of our favourite activity when in wine country, cycling from cellar door to cellar door! After Hunter Valley, we were intending on making out way back toward the Pacific coast, and so we also booked in our accommodation for a couple of nights in the town of Port Macquarie, around a third of the way between Sydney and Brisbane. Pleased with our logistical accomplishments, we popped out to a local pub for a couple of drinks before dinner. It must be said that after the bars, cafes and whatnot of South America, it was nice to enjoy having a drink in what felt much closer to a proper pub! Suitably rewarded after our day's exertions, it was back to our hostel for dinner, and another evening of gassing with the other guests, before hitting the hay. It is now Wednesday morning, and loathe as we are to leave behind the cosy warmth of our hostel, we're looking forward to getting back on the road and making our way to our next destination. We're both really glad we included the Blue Mountains on our itinerary, it has been all to brief a visit and we could easily spend a few more days here exploring some of the many other walks...but we only have so long here in Oz, and with so many other places to see it is time to pack up and move on.

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