Katoomba and the Blue Mountains!

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Katoomba
October 13th 2007

Published: October 13th 2007

Hi Everyone!

So recently I had a week off of school, and just before my Mom and Sue got here for their visit, some friends and I went to Katoomba for a day. Katoomba is just outside of Sydney and the gateway to the Blue Mountains- a very beautiful and scenic area.

So, off we went- Erin, Amy (who you might recognize from my Wellington and Melbourne Adventures), Amy's sister Jessa, Jessa's friend Hong and Amy/Jessa's cousin Allie all hopped on the train...

We got to Katoomba (almost 4 hours of traveling) and checked into our hostel. The hostel was amazing,and was nice to have a 6 person room with 6 people! (Although I was getting used to sleeping with strangers.) After checking in, we headed out for lunch, and then for our 4 hour hike through the blue mountains! It was glorious- perfect weather, amazing friends!

Some highlights:

The Three Sisters- a brilliant rock formation in the BlueMountains- so beautiful!

Waterfalls- there was an amazing waterfall and stream so we hopped the fence for some photos!

Allie's Spill- Allie kind of fell on a giant rock and almost down the stream. It was

Me and some scenery

kind of hilarious as soon as it happened, even Allie was laughing!

The Ride Up- so at the end of our hike, we needed to take a rail car back up to the top of the park- so we get in this little car that has apparently the steepest incline in the world (something like 54 degrees?) You would think something that steep would be very safe, but not so! The only thing keeping you in is white plastic chains, and perhaps a prayer. I screamed like I was on a roller coaster which I think scared some of the children, but I stand by my reaction.

Good for you!- Part of the walk is a part called the Giant Staircase- luckily we only had to go down (later to take up the rail car)- as we were walking down, a woman was hiking up. It looked like she was working out- she had socks hiked up to her knees, was wearing work out type clothes and looked pretty intense. I was so impressed so I exclaimed: "GOOD FOR YOU!" in hopes to motivate her...NOPE. She started having difficulties breathing and stoppedon teh stairs right behind me, gripping

I've fallen and I can't get up

to the hand railing for dear life. Jessa didn't even wait to start laughing at this poor woman. I think she was okay after it all 😊

Once we got back to our hostel, we went out on the town for some dinner and drinks! LAter on we met up with some friends who were also checking out Katoomba. There was one especially weird moment that I want to tell you about: Jessa and I were getting cash out of an ATM when we looked into the bank. It was late at night, so the bank was closed, with all the lights off. We saw some shadows moving in the dark, so we looked closer thinking that perhaps something illegal was going on. Imagine our surprise when we saw three chubby, older women doing aerobics in the dark, closed down bank! They were using the security tv to play their work out video. And its a pretty big bank- imagine seeing this in a TD or Scotia Bank! So weird- I got it on video of course.

So, we went back to the hostel and had a lovely nights rest. We had delicious breakfasts the next morning and