An alternative view of the Blue Mountains

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Day 31 - Yippee it’s here, the big trip to the Blue Mountains! Ha Ha to all those noisy Cockatoo’s and Lorekeets as we were up at 5am so we beat you before you had chance to wake us with your screeching and flapping!!! We were at the bus stop well before the allotted 5.51am deadline, no point getting up at that time and then missing the bus is there! It was still dark so the sky should have been full of stars but it was cloudy, not a good sign perhaps in terms of the weather? By the time the bus got to Manly Wharf it was still quite dark and only began to get light as the ferry turned toward the Harbour Bridge. It’s quite interesting to see all the different sorts of people catching public transport into the city. Obviously there are the walkers and the cyclists but what amused us were the ‘grown up skateboarders’ heading to the office! Now that’s cool!!

When we landed in Circular Quay our challenge was to catch a train to the Central Sydney train station and then a train to Katoomba on the Blue Mountains line. The train to Central was found quickly and boarded smoothly, the next bit we had to guess as there were no signs saying “Katoomba this way” so we figured it was probably a country line and it was! There it stood all ready and waiting for us but we were pretty sure our tickets wouldn’t get us all the way out there so decided to ask before we boarded! The guard on the train and the guy in the booth by the train said that we were ok just to jump on and go for it! So we did!! It’s a long old way out to Katoomba, something like 24 ‘drops’ (as Darryl calls it, once a drayman always a drayman!) so the journey takes a couple of hours. As we head further out of Sydney the weather draws in and not in a good way! What’s that on the window? Rain? Rain? Oh fiddle faddle!

When we got to Katoomba it was not only raining but misty too, not the sort of weather you want for viewing mountains really but it wasn’t going to stop us. We bought our tickets for the hop on and off Explorer Bus and headed for a trip around the 29 stops to see which we liked the look of best! By stop 21 we were still on board having settled to thinking that we’d start back at 10 which was the Scenic Railway near to the Blue Mountains ‘jewel in the crown’ The Three Sisters. Jimmy, the driver of the bendy bus (!) saw that we were the only 2 left on so suggested that we get off in the small town of Leura to go and have a look around and then jump back on when the next one came! We gave in and went out for a nosey around, found a café and went to have a coffee, meat pie and some delicious pumpkin soup! Looking around shops isn’t really our thing so we decided to wander back to Leura Cascades and do a bit of a walk. This prompted the first ‘ribbing’ of the day by Mr Howells! Before we left for Oz I’d made a small comment about his walking boots and how they might be too heavy and would he prefer to get some out here. Well he brought them with him and he’s worn them a lot. Whereas I didn’t bring any walking boots with me (I hadn’t got any) and therefore I have only trainers or sandal things! Round One to Mr Howells, my trainers were going to get wet and muddy today!

The walk to Leura Cascades and Falls was lovely, wet but lovely and quite easy to do despite a lot of steps going upwards and us initially going the wrong way! We came across the sign “Cliff drive via Fern Bowen track in poor condition experienced walkers only” so you do have to be careful. We managed to get to a bus stop in good time at the Solitary Kiosk, so called because there’s nothing else around it we presume! This time we caught the double-decker being driven by Bill who was a hoot! Lots of chatting about our trip and all sorts of comments, him and Darryl would get on rather well! We stayed on the bus right through this time until it came to the Katoomba Cascades stop. We (yes Darryl, we) wanted to do the walk to get below the mist and actually see something!! We made it to the Underfalls Walk track but this was closed off due to a recent landslide so we continued on our way. The walk comes free with the determination to complete 1000 ‘steps’ and includes the Furber Steps Rainforest Walk. I’m fine tramping around uphill but when it comes to climbing down stairs or steps then I tend to grind to a bit of a halt every now and then. Mr Howells picks up on this pretty quick and the quips come thick and fast! “Christ sake Sar, I thought you wanted to do the Harbour Bridge climb. I can just imagine the news item “15 groups of bridge climbers were held up today whilst Sarah ‘sure foot’ Howells completed the climb down. One of the climbers had been there so long SHE had a beard at the end” … and so the jaunts continued! Now this is not the way to speed me up because laughter slows me down even more! Furber Steps are each about half a foot deep and they are steep, very steep! The laughter, the jibes and the rain continued all the way to the bottom of the scenic railway which we reached drenched and laughed at the clean people wandering in our direction, looking at us and then turning around to go back the way they’d come!

The scenic railway is the steepest in the world and you really do need to hold on tight! It’s 52 degrees, 128 % or 1 in 1.28! We took the trip up, it was either that or walk back the way we’d come only upwardly, quite frankly there was no way we were doing that today! At the top of the railway is Scenic World where you can go across the valley by Skyway a single car taking multiple passengers in the glass bottomed vessel. Your normal view would undoubtedly take your breath away, suspended 270 metres above the valley floor with the Katoomba Falls cascading behind you and the ‘Three Sisters’ standing proudly in front of you. From the café lookout we could just about see the Three Sisters so thought we had a good chance of seeing something from the Skyway. We hopped in and were soon in the middle of the valley looking down over the vast, spectacular waterfall which is stunning and the other way, well we saw a lot of mist! Not to worry, on a day like today it was worth it if only to be in the dry! It was amusing listening to the various tour guides explaining to their parties what they may or may not be able to see from each of the Scenic World ‘rides’ because of the adverse weather! The railway has to be a good bet because if nothing else it’s so steep that it’s almost bound to get a reaction from everyone but the Cable Car and the Skyway, they were less likely to thrill today!

We decided to get back on the bus and do another walk! We were drenched anyway so getting a bit wetter couldn’t hurt! We hopped on Bill’s double-decker and he drove us to Honeymoon Lookout where you should throw a coin over and make a wish! Bill had already told us he was going walking either tomorrow or Friday so we figured he’d be off to collect all the coins one way or another, ha ha!! We set off on the walk that would lead us to Echo Point and a view of the Three Sisters, we hoped! More steps, more jokes and more misty lookouts where we imagined how we’d marvel at the view on a clearer day! We arrived at the junction for the Giant Stairway which takes you down, very steeply and onto the first of the Three Sisters. We looked across to the viewing platform at Echo Point and we could see people, if we could see them they must be able to see the Three Sisters so off we went in pursuit of our jewel!

It didn’t take us very long to get to Echo Point but on arrival the crowd on the viewing platform had vanished and so had the tourist information building plus the toilets and the bus stops! A vanishing world, all hidden behind the mist! It had also taken any chance we had of viewing the Three Sisters from the vantage point so we improvised, laughed a bit more at the mist and caught the bus back to Leura train station to start the journey back to the city! We joked with Bill, who’s bus we’d clambered on to yet again, that he should take a photo of the Three Sisters for us during his walk on Friday! We hope he does but he must get requests like that all the time so we completely understand if he doesn’t and we just hope that he has a great walk and the weather is better!!!

The train journey back was surprisingly uneventful as was the ferry and subsequent bus journey back to the camp site. The ferry ride did show us Sydney by night though with the Opera House in beautiful blue!

By the time we got back we were ready for a hot shower and a beer so that’s exactly what we did! We had a great day in the mountains and we’re really glad we went and got our alternative view of them! We Suggest you check out www.bluemountainswonderland.com.au or wait for Bill’s photo’s to appreciate the true beauty of this fantastic area, it is not to be missed come rain or shine!

Good night all from two very weary but happy travellers!

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