Blue Mountains

limestone river

The men protecting us

    Our time in the Blue Mountains was nothing short of an adventure. The wildlife, sights, and stories will last a lifetime. When we arrived to Katoomba (an Aboriginal term meaning tumbling shining water), we were able to see the misty mountain tops even from the centre of the city. It was chilly, and seemed so far away from sunny Sydney. Dave and I arrived at our hostel, a beautiful wood cottage with a warm fire, and waited the arrival of our good friends Chris and Emma. It was a nice reunion, once again, and we spent the evening chatting about the adventures we had had since we saw each other earlier that week.
    After our morning English tea with our English friends, we set out to do some hiking around the Jenolan Caves. The drive to the caves was exciting enough, as we were driving right in the cloud line, on very small dirt roads winding up the mountains. Once we arrived we saw beautiful cave structures, grabbed a map and set off to hike some trails. We began by walking through the entrance of the cave which

Boar with her babies

Kangaroos!

led us to a turquoise limestone river, and down the trail into the woods. As we followed the map, we realized that it was not very well drawn, to scale, was quite vague, and the paths were not well marked... at all. We did not let this discourage us, as all four of us loved the outdoors and hiking.
    We continued on the rough path and noticed long black blades of grass, standing on their own and moving... leeches! They were covering the ground, and eventually our feet. Emma and I did not feel very tough anymore, as we yelled for the boys to help us get them off, even though their feet had just as many. We ended up jogging through the moist riverbanks to avoid the leeches, but would still find them on our feet from time to time.
 

Wallabie

  The leeches did not spoil our adventure though, as we saw so much wild life along the way. We spotted wild boars (a mom and three babies) running up the mountains, and shortly after many many wild kangaroos! Dave and I had seen them in the zoo before, however seeing them in their own habitat was so much cooler. They didn’t seem too bothered by us, but wouldn’t let us get very close either. On our hike we also ran into a few wallabies, many large colourful birds, and an echidna (looks like a porcupine with a long nose, and is a mammal that lays eggs)! We also ran into an old broken down dwelling that looked like it was a couple of hundred years old, that no one had visited in a while.

Echidna

    After two and a half hours of hiking, we realized that our path did not look much like a path anymore. We searched for signs, or any land marks that were described on the path, and there were none to be found. Instead of continuing through the wilderness the wrong direction, we decided to turn back the same way we came and look for the path once again. We ran back through the leech infested river banks, trying to prevent too many from attaching to us, becoming a little more successful this time. However, Chris at this point felt something inside his shoe, and saw a leech the size of my thumb that had been feeding on his more the past hour! Once we found our way back to the last sign, we realized we had walked off the path for the past hour and a half. The map was poorly drawn and lad led us the wrong direction. We did not regret this though, because we saw such untouched wildlife, and have funny leech stories that will last forever. We then continued on the correct path, up the mountain, to come to a breathtaking view of the treetops and the cave, making the whole journey worth while.
 

At The Three Sisters

 The next morning our legs were tired after walking for six hours the day before, but we decided to continue and hike some more! We went to see the famous Three Sisters rock formation, where we found a large crowd of tourists. The legend goes, there were three sisters in the Katoomba Tribe that fell in love with three brothers from the Nepean Tribe, and were forbidden to marry. They ran off together which started a tribal war, and a with doctor turned the sisters into stone to protect them. He however does during the war, and was never able to reverse the spell. We spent a few minutes taking in the beautiful scenery and decided to go to head to less well known areas to get away from the crowd. We then drove a few kilometers away to and reached  a deserted area called Anvil Rock. We wondered why it was called that until we walked the path up to a large rock on the top of the mountain, with and anvil on it; simply named. We felt like the only people in the world, as we stood on the mountain ledge over thousands of trees, rivers, overlooking the other mountain tops to the sound of the Bell Birds. There was much more to see that day, so we set off once again to do the Grand Canyon Walk (not to be mistaken for THE Grand Canyon, Nevada).
    We reached another fantastic look out, down to the trees and across to other great mountains with waterfalls. We soon found that the path that we were following went all the way down the mountain, into the sub-tropical canyon. The further down we traveled, the more beautiful the scenery became. High rock walls, waterfalls, canopies of trees, and caves surrounded us. The walk was breath-taking and felt like a different world from the top of the mountain. Our walk lasted about an hour and a half, until the treacherous walk back up the mountain, reminding us how far down we came. When we finally reached the top, the four of us decided no more stairs for a while! On the walk back to the car, more wild life greeted us, as we saw a baby black snake slithering away, hoping that it didn’t have a red belly. We did not check or get too close in case it was going back to mommy!
   
 That evening was our last night together, so we decided to make a feast. Home-made lasagna and garlic bread with red wine was on the menu, and somehow the four of us demolished all of it in one sitting. We had not been eating like backpackers all week as Dave, Emma, Chris, and I were all quite good cooks. The other backpackers’ jaws fell open as the watched us cook steak with mash, home-made burgers, and lasagna for dinner over our nights together in Katoomba. We went to bed with full bellies, and tired legs.
    Valentines Day was spent with our British friends walking around Katoomba together visiting bakeries, and warming up with soup back in our cabin over good conversation. The day led to s teary goodbye (on my part), as Chris and Emma left for Sydney to head to Auckland the next morning to start their next adventure. Dave and I headed back on the train to Sydney the next morning with hope of finding work and a home soon enough. The Blue Mountains is an easy $8 train ride away from Sydney, and I hope to do it again soon.

My Valentines Day Surprise