24 April 2010
It’s ANZAC weekend, the second of two holiday weekends in April in Australia, and we are on our way via train to the Blue Mountains. These are not mountains like back home, craggy snow-capped peaks dotted with alpine lakes and meadows. These are mountains that you are already on top of, looking down into densely-forested canyons and valleys. They are called the Blue Mountains because the eucalyptus trees emit an oil vapor that when irradiated by the intense Australian sun, casts a bluish haze. Kinda like the Great Smoky Mountains back home, only without the moonshine and dueling banjos.
When we arrived at what we expected to be our super cute room at the Katoomba Mountain Lodge, we were immediately disappointed. Now I know we’ve complained plenty already about the cost of living here, not to mention the dumpy rentals we’ve been visiting in search of a more permanent home, so I hate to continue beating this dead horse. But our lodge room in Katoomba? It was the worst combination of both. “Budget” at $90/night and we were expected to shower in a bathroom not cleaned since 1972 and sleep with blankets thinner than Gina’s patience. And the free Wifi they advertised? They left out the part about it being free for only 30 minutes. My guess is they limited you so that you wouldn’t have enough time to surf for a new hotel.
Okay, so the room wasn’t cute but we were here to spend our time outdoors, not in. There were viewpoints to wander and bushwalks to conquer. Starting at Echo Point, with its view of the Three Sisters, we opted to tackle The Giant Stairway – 960 steps diving deep into the valley below that required calves of steel and the ability to cling tightly to the canyon wall should one be afraid of heights (or unexpectedly dropping from those heights) or be wondering if the same maintenance guy from the Katoomba Mountain Lodge was in charge of keeping that next set of stairs bolted to the rock.
Once at the bottom, we opted to bushwalk the shorter trail (shocking, I know) toward Scenic World. Not only have our feet been aching for weeks from our new car-free lifestyle, but somehow, experienced hikers that we are, we left our slickers back at the lodge. With rain clouds threatening, it seemed wise to limit our time in the bush.
The bushwalk was quite pleasant. A well-trodden trail (i.e., no real threat of snakes) through the eucalyptus trees, glimpses of the endless valley to our left, we were technically still on the side of the canyon wall. It was easy to see why people get lost in here. Not because the trail wasn’t obvious but because the bush was so dense and expansive – a few steps off the main path and it would definitely be difficult to know which way to go to get back. And given the multitudes of tourists wandering side-by-side, arm-in-arm along these tracks, completely oblivious to the line of hikers forming behind them who were then forced to step off the trail to get around, it’s surprising that more people aren’t lost each year.
Our trek ended at the base of Scenic World, where we had the option of either (a) turning around, hiking 3 km back to the Giant Stairway, and then seeing if we could climb back up those 960 stairs before nightfall, or (b) taking the easy way out of the canyon via either the steepest incline passenger railway in the world or just your average Swiss cable car ride. Clearly Australia is making us soft and perhaps even a little bit stupid – we chose option (b) in its less-engineered, much older, and definitely non-OSHA-regulated steepest railway version. Like a rollercoaster drop in reverse with no safety bar, it’s a wonder that thing is allowed to carry people anywhere, let alone 1500 ft straight up. We would have been better protected if you’d stuck us in a bucket and hauled us up the cliff-side like water from a well.
25 April 2010
The wind kicked up last night. We knew this because it was impossible to sleep through, the nuts and bolts of the Katoomba Mountain Lodge threatening to fly apart with every blast. No need for another night of that, we thought. Reservation or no reservation, we’re heading home tonight. What to do, then, with our last day in the Blue Mountains? Why bushwalk, of course.
Today’s bushwalk took us along the cliffs in a different direction, toward the bucolic village of Leura. Along the way we saw trees, rocks, trees, waterfalls, trees, Crimson Rosellas, and trees. Upon arriving 3 hours later in Leura, we saw more trees, only these were the kind that change color in Autumn. Autumn. I write that again because we are still getting used to the fact that we have gone from Autumn to Winter and back to Autumn. It’s a titch disorienting to have left the States just when the days were getting longer and the flowers starting to bloom to arrive here, where the days are getting shorter and the leaves starting to fall. Regardless, we liked little Leura, with its quaint cafes and artsy storefronts.
What else did we like about the Blue Mountains? What were our overall impressions? Well, to be perfectly frank, we thought they were just okay from an overall scenery perspective. If you like walking through trees, you will think them much better than that. But if you’re more like us, and prefer walking in open vistas, then you’ll probably think they’re just okay too. All that being said, we do recognize and appreciate them for what they are – an extensive unspoiled wilderness area that is Australia’s “cradle of conservation” and that mean many things to many other people. The world can always use more places like that.