Breathing In the Blue Mountains

This morning I got up early, got on a bus to the Central Railway Station in downtown Sydney, met some friends and then took a 2 hour train ride into the town of Katoomba where the Katoomba National Park (The Blue Mountains) begins.  We got some lunch at a local place and then got on a tourist sightseeing bus that dropped us off at the beginning of a trail.  We walked for a little while and then got to the top of the "World's Steepest Railway" which we rode down to the bottom of the cliffs...it was basically a slow moving rollercoaster, but without seatbelts or restraints of any kind, and if the train were to all of a sudden lose its brakes...the tracks go right off the end into the valley. Needless to say we were not prepared for this ride.  We walked around some more (I can't really call it hiking since it was on a boardwalk) through the jungle around the bottom of the cliffs to the other side of the valley and then rode a cable car back to the top.  Here we took the SkyWalk across the valley...a glass bottom cable car with amazing views of the mountains and the Three Sisters (the big tourist attraction rock formation) from all directions.

The plant life on the mountains is dominated by eucalyptus trees which
give off a chemical that mixes with the air and creates a bluish
tint, giving the mountains their name.  The color is more evident on more
humid days, but it was gorgeous regardless! The rock formation to the left is
 the famous "The Three Sisters" whose names are Meehni, Wimlah, and Gunnedoo.

Once we got to the other side of the valley again, we hiked (real hiking: through mud and trees and waterfalls!) for about 5 straight hours.  We saw so many incredible views of the valley with the mountains as we walked the entire length of the "bushwalk."  This part was my favorite because it was just us on the trails (compared to before when there were a lot of limited mobility tourists and families).  We saw heaps (Australian slang word of the day!) of small waterfalls and a few big ones.  One of these is the Katoomba Cascades which provides most of the drinking water for Sydney and never dries up even during the worst drought seasons in Australia.  The trees and plants were, at the same time, both exotic and familiar and every time we came to a new look-out over the same valley with the same mountains, somehow it felt brand new and equally as breathtaking each and every time.  The path we ended up taking near the end of our hike took us along the whole waterfall/river where we jumped a few fences and got some really amazing pictures. Later, the same path took us around to the front side of the same waterfall and we got even more pictures. (Don't worry mom, nothing dangerous.)

At Bridal Veil Point with a beautiful view of the Katoomba Cascades.
For perspective, about an hour before this picture was taken, we were standing
at the top of the very same waterfall, then "bushwalked" all the way around!

On that note though, we also saw a search and rescue helicopter find a body (gossip from the locals nearby  speculated that it was a suicide, but others noted that the trails had been extra slippery lately and it could have been someone who slipped) and then bring them up from the very bottom of the valley, maneuvering through all the tree branches, leaves, etc. and then come back up to the hospital. It was fascinating and powerful to watch; definitely a prayer provoking experience and it made the rest of our hike a little eerie as we started to notice just how high up we really were!

The weather was beautiful all day with no rain and the perfect amount of sunlight through the trees to keep us warm but not too hot.  Even though we were hiking for such a long time (pretty sure we went about 10km overall?) I continuously felt refreshed by the fresh air which was the best air I've breathed in a really long time.

When we finally got back out to the road, we had missed the last tourist bus to the train station, so we walked there through the local neighborhoods (talk about serious OMG houses..) and made it in time for the 6:30 train.  We were so hungry that we got off at a random stop half-way back to the city and ate at the "Jazz Apple Café", a really small place where we listened to live folk music and played dominoes at the table.

We finished our dinners just in time and, sprinting back to the train station, we caught the next train, which was great because missing it would have meant waiting in this town in the dark for another hour.  So I left my house at 8:00am and am just now returning to my apartment at 10:15pm...another long but seriously eventful day. I absolutely love it here, but I love and miss all of you!