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Published: March 17th 2007
Echo Point in the Mist
Day One - James disappearing off into the mist to see the views.We think that we may have finally found our favourite piece of Australia..and only two hours from Sydney, who would have thought? After an initial stopover in Sydney, on the recommendation of some friends we met in Western Australia over Christmas (thanks Jason and Hayley!!), we set off for a few days in the Blue Mountains. We were told that the views and walking trails up there would surpass anything we had seen so far in Oz, even on the Ocean Road, therefore when we arrived on Sunday afternoon at our gorgeous little hostel up in the mountains we were on top of the world...
We woke up the next day to the thickest mist we had ever seen, and that's saying something coming from Northern England, but we set off on a hike through Katoomba to Echo Point, the key lookout over the Mountains. We say 'lookout' but the walk there turned out to be the most hilarious piece of 'sight-seing' ever encountered, with the visability at little over ten metres. The famous Three Sisters rock formation was no-where to be seen, infact the views amounted to a white blanket so think that not even the hordes of Japanese
tourist piling off their buses bothered to take any pictures. While everyone pulled away in disappointment we took the bull by the horns and descended the Giant Staircase to the bottom of the valley below, an experience that made our knees go wobbly after about 15 minutes of clinging onto the handrail. It didn't help that we couldn't see the bottom, or the top, of the 900 step stairway, so caught in limbo we just kept going down!
When we arrived, wobbly-legged at the bottom of the valley, the forest was still coated in a blanket of mist. With not a soul in sight it was a pretty eerie experince, but fantastic fun as we wound around the base of the Three Sisters, not knowing where we would end up, or if we were even going the right way! After about a hour as we reached the end of the trail we heard the thunder of water, and were amazed as the mist cleared for a brief minute to reveal the impressive Katoomba Falls above us. We shunned the scenic railway back up to the clifftop, even if it was the steepest in Australia, and instead decided to climb
What a view!
We would have been sorely disappointed if we had paid to use these binoculars... as it happened they were good for photos though! the Furber steps - a hellish 1040 steps following the waterfall up the cliff-face.
Even though we were soaked through to the bone and James' trainers were rapidly disintergrating, we couldn't help but feel pretty pleased with ourselves, as we ate our picnic at the top of the climb in the drizzly rain. We proceeded to get lost on more than one occasion on the way back to the hostel, coming accross lots of 'lookout' points which still offered no view to speak of! When we returned to our cosy hostel, we were greeted by a blazing fire and hot cups of tea and biscuits!
Day two brought similar weather, but hadn't dulled our spirit as we set off for another hike, this time to Wentworth Falls with a lovely English couple we'd met at the hostel. It was fortunate we were with other people, as the trail was the most overgrown and bog-ridden path we've ever walked - which slightly worried us. James was in walking sandals, as the poor dunlops didn't survive the night, so got the lovely feeling of mud between his toes. Thankfully it was a shorter walk than the previous day and we
Spooky Forest
Down in the valley we couldn't help but get a bit spooked, where was everyone else?? had no unexpected visitors, although we were all too scared to look at our legs after seeing a leech explode with human blood when it became dislodged from another hiker and a kid trod on it!
Hurry day three! We were finally rewarded with decent weather and returned to Echo Point for fantastic panoramic views of the Blue Mountains and the rolling valleys below. We treated ourselves to some coffee and (wheat free!) cake in celebration and headed back to our hostel where we spent the night listening to tales from New Zealand from other travellers. We really can't wait for New Zealand now we are into our last two weeks in Australia. The following day we said goodbye to Hostel No.14 with a tear in our eye, grumbling about having to return to Sydney so soon, but happy that we'd found our favorite place in Australia!
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