Tag: hiking in oz

Weekend in the Blue Mountains, Day 3 (28 August)

Our third and last day in the Blue Mountains started, as the Saturday with a nice brekkie prepared for us by Rosalie. As it was our last day in the Blue Mountains and our stay with Rosalie, after breakfast we pack our bags and “checked out.”

We didn’t have any major plans for the Sunday, but Jenny had given us the advice to visit Leura, the town next to Katoomba if we had time left.

We walked to Leura; it was a fair bit to walk especially because of the hilly countryside. Well in Leura, we visited a local crafts market and then set off in search for what seemed to be a good lookout spot.

Again, we walked for some time. When we got to the place where the map said the lookout would be, it looked to be inside a park with paid entrance, which we didn’t feel like doing.

After closer inspection of the map, Linnea realised that next to the park there was a pathway leading down past the park. This pathway led to the Elysian Rock Lookout.

The view was amazing, and when we arrived, we were completely alone. So we occupied the very well placed park bench and had some fika.

When we had taken in the view and the fika, we left on another track going on a short walk alongside the cliff before making our way back to central Leura. When we got back we sat down at Lily’s Pad Cafe for a soup lunch and then got some additional food from Woolies. Then we rushed to the train station where we had to take the train replacement bus (because of track work).

The Blue Mountains was a really nice place to spend a weekend in with amazing views and a challenging workout all in one. People recommended it to us before we went to Australia, and we’ll certainly recommend it to people in turn.

/ Gustav & Linnea

Weekend in the Blue Mountains, Day 1 & 2 (26 – 27 August)

On Friday 26 August after Linnea had her Friday class, we went on the train to the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, to the town of Katoomba, to be precise. The train ride took four hours, but we had brought food and things to listen to, so the trip wasn’t boring.

In Katoomba, we had booked a room through Airbnb. The house was located really close to the train station and the area that makes out the centre of Katoomba. At the apartment, we were greeted by Rosalie, our host, with whom we shared the apartment and also with her cat Tigy.

After we had left our bags in our room, we went out to get some dinner and to buy som food for our hike the upcoming day.

On Saturday, we got up at 10 am and made our way to the sunroom in the apartment where we were served a nice brekkie that Rosalie prepared for us consisting of toasties, coffee, and strawberries.

When we had eaten and packed the things needed for the day, we headed out towards Echo Point which is one of the main lookout points in Katoomba famous for the view of the Three Sisters, three rock formations as seen in the picture below.

At Echo Point, we got to see the majestic view that is the Blue Mountains. Looking out over the valley, it was hard to grasp that the green cover far below was trees, big trees.

After we had taken in the view, we started walking along the Prince Henry Cliff Walk. There were some really great lookout points along the walk where we stopped and at one well-placed bench we stopped to eat our lunch.

We continued after lunch to the Furber Steps, walking down the valley through the cold rain forest and along the bottom of the canyon. While walking down had proved quite easy, walking up would prove to be harder.

When we got to the bottom of the canyon, we decided to take the route towards the Great Stairway instead of taking the cable car up. Looking at nature, so different from back home, while at the same time convincing ourselves that it was too cold for snakes to be awake kept us busy.

The Great Stairway was really engaging. Most parts were really steep and narrow, but there was railing in good condition mostly. My, Gustav’s, strategy was to climb as much using the arms as the legs when getting up the stairs. I would say that it was a winning strategy and a good workout, although I might have looked a bit like a monkey.

When we finally got to the top of the Great Stairway, we discovered that it ended at the Three Sisters, which was cool and felt like a good way to end the hike.

The passage of time is hard to capture in the form of text; we walked a lot. At the end of the day, we had walked 13 km. Looking at a map over Katoomba and the Blue Mountains distances does not look far at first glance, but that’s before you know there is a hundred meter drop that separate point a from point b.

The Blue Mountains was a really cool place to visit. Stay tuned for our next post about our third and final day in the Blue Mountains.

/ Gustav & Linnea