On Tuesday I spent much of the day essay writing and working on some problem questions which we were to do for the Wednesday Intellectual Property class; a pretty boring day which passed without anything noteworthy happening really. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, around 5am, I awoke to the sound of the alarm in order to get up and watch the first Champions League game of the season. United beat Leverkusen 4-2 and we played really well so I went back to bed for another hour or two of sleep feeling very happy with our performance. The first class on Wednesday morning was a bit of a struggle after my late night, but a quick coffee soon sorted me out. After classes on Wednesday, Jessica and I met up with Alex and Megan, two other girls from Glasgow who are also here in Sydney on exchange this year, but they are studying at the University of New South Wales, so this was the first time I had seen them since bumping into each other in the airport in Dubai almost 2 whole months ago! We went to Nandos - which is cheaper here, but not as good, I don't think - and then to the Three Wise Monkeys pub for a few drinks before heading home. I was totally shattered and we contemplated going out but I knew I had to finish off my essay the next day before it was due on Friday, so I took the sensible decision to go home and get to bed.
Thursday was spent writing the remainder of my essay, which took up the vast majority of my day. On Friday, I had my usual Commercial Dispute Resolution class before Alex and I went off to print hard copies of our essays and hand them into the Faculty of Law office. With the hard work out the way, it was time to look forward to the weekend - I headed home, got changed and went out to play football for a little while before returning to the flat to make dinner and pack my bag in preparation to leave on Saturday morning.
Myself, along with Jordan, the two Alex's and Jessica had agreed to meet at Central Station around 9am in order to catch the 9.18am train from Sydney to Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains. However, Alex got a bit lost on his way to meet us from his place out near Coogee and we ended up getting the later train at 9.48am - giving us some well appreciated time to go and grab a coffee and a bacon roll. At the first stop, Mel also caught the train and found our carriage to join up with us. The train ride up to the Blue Mountains was quite picturesque, once we were out past the suburban outskirts of Sydney, but it was still interesting to see some more of the city which I currently call home. The journey took around 2 hours in total and only cost us around $4 - generally, public transport seems to be fantastic value for money here. At one point over the weekend it was mentioned that it would be good to write down all the little, funny or enjoyable moments which we've experienced, since those are the bits which you always forget, so I'm going to try and include some more of those details in my blog - there were quite a few from this past weekend alone! The first of these was at a stop on the train journey, which I believe might have been Penrith, but I'm not totally sure - whilst stopped in the station we spotted a hairdressers on the street called "Hakuna Matatas" like the Lion King song, which was pretty strange. Also, one of the next buildings along the street was a reasonable looking hotel and on the outside of the front of the building there was the customary "stars" to indicate the quality of the establishment - except this place only had two and a half black stars secured to the wall - properly went to the trouble of getting half a star made! What's that all about?! Haha!
A quick snap-shot of "Hakuna Matatas" taken from the train.
Once we arrived in Katoomba, we got off the train and walked along the main street to find our hostel; it was a little place, which truly felt like someone's house called the Flying Fox. It felt very homely in some ways and as it turned out our first impressions turned out to be absolutely accurate. After dropping our bags in the room - which was able to sleep seven, including the six of us and one unfortunate bloke who had to be the stranger in beside us - sorry mate! The first thing we did was head up to the local Coles supermarket in order to buy some food for a barbecue which planned to have that night after doing some walking in the afternoon. The highlight of the trip to the supermarket was definitely finding Irn Bru and Tunnocks Caramel Wafer biscuits in one aisle and I certainly wasn't going to pass up the chance to enjoy some Irn Bru on the other side of the globe! After taking our shopping back to the hostel, we headed out walking from Katoomba towards Echo Point, which overlooks the famous Three Sister rock formation. It didn't take us too long to get there and the views were spectacular - although it was a bit touristy, it was really close to an information centre and an ice cream shop and there were a few coach-loads of people all milling around. It didn't take away from the views but it didn't really feel like you were experiencing the mountains properly.
Photo of the Three Sisters rocks from the Echo Point viewpoint.
We had been told by the woman at the hostel that there was a really good walk which we could start from near the top of Echo Point; she described around 900 stairs which went down to into the forest, wound along the cliff-side for a while and leading to the cable car or railway back up - we thought it sounded like a good plan for the afternoon and set off on the path. We quickly realised from the state of the people who we met climbing up the stairs as we descended that this was clearly going to be a fairly rapid descent and we were not disappointed. The stairs were precarious at times and could more accurately be described as ladders at times. It didn't take us too long to reach the bottom, nobody had fallen or tripped, I managed to get some great pictures and I think we were all glad that we didn't have to face the prospect of climbing back up! The cable car or the railway sounded like much better alternatives at this stage!
No photo could do it justice unfortunately, but this is a picture taken on the stairs leading down from Echo Point.
Upon reaching the bottom, we began to walk through the forest, stopping quite frequently to take some pictures or have some water - I was quite conscious of drinking plenty and not getting dehydrated since it was a brilliant, sunny afternoon. After walking along the flat forest path for maybe an hour or so, we reached the railway to take us back to the top of the cliffs once more. At one point we stopped and met a group of guys who had ventured off the path and up to a large rock which they said gave some great views, so Alex and I climbed up and took some photos. Here's a photo of me perched on the edge of the rock, overlooking the mountains in the background.
It turned out that the railway we were heading towards used to be used for transporting coal from the bottom of the valley to the top of the cliff-side. Furthermore, it now acts as the worlds steepest passenger railway service - well, we had to have a go on that! Forget the cable car! The incline is an incredible 52 degrees and it looks quite unsafe looking up from the bottom, as the tracks disappear into the darkness of a natural rock tunnel around half way up the cliff. Clearly there were a lot of people standing in the queue to get on the carriage who were more than a little unsure about their impending journey back to the top and questioning whether those stairs weren't so bad after all! I took a video on the train as we were on it and I think I may upload it to YouTube later - I'll post the link in a later blog post if I do upload it.
Again, this picture doesn't do the steepness of the tracks much justice, but it gives some idea of how crazy this train ride was!
After surviving the amazing train ride back to the top, we set off walking back towards the town. Before heading back to the hostel, we wanted to get some beers to enjoy with the barbecue so we stopped into a shop called Dan Walker's, which is a liquor store around the same size of a small to medium sized supermarket - it even has underground parking and a drive through! For such a small town, most residents must be raging alcoholics to keep this place in business, it was seriously unbelievable. Unfortunately whilst walking back to the hostel Jordan managed to drop one of the bottles which he'd purchased, which made a huge pop as it bounced down onto the pavement. We did the responsible thing and collected all the glass, however even on Sunday as we headed home the beer stain remained on the tarmac - Jordan certainly left his mark on Katoomba!
We got back to the hostel and fired up the outdoor barbecue, which we used to cook burgers, sausages and corn on the cob - which were fantastic! Some of the other residents got a wood fire burning to give us some extra heat and there was even some speakers underneath a gazebo-type structure which we were able to plug our phones into and play some music. I introduced the Stone Roses to the group and it was met with mostly positive reviews, which I was very pleased about! There was also a cat wandering around whilst we were outside which I quite liked - I'm by no means a fan of cats, and much prefer dogs - but this one was very likeable and I've no idea why. It was also hilarious watching Jordan talk to it like it was a baby, something which he was still being reminded of some time later! I really enjoyed the barbecue and we were all properly well fed, except Jessica who was a bit sick - however she swears it wasn't the food since she was chef!
After we cleaned up from dinner, we headed into the living room inside the hostel where there was a 'social time' from 6pm till 9pm - meaning no phones, laptops or any other technology. There was a brilliant wood fire blazing, some excellent music played - Arcade Fire, I seem to remember - and we sat around chatting to some other visitors from all over the world, enjoyed our beers and played cards. I learned a couple of new card games - 'Presidency' and 'Kemps' which are both ones to remember and we also had a good laugh at both Alex's having valiant attempts to play the didgeridoo. Not long before we headed to bed we cut up Mel's cake which we had brought along as a surprise since it had been her birthday during the week. A good night had by all and I was shattered.
We arose fairly early on Sunday morning in order to try and make the most of the day. Another funny little memory, when Jordan jumped down from his bunk-bed in the morning darkness, he landed straight on top of a big bag of crisps we had bought the day before, making a huge noise and splitting the bag open - perfect start to the day! Haha! Included in the price for the hostel was a complimentary breakfast, consisting of a choice of cereal, bread, tea, coffee, juice, fruit and one resident even started making pancakes for people - although I'm sure he only set out to make a few for himself before beginning to deal with several requests from other people! We departed our room, tidied up any mess which we had made and folded the bed sheets before setting off on our walk for the day.
Sunday's planned route required us to jump back on the train and head down two stops back towards Sydney, which only took around 10 minutes, to a town called Wentworth. The plan was to go and see Wentworth Falls, descend more stairs down to the bottom of the same waterfall and then follow the National Pass cliff trail around the side of the valley, before climbing a different set of stairs back up. We suspected it may take around 3 to 4 hours and had began walking by around 10am. From the very beginning, the entire day was just encapsulated by stunning views and scenery - even more impressive than the day before, which had been fantastic itself. At one stage, we decided to take a detour along a side path which ultimately led to a dead end and forced us to return from where we had originally walked from - however it proved to be a great opportunity to see another viewpoint which probably isn't enjoyed by most walkers in the area, so I took a selfie of me with the falls in the background.
We continued to walk around the trails until we found ourselves at the top of the falls looking down into an incredible valley below; the bottom seemed like miles away and I never did actually manage to see where it ended - quite awe inspiring standing at the top of such a place. After crossing over the top of the falls, we negotiated another set of steep stairs down to meet the bottom of the first half of the falls - Wentworth falls is like a double waterfall, which has two distinct parts, each huge in their own right. When we reached the middle point, or the bottom of the first waterfall, we sat for a while, took some photos and had lunch.
These next photos are the same waterfall as the one seen in the photo of me above; firstly from right on top of the falls looking over the edge and secondly from below looking back up at the cascading water.
It was amazing standing at the bottom of the falls and a really strange sensation to feel the mist from the water cooling you down in the warm sunshine. A pretty brilliant lunch spot. After leaving here, we headed around the cliff path, which took us by several more smaller waterfalls, up and down some more stairs and passed some really great photo opportunities. The path was much less worn than we had experienced the previous day and you had to be careful to watch your footing - Jordan almost fell a few times, but had some incredible luck in never actually falling; I even managed to catch him twice! Again, at the end of the path we were faced with a wall of steps which felt truly endless as our legs burned from the constant ascent up the steep cliff; reaching the top to find a bench and catch our breath was quite a relief. We soon set off again though and made our way back to the train to go back the two stops to Katoomba, in order to collect our remaining things from the hostel. After a quick change out of a sweaty t-shirt we made our way back to the train station once more and waited on our train to take us back to Sydney. It was mentioned on Sunday that it felt strange to feel like you were away from home, and it was good to be heading back to home from our weekend away - except of course Sydney isn't what we called "home" only a few months ago. It was a very strange thought when considered.
I had an absolutely fantastic weekend and I would certainly recommend a trip to the Blue Mountains for anyone who might be considering whether it's worthwhile or not. I've walked a few mountains in Scotland and seen a lot of great scenery, but I thought the Blue Mountains were truly spectacular. I've got many, many more photos but I'll just add one more good one, although unfortunately Alex took it so he's not actually in it. I'm off to bed now, since I'm totally shattered. Night.
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