The Blue Mountains

I just returned from a fun-filled weekend of hiking in the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are about 2 hours west of Sydney and about a 4 hour trip for us by train. Nine of us boarded the train in North Wollongong on Friday afternoon and headed to a little town called Blackheath. We arrived around 8:30 pm and spent a little time searching for our cabin. For our first night we had a 4-bedroom cabin with a large living area. The town of Blackheath is tiny and contains only a few restaurants, 2 pubs, and a grocery store with 3 aisles. After ordering some pizza and settling into our cabin, we spent the rest of the night relaxing at one of the local pubs.

The next day we set out on our first adventure. We caught a train to Katoomba, a small town about 15 minutes away. Many of the "touristy" parts of the Blue Mountains are located in Katoomba. We were able to see the Three Sisters which is a pretty neat rock formation. I was looking forward to seeing this all week because I wanted to take a family picture :) Unfortunately, the rocks were not quite as beautiful or chatty as my sisters.

We hiked down a massive stair case after seeing the 3 sisters and by the time we got to the bottom I was shaking. The stairs went right down the mountain and were a little frightening (but I'm glad we were going down and not up). Once we made it to the bottom we hiked a few miles to the world's steepest incline railway in the world. It was basically a backwards roller coaster. We loaded into cars and then were pulled backwards up the mountain. This was also a little terrifying because we were not strapped in. . .but the ride was definitely worth it.

We called it a day after that and grabbed dinner in a small cafe in Katoomba.

Sunday morning we decided to do some real hiking, since we took it pretty easy the day before. We settled on a 3-4 hour hike that would take us through the Grand Canyon (seriously, that's what it was called). It was probably the most beautiful hike I have ever been on. We hiked down into the canyon and were surrounded with a canopy of trees, ferns, and bushes. Most of the hike took us right alongside the tiny stream that carved out the canyon. We saw waterfalls and caves and heard a lot of birds. The second half of the hike consisted of climbing out of the canyon, which is no easy task. I tried to take a lot of pictures of the hike, but my photography skills did not do it justice :) We think we hiked at least 10 km on Sunday, so most of us are sore today!

I think I have caught the travel bug because I already want to start planning my next trip! Autumn break is coming up quickly and I will be heading to New Zealand with some friends. I hope you are all doing well. . .feel free to email me (hoconnel@gustavus.edu) or skype me!