Tuesday 23 March 2010

The Blue Mountains!

Hi guys,
I tried to post this yesterday but my internet was being shite. So sorry for the small delay!

As I am little less tired now, I thought I would update you on my weekend travels. Well as the name implies I went to the Blue Mountains, a national park located ~2 hours west of Sydney. I got up early on Saturday morning (6.30am! How ridic is that!) to make our (I went with Alejandro, an MSc student from Chile) way to Katoomba, the main tourist town in Katoomba (like the Windermere of the Blue Mountains). So we eventually got to Katoomba after what seemed like forever; I swear getting up early is never a good thing. We dropped our stuff off at the hostel (yes, I stayed in a hostel!) and went exploring.

My goodness, I don't think I have ever been as knackered as I was that first day. We went hiking, then hiking some more, and then even more hiking! Our walking totalled about 7 hours and this isn't flat terrain either. One of the most tiring aspects was something called the Giant Stairway which goes up the side of the Three Sisters (the main attraction). The Giant Stairway consists of 900 near vertical steps!! Seriously, it was crazy, my legs were like jelly after about 2 minutes.

I awoke on Sunday morning, bright and early obviously! Surprisingly I didn't ache as much as I expected. This didn't last long though. We were soon up and about, doing yet more hiking. Luckily the morning was slightly more relaxing than the previous day; we took a cable car across the valley, the steepest funicular railway down, and then another cable car up. This relaxing start to the day didn't last long. The main part of the walk started with a walk down the Giant Stairway - although much better than going up, it is still incredibly tiring. We then proceeded to walk for about 5 hours more, ending up at Leura, the town located next to Katoomba. Instead of boring you anymore with the details of the walk, I will just show you some pictures. As my previous post said, there were over 300 of them!

All in all, I had an amazing, yet very tiring, trip to the Blue Mountains. I would definitely recommend to anyone who visits Australia, it is simply a beautiful place!

Oh just before the pictures...I was so tired yesterday due to three things:
1. All the walking from the weekend
2. My housemate coming home at 5.30 am and playing music until 7am - during which time I couldn't sleep
3. The fire alarm going off at 9am!
GREAT!




Aboriginal art!

A Waterfall

Big Rocks

An Aboriginal playing the didgeridoo

"Rainforest"

The view - the 3 sisters are on the top left

Going down the Fenicular Railway - very scary!

The biggest spider I have ever seen in my life! It was about as big as my hand...



The Three Sisters

Up close and personal with the 3rd sister (I think...!)

The start of the Giant Stairway that takes you to the picture above





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