The Blue Mountains: Day 1

We set off just before 7am for the Blue Mountains on Day 4 of my Australia holiday.  Sydney grinds to a virtual halt during the rush hour and so our departure was timed to try and get us out before the rush.  Given that we were going the opposite way to most commuters I thought this would be easy.  I think naive would be a good term to use about my view.  Anyway we were along the Great Western Highway and well into Blue Mountains at Leura by mid morning.  The weather was pretty dismal and the light wasn't good for photography but we determined to make the best of it and had a reasonable 3 hour tramp as well.

The route from Coogee to Leura

The Jamieson Valley

The valley floor with it's tree cover and miles of bush trails.

The Three Sisters from the East

and later, when the sun was coming out, from the west.

The bridge over to the first of the Three Sisters.  Access to the others was stopped when it became too dangerous.

One of the overhangs on the tramp (with well-placed benches for those needing a rest).

The Cascades

The forest stretched as far as the eye could see

The Three Sisters is the Blue Mountains’ most spectacular landmark standing at 922, 918 & 906 metres tall, respectively.   Located at Echo Point Katoomba, around 2.5 kilometres from the Great Western Highway, this iconic visitor attraction is experienced by millions of people each year. 

The Three Sisters is essentially an unusual rock formation representing three sisters who according to Aboriginal legend were turned to stone.  There are various Aboriginal legends but the one I shall tell you has it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe.  These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry.  

The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle.  As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come.

It was after this tramp that we were fortunate enough to get a tourist bus to take us back to the town where we were staying because the long walk back on the road would have been rather too much for my knee.  Anyway my bus as a mode of transport  proved unfortunate and when the driver had to do an emergency stop my ribs bore the brunt of my fall and one or two were broken or cracked.  C'est la vie.  It wasn't my head or a broken ankle or leg.

Thankful Thursday

It's been a super but very mixed week so far.  I've been having problems trying to get a post sorted with photos despite all the theory being right.  Trying to do a simple task like get the photos in the right order now that I've got an app which will downsize them is taking too much time.  I've been doing the real tourist things is Sydney which is really good when one has a Sydneyite to show you round.

Today we came to the Blue Mountains and went on a 3 hour fairly easy tramp. Given the fact that I need a new knee I was delighted to complete it with very little pain or inconvenience.  For that I was very thankful.

We managed to get a tourist bus back from where we were to the town we are staying in after the tramp.  Unfortunately my innate feeling that busses are inherently a form of transport to be avoided was justified by the fact that I didn't sit down quickly enough and was catapulted ribs first onto a seat rail with unfortunate consequences for my ribs.  At best I've cracked one or two. The good news is that there's nothing to be done about it.  The bad news is that it's very very painful.  

So tonight I'm very thankful for the fact that I didn't break an ankle or a leg today. 

As for a blog post with all the pictures I'm sure that at the very worst I'll get a post done when I get back to New Zealand.