Blue Mountains

This past Sunday Tom, Evan, Evan's friend Shima, and I drove up to the Blue Mountains for the day. The trip up was pretty simple until we had to find Evan's friend Steve's house just outside of Katoomba. The Navman lead us up all kinds of incredibly steep hills only to try and direct us through thick forest and off cliffs. For some reason it didn't seem to recognize dead ends in it's directions even though they appeared on the screen. Hmmm.. this is possibly how computers start their take over. It nearly worked.

Steve's house was on one of those crazy steep hills and it looked out across a small valley. Unfortunately for the view the valley was filled with a massive hardware store. It was still very beautiful. He also just finished building a chicken coup in the front yard no chickens yet though. Out back Steve showed us were he had planted fruit trees and how he had to fence off most of it because the neighbors have a lamb that wanders in. There was also a natural spring that ran under the house which he plans to hook up as the main water supply. We all got to sample the spring water and it's the cleanest tasting I've ever had. Mmm.

After the visit the boys dropped us off at Echo Point and went off to work on some filming.

I probably wouldn't have taken a picture with or of this guy if Evan hadn't of been so insistent. But he was a riot the whole time we were sitting beside him. He clearly has bit of a routine worked out for the tourists.

This is the view from echo point. The rock formation on the left is call the Three Sisters.
This is a version of the legend of the three sisters I found at http://www.aussie-info.com/places/nsw/bluemts/legend.php

"Long ago in the Blue Mountains there lived three little Aboriginal sisters. They were Meenhi, Wimlah and Gunnedoo, whose Witch Doctor father was called Tyawan.
Only one creature was feared by all – the Bunyip who lived in a deep hole. When Tyawan had to pass the hole, he would leave his daughters safely on the cliff behind a rocky wall. One day, waving goodbye to his daughters, he descended the cliff steps. On top of the cliff a big centipede suddenly appeared and frightened Meehni, who threw a stone at it. The stone rolled over the cliff and crashed into the valley.
Birds, animals and fairies stopped till as the rocks behind the three sisters split open, leaving them on a thin ledge.
The angry Bunyip emerged to see the terrified sisters. In the valley, Tyawan saw the Bunyip close to his daughters, so he pointed his magic bone at the girls and turned them to stone. The Bunyip then chased Tyawan, who found himself trapped, so he changed himself into a Lyre Bird. Everyone was safe, but Tyawan had dropped his magic bone. After the Bunyip had gone, Tyawan searched and searched for his bone – and he is still searching.
The Three Sisters stand silently watching him from their ledge, hoping he will find the bone to turn them back to Aboriginal girls.
As you look at the Three Sisters, you can hear Tyawan – the Lyre Bird – calling his daughters as his search for the lost bone continues."

Shima and I decided to go on the Skyway. This is a glass room 200m above a small section of the valley that travels across it on a wires. It has a section of the floor that is glass. The glass starts out foggy after couple seconds goes clear... it's called the Electro-Sceni glass floor.

This is the trip back over the valley.

These guys are one of the first things you see when you get to the other side.

Once on the other side we got our tickets for the Railway and Walkway.

This is where everyone boards the railway. We could see that it goes down but I don't think either Shima or I expected it to be nearly as steep as it was. The seats of the cars lean back so it's very strange when getting in. But when going down you are sitting normally.

At the bottom of the rail there are a couple of different walkways to take. Shima and I didn't want to do the 10 minute boardwalk so we went down a path that turned out to be a 2 hour hike around the valley. The path was about 2 1/2 ft wide and the left side ended in a very steep cliff. We realized this wasn't exactly the route we wanted about 45 minutes in. But we did start to get suspicious earlier on when everyone coming back in the other direction we dressed in hardcore hiking gear. I was in flats, Shima in heels and both of us had our purses. We probably looked ridiculous.
Despite our lack of planning we throughly enjoyed the walk, we only walked for 45min then turned around. The forest was beautiful and once we were far enough away from the board walk below us, we could hear all the birds. It was pretty spectacular and I intend to go back dressed properly and with water.

Before the trail splits there are some mining displays and this spring water where if we had water bottles we could have filled them.

An air shaft into the mine.

Our path in the beginning wasn't so bad.

Until the logs.
What you don't see in this picture is how if you slipped down the log you would fall 20ft into the forest.

And the rocks

And the rocks that over took the path completely with the help of a tree.


Views from the path

We took the rail back up to the main building and had some chocolate cake and ice cream on a deck that over looks the mountains.

This was a small part of our view.

After walking back to Echo Point we met up with boys and drove home.

Last night was Thanksgiving so Tom and I cooked a stuffed turkey leg with a side of mashed sweet potato and maple syrup. It was delicious. :)

School wise I'm in the middle of finishing two presentations, an essay and all my glass work. Fingers crossed I live to write about it. ;)