The Blue Mountains

The 13th of December was a very busy day for the family & me. Thankfully, I wasn’t feeling sick so I was ready to seize the day (Carpe Diem). The day began in the early hours of the morning, with everyone slowly crawling out of their beds, getting dressed, and eating a like breakfast. Then we walked several blocks to Central Station to catch a train to the town of Katoomba, located next to the Blue Mountains. My parents had been there before but the visit was spoiled by fog. Return tickets cost around $16AUD each. There was a slight hiccup at the train station when it was announced that we had to switch trains because of a technical fault. Along with a wave of passengers, we exited the train and quickly walked over to another platform and got on the replacement train just in time.

The Blue Mountains is a mountainous region located 50 kilometres to the west of Sydney, consisting of sandstone plateaus and gorges up to 760 metres deep. Before the arrival of the Europeans, the area had been inhabited by the Gundungurra people for millennia. Europeans began exploring & mapping the area in 1799. Katoomba (est. 1879) is the area’s main town, with a population of around 7,600 and sitting 1,017 metres above sea level. The economy is heavily based on tourism, showcasing the spectacular mountain views and extensive bush & nature walks in the surrounding area to visitors from around the world.

The train slowly pulled out of Central and we settled in for a quiet two hour ride. Unfortunately, the quiet atmosphere was disrupted by a group of loud talking Asian tourists. All. The. Way. There. I guess there was something very important to discuss. Anyway, despite that, the scenery around the train gradually changed from urban to suburban to rural to green wilderness. The wilderness was vast, majestic, and appeared undamaged by mankind.

We were greeted by warm and sunny weather as we stepped off the train in Katoomba in the middle of the morning. We slapped on sunscreen and took a bathroom break before exiting the near deserted train station. My brother was lucky enough to get two small bags of chips for the price of one from a vending machine. In the town centre one can find cafes, restaurants, bookstores, and the Carrington Hotel (est. 1880), the town’s main hotel. The main street that runs through the city centre is called . . . Katoomba Street. We stopped into a café for a light snack and a used bookstore that also had Internet access. After checking my email, I scanned through the vast collection of titles, eventually purchasing Worst Journeys: The Picador Book of Travel, edited by Keath Fraser, and originally published in 1994. The book is a collection of travel stories (the bad kind) written by many experienced trekkers, surprisingly, many of which are Canadian.

My father, brother, & I walked all the way to Echo Point, leaving my mother to explore the town. The ascending & descending roads made it a challenge for my dad but we succeeded in reaching the place to photograph the breath-taking scenery. Echo Point was crawling with tourists and a face painted Aboriginal busker playing a didgeridoo. The tourist site is basically a large concrete balcony built on top of a steep cliff and I do mean steep. When you look over the metal railing on the lowest balcony it’s a straight drop to the green trees below. I thought to myself that this would be a perfect place to establish a bungee jump platform but I guess that would prevent people from photographing the majestic landscape around them. Just to the right of Echo Point is the famous Three Sisters rock formation. The formations were created from erosion over time and are called Meehni (922m), Wimlah (918m), and Gunnedoo (906m).

Once we had photographed everything from every possible angle, we walked back to the town centre under the hot sun. It’s a good thing we drank some fluids before leaving otherwise we may have passed out from the heat. We met up with my mother and had a deli-like lunch at the Mountain Ridges Restaurant. By then it was the afternoon and time for us to head back to Sydney. While waiting for the hourly train at the train station, I passed the time reading my newly purchased book and wondered ‘How would I rate this recent half-day excursion?’ Despite the minor annoyances at Central Train Station & on the train, our Blue Mountain trip turned out quite well. It was nothing compared to the stories in Worst Journeys.

The two hour train ride back to Sydney was much more relaxing and the scenery around the train slowly morphed into an urban metropolis. We disembarked at Central Station and walked back to our hotel, reminiscing about what we just saw. If we had more time, we would have done a scenic trail walk and ride the Katoomba Scenic Railway.