Blue Mountains

Day 13: 2/13

What an interesting day! Eight of us met in the UniLodge lobby to embark on our first journey beyond the constraints of the city of Sydney. It was a wet, cold, and foggy morning at the Sydney train station. The train ride took three hours to reach our destination of Katoomba, NSW—a small tourist hub of the Blue Mountains. When we arrived the fog had thickened and the temperature decreased slightly. We made our way to the YHA Hostel I had booked for us the previous night and checked in. From there we walked to the Visitor Information Centre and the site of the famous rock formations known as the Three Sisters (pictured left). On the way, we stopped a little café for a small lunch of burgers and fish & chips (the specials of the day). Then we went to the Centre and when we first attempted to view the rocks, forests, and scenery from the lookout, all we could see is a wall of white fog, which I would describe as being like looking out from the edge of the universe into nothingness. The visibility was literally zero besides the small gaps in the misty fog, which allowed what was still an amazing view of the canopy about 400 feet below. A little disheartened we entered the nearby Information Centre and researched possible activities for the day. The Blue Mountains offer a wide variety of adventures including mountain biking, gondola rides, horseback riding, rappelling (called abseiling in Australia), bushwalking, and much more. Given the weather conditions and our financial situations, we opted for a free hike. Then a miracle happened – as we left the Information Centre and rounded the pillar at the entrance, the mountains that had previously been masked in white came into full view, as the fog had dissipated! We all ran with excitement back to the lookout and busted out our cameras. It truly was a beautiful sight – we were right at the cliff’s edge with the trees 400 feet directly below us. The thought of abseiling the cliff edge was much more terrifying than I had anticipated as I gazed down and a slight case of vertigo set in for some of us. I’ve always had a small fear of heights, but even those who claimed to not have any were taken aback by the drop. Anyways, we were all in a great mood now and set off on our walk. It took about 3.5 hours to traverse the path including a giant steep 900-step staircase (I don’t envy the people who had to construct it). It took us about 3.5 hours as anticipated plus an additional 20 minutes to get back up the staircase at the end of the trail. We reached the top to find that the shuttles back to the information centre had stopped running for the day and that we would have to walk 45 more minutes to get back to it. Along the way someone in the group was able to flag down a car passing by and convinced them to let six of the eight of us pile into the car and hitch a ride back. As luck had it, Luke Vincent and I were the two to not fit it, and in fact, didn’t even try; but right after they pulled out of sight, we came to an intersection and realized that we were much closer to our hostel than the Information Centre anyways, so we just walked back and actually beat the rest of them. In fact, Luke and I were able to get all showered up before they made it back, and when we were done, we all grabbed some dinner at a small Chinese food shop in town. That night we all hung out in our room and played some cards and had no problem getting to sleep.