Yesterday, I took my first trip out of Sydney to go to the Blue Mountains! I went with three of my friends being Jessica, Katie, and Katy. We went with a group called Unimates, which consisted of about 54 students from the University of Sydney. My day started off waking up at 6 a.m., because we had to meet the whole group at 7:15 a.m. It took about an hour and a half on a bus to get to the Blue Mountains, and along the way our bus driver told us a little about places along the way. He showed us where the original Tim Tam factory was (the chocolate cookies I talked about earlier), where the Sydney Olympics were, and different buildings and parks. The bus driver is from the Blue Mountains, so he knew EVERYTHING about them which was really nice. When driving up to the mountains, he said that they call the Blue Mountains the Blue Mountains not because the mountains are blue, but because there is a blue haze above the top of the peaks of the mountains. It was kind of hard to see the blue haze because it was a bit cloudy, but I got a glimpse of why they are called the Blue Mountains.
I was not quite sure what to expect when hearing about the Blue Mountains. I was not sure if they looked like the Rocky Mountains with miles and miles of mountain ranges, or was just a little tiny mountain that everyone went to. When driving up, I learned right away that it went on for miles and miles. Our day started off at Wentworth Falls Lookout, which was a place that had little hikes we were able to go on. We only had about an hour there, so my friends and I did a hike that at the end went to the edge of a mountain where you could see a huge waterfall. The sign for the path that we went on said it would take about 45 minutes roundtrip. Lets just say we were walking at a steady pace and it took us about 10 minutes to get there. I should have known that the sign was written by an Australian. I have learned while being here that Australians take things very slowly and are in no hurry with their lives. Everything is taken with ease, and there is no rush to get anywhere even if they are running late. Now I know that when I see something with a time frame, I know to subtract about 20 minutes!
Right when we got there, there were clouds that were down below in the crevices of the mountains, and about 10 minutes after arriving, the clouds covered everything. Luckily we got pictures and to see the waterfall before the clouds ruined the view! Even though the clouds suddenly appeared, it was actually very beautiful and felt like I was in heaven. We were so high up with nothing else around but clouds surrounding us. It felt so nice to breathe in fresh crisp air and be out in nature away from the city. Don't get my wrong I absolutely love the city, but it is always nice to get a change of scenery. Here are some pictures from the Wentworth Falls hike:
The view was beautiful and the mountains seemed like they stretched for miles and miles!
The next stop was lunch at Leura Village. It is a little mountain town that reminded me of somewhere like Lake Arrowhead or even a ski resort like Breckenridge in Colorado. There were little restaurants and shops all around. After eating, my friends and I decided to go exploring and found another lookout over the Blue Mountains. There was a fence bordering the side of the mountains, but when leaning over, it felt like I was the only one there.
Once leaving Leura Village, we drove about 10 minutes to Echo Point and the Three Sisters. This was my favorite part of the day by far. Echo Point is at the top of a part of the Blue Mountains, and has a view of the Three Sisters and into the rest of the Blue Mountains. I have constantly been hearing about the Three Sisters, but did not realize why they had that name. Right when I walked up, I completely understood. When looking out, all I could see was three mountain peaks that were right next to one another, looking like three sisters!
My group met at the top of Echo Point after we had a little bit of time exploring, because we were going bushwalking. Being from America, I had no clue what bushwalking meant, but assumed we were going to walk through bushes and go off a path to be in the middle of nature. Lets just say by the time the bushwalking ended, I learned that bushwalking was not walking through bushes, it was hiking! I think it hit me when we were about 30 minutes into the hike, and I realized I got the term all wrong. Next time I guess I shouldn't assume that a name like the Three Sisters is not always as literal as it seems. We started off at the top of Echo Point, and hiked through the Three Sisters, ending up at the bottom of the mountain. The first 45 minutes of the hike was nothing but extremely steep stairs with just a small fence of the edge of the cliffs. It was definitely fun, but since I did not think we were hiking, rather bushwalking, my adrenaline definitely kicked into gear. Now I know why this sign was posted before we began:
This next picture does not fully describe the steepness of the stairs, but you get the picture. Some of the stairs were natural rock, and other places was man-made stairs.
The entire hike, or bushwalking I should say, lasted about 2.5 hours. Once the stairs ended and I could concentrate on something else besides where my foot was going to step next, there was a flatter path with waterfalls, creeks, and rivers flowing through the trees and rocks. Throughout the hike, I kept looking up to see where we were compared to the Three Sisters.
At the end of the hike, we ended up close to the bottom of the Blue Mountains. Luckily, we did not have to bushwalk all the way back up the steps, because it probably would have taken over 2 hours just for the stairs. At the bottom, we went on an aerial cable car ride back up to the top where we started. The cable car was actually really cool because we got to look out and see everything from a distance.
I am so glad I went on this trip, and am excited to go back when my family comes to visit! I woke up today being extremely sore from the hike, but I had a great time. I used to hate hiking and my parents used to say we were going to take a "walk" and when we get to the end there will be a soccer field. Of course that was never true, but now I have an appreciation of the outdoors and traveling. I love hiking because you always end up someplace different from where you started and see new and different things along the way. For example, I saw these things that hung off the trees that reminded me of pine cones back in America.
By the time I got back, I was extremely tired from a full day. I am looking forward in going to Melbourne this weekend! From the Blue Mountains to America, I send my love!
Heaps of Love,
Heidi
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