Blue Mountains, Penrith, Homebush Bay

---

I woke up this morning, still a little depressed after last night’s mauling, but I decided to cheer myself up, and book up to do the BridgeClimb™ this morning. I was to be climbing tomorrow at 11:05am, and it would cost $125 (£41). It was yet another early start this morning, as we were to go to the Blue Mountains today.

We drove through the Harbour Bridge and then joined up with Great Western Highway (M4). It was a long drive, during which we travelled through Glenbrook, Blaxland, Springwood, Faulconbridge, Linden, Woodford, Hazelbrook, Lawson and finally Wentworth Falls.

We then drove a further 5 km (3 miles) west and arrived at the beautiful settlement of Leura, where we drove down the ‘Corridor of Oaks’. In the Australian Spring (October) there are many private garden displays of blossom. Also in Leura, which is a short drive east of Katoomba, there was a Gardens Festival in in the National Trust garden on Devision Street, Everglades. This was one of the main attractions during the year for this area.

For more than a hundred years the Blue Mountains have been a favourite holiday resort for the people of Sydney. Some 65 km (40 miles) west of Sydney, the mountains start to rise steeply out of the coastal plain, combining magnificent mountain scenery (steep gorges, waterfalls and rock formations) with high-quality facilities for tourists and holidaymakers. The 'City of Blue Mountains' comprises of more than 20 settlements, and has a total population of about 75,000 inhabitants.

Brief History

The high rock walls of the Blue Mountains were an almost impassable barrier in the early days of the colony, until in 1813 Gregory Blaxland, Henry Lawson and William Charles Wentworth discovered the passage through the mountains. This opened up a route to the grazing land beyond, of which the settlers were in such urgent need.

After 1875, the wealthy citizens of Sydney discovered the charms of the scenery and built holiday homes in the mountains that offered a refuge from the heat of summer on the coast. Once the Blue Mountains could be reached only by coach or by rail: nowadays they are less than two hours by car from the centre to Katoomba every day on coach tours or by train.

One of the most asked questions is: 'where do the Blue Mountains get their name from?' Well, the 'blue haze' is caused due to the intensification of the bluish tones of the solar spectrum by particles of eucalyptus oil suspended in the air.

In spite of intensive tourist development along the Great Western Highway, only a small part of the Blue Mountains is directly accessible for day-trippers. The sheer rock faces of the mountains, which rise up to 1100 m and the deep wooded gorges, close much of the area to all but thoroughly experienced bush walkers and rock climbers.

We started off at Wentworth Falls. Bryan parked the car up nearby and we decided to take the Wentworth Falls track. This was a very tiring trip down to the depths, where we would get a great view of the waterfalls, as they tumbled 300 m from a high escarpment into a remote valley. It was about a half-hour trek down to a viewing platform. It gave us a good view, and allowed me to take a few snaps.

Eileen and Vic stayed behind, as they didn’t really feel up to the walk. We were down there for a few moments, before we had to climb back up the track. This was probably the reason Eileen and Vic stayed behind. We were shattered once we had reached the top, and were grateful to be greeted with ice-cold refreshment and lunch, at one of the convenient picnic benches.

One thing we had to consider was to make sure we cleared all rubbish and food away, as this particular area is where the notorious funnel web spiders are found.

After a short while, we had to get on, as time was against us, and there was so much more to see and do. Next stop was Echo Point.

Brief History

Echo Point was where the famous ‘Three Sisters’ rock formation rises out of Jamison Valley. These three sheer rock columns are steeped in Aboriginal folklore. Three maidens, Meenhi, Wimlah and Gunedu were menaced by a witch doctor. Their father saw their plight from the valley below and - to protect his daughters - turned them to stone using a magic stick. However, in his excitement the father dropped his stick and the witch doctor turned him into a lyrebird. The sound of the lyrebird is believed by Aborigines to be the girls’ father looking for his magic stick so that he can bring his daughters back to flesh and blood.

I went with Damon on the Three Sisters walk. This led us right down to the Three Sisters, and allowed us to walk across from the third to the second ‘sister’, on what was no more than a narrow, old rope bridge. This was well worth it though as we got some stunning views looking down and from the ‘Sisters’.

A short walk on and we arrived at the outskirts of Katoomba. There was a large centre here which had plenty of leaflets on Blue Mountain history and features. There was also a gift shop, jewellers, Skyway, and also the Katoomba Scenic Railway.

The Scenic Railway was originally built in the 1880's to haul coal from the valley floor. It claims to also be the steepest railway in the world, operating on an incline of 45°. It plunges 250 metres (820 ft) down the cliff wall on a 400-metre (1300 ft) track into the shady undergrowth of the floor.

Damon and Bryan joined me on the Scenic Railway, which cost $4.50 and was an exhilarating experience, almost like a ride on a rollercoaster. There was no seat belt to keep us in and the gradient was one of the steepest I had ever encountered. As we descended deeper we passed under the Skyway, a cable car attraction, which ran overhead. The ride down only took about a minute, and once we had reached the bottom, it felt like we were in another world. We were out of the sunlight down here, and it was much cooler.

On reaching the valley floor, a short walk on took us to a small cave, which was the entrance to where they excavated minerals. There was a large video screen positioned at the entrance, and we were treated to a movie on the history of the railway. It was only a short movie, but was spoilt for me halfway through when some loud Japanese tourists arrived, so we decided to get the ride back up. Our ascent back up the cliff wall the same ride as before, but with us going up backwards. I decided I wanted to be on the very first seat at the front, which meant that as we were ascending back up, we had the lovely view below us - the drop down. The drop got further and further away, until we couldn’t see it. The front of this ‘rollercoaster’ also had no cage at the front, which meant that it would have been no problem to fall out. This just made us hold onto the cage roof even tighter. It was still fun though, if a little dangerous.

We then had a look around the jewellers, where I had asked Eileen earlier to see if there was anything there that she thought Kerry would like, as I didn’t really have a clue. She found a nice Blue Mountains opal triplet pendant, which I then bought as Kerry’s present. We then made our way back to the car.

For those residents and tourists from the Northern Hemisphere, celebrating Christmas in the middle of summer probably doesn’t seem right, so each winter (June to August) up in the Blue Mountains, Christmas celebrations make up for Australia’s climatic reversal. No official celebrations are held, but many accommodations offer special packages that include Christmas dinners, a visit by Santa, and you never know, it may even snow!

After a short drive around Katoomba, which is the largest and most commercial town in the Blue Mountains area, we then drove to the Hydro-Majestic Hotel. This is one of the country’s oldest hotels, and is located in Medlow Bath. Built late in the last century, this was formerly a health resort, but remoulded to take on the appearance of a grand hotel, and includes an art nouveau-inspired domed front entrance, and the windows, which overlook the vast Megalong Valley, filled the entire wall. This Edwardian building is also set in 80 hectares, and, to go with the expensive look, the rooms too are very expensive here.

Finally, we drove westward away from Katoomba and passed ‘Explorer’s Tree’. This was one of the landmarks used by the Blue Mountain explorers. However, this is now in a sorry state, after a fence initially put round the tree to protect it, eventually killed the tree off.

The temperature in the Blue Mountains was a steady 25°C (77°F), though it felt much warmer after the walking.

We stopped off in Penrith, a town settlement which had long been swallowed up by Sydney. It is Sydney’s most western settlement, and is situated at the foot of the Blue Mountains. Penrith is very proud of it’s boisterous rugby league team, the Penrith Panthers. We had a meal at the very impressive sports complex, the ‘Panthers World of Entertainment’, located on Mulgoa Road, Penrith. The Panthers World of Entertainment is home to the ‘Panthers’. We had dinner in ‘The Carvery’, which overlooked the large sports pitches, which also included a golf driving range.

It was now night, and also midway through the week, so they weren’t being used, but it was all floodlit and still looked an impressive set of facilities, bettering anything I’d seen in England. Vic rang Nan back home in England, to tell her what we’d been doing today.

On the way home we travelled through Homebush Bay, where we drove round and had a closer look at all the stadia used during the Olympic Games of 2000. The $470m site was built especially for the Olympic Games, and was obviously something Australians were proud of, as it was illuminated fully. The stadiums are still used to hold major sporting tournaments, but obviously never to the same scale as the original use. The Homebush Bay site is centred around ‘Stadium Australia’, which was where the opening and closing ceremonies, track and field events, marathon and the football were held. To the south of this stadium is the State Sports Centre, and the Sydney International Aquatic Centre. On the southern side there was a 16-court tennis centre. It still had all the new look and feel to it and, together with the imposing ‘Sydney Superdome’, created a very impressive set-up. The Superdome hosted basketball, gymnastics and paralympic basketball. I wanted to take some photos but I would have needed a long exposure due to all the illumination, so I didn’t waste any of my precious camera film. It was a quiet journey back, as we had missed the ‘rush hour’. We end up getting back home at about 8:30pm.

---