The Blue Mountains

Echo Point & Scenic World

Sat 11 Nov 2006 28 °C

I was up early on Saturday morning to catch the bus to the Blue Mountains, so called because of the blue haze created by the eucalyptus oil from the trees - looked green to me!. To put it in perspective, the Blue Mountains area is as big an area as the Netherlands.

Was so excited to get out of the city for the weekend. Sarah was already waiting at the stop when I got there. The bus driver, Adam was also our tour guide for the day and everyone got chatting pretty quickly, and the guy sitting in front of me turned out to be from Northwood.

After a 2 hour drive we arrived at The Jamieson Valley, and began our bush walk which took us through the rain forest, along narrow paths with sheer drops on one side, waterfalls and down the furby steps. The Furby Steps wind down a cliff face into a valley, they're so steep and the steps were so small I could only fit the heel of each foot on them. On route we passed grubs, loads of cockatoos and parakeets, lizards, bull ants and an owl (the only owl species that lives in the Blue Mountains - so very rare to spot). Adam stopped at various points along the way to teach us bits about aboriginal life in the forest. We ate leaves, smelt tee tree leaves and felt sharp shrubs and even had rolled up bits of plants up our nose at one point (that was the eucalyptus leaf, and it does really clear the synuses athough doesn't look paricularly attractive).

After lunch and watching the wild kangaroos with their Joeys we set off again to scenic world which is known locally for it's coal mining history, now turned in to a tourist spot for bush walking. We walked down in to the valley again. At the bottom is a train with a 52 degree incline back up the mountain side, the steepest train incline in the world! That was a cool ride. (the original track was used for transporting the coal trucks up and down).

On again to Echo Point to see The Three Sisters (huge rock formation). There is a aboriginal dream time story behind them about 3 sisters who's father turned them to stone in order to protect them from the devil.

We got to 1500 metres, the weather was perfect and we could see for miles over rolling hills of tree canopies. The scenery was stunning. I was so taken in by it, I came back that evening to watch the sunset over the Three Sisters with a few others.

Later that evening 6 of us went out in the small mountain town of Katoomba where we were staying overnight. We bought pizzas and took them in the local pub to eat. A fairly tame night because everyone was so shattered from the days trekking.

Wild Eastern Grey 'roo with Joey, The Blue Mountains