My first stop was about 60 miles outside of Sydney, at the shore of the Nepean River. The bank provides a natural haven for local flowers and greenery and is a quiet location for people to relax. There are barbecue facilities, play grounds, a wide pathway for runners, and an open area for outdoor theater productions on warm summer nights. The river is also used by rowing clubs and for casual swimming and fishing. The atmosphere was a distinct change from the hustle and bustle of the city. And it reminded me a bit of the Columbia River, just on a much smaller scale.
My next stop was at one of the highest points in the Blue Mountains, the "Flat Rock" at Evans Lookout. There were stunning views of the sandstone cliffs and towering Blue Gum Eucalyptus trees of the Grose River Valley and Govetts Gorge.
My next stop was at the Blue Mountains National Park. The park covers over 250,000 hectares of land and lies on the eastern side of the Great Dividing Range. There are short walks to lookout cliffs and waterfalls, overnight and longer walks to more remote areas of the park, and places to canoe, rock climb, and mountain bike. I took a 10-minute "bushwalk" down a staircase to view Wentworth Falls, a three-tiered, 187 meter, seasonal waterfall fed by the Kedumba Creek.
For lunch, I stopped in the picturesque village of Leura, known as "The Garden Village." The name Leura comes from the Aboriginal word for lava and the town was named as such because of the many volcanic stones found in the area. The historic downtown streetscape has been largely preserved and has antique shops, one-of-a-kind boutiques, excellent cafes and coffee shops, and a wide median with flowering cherry trees where locals and visitors relax on sunny afternoons.
After lunch, I hopped back on the bus and went to catch a ride on the Scenic Skyway cable car. Built in 1958, it runs across the gorge, 200 meters above the Jamison Valley floor. And the best part? The floor is made of a special glass that turns the floor from opaque to transparent. Totally awesome if you're not afraid of heights. Which I'm not.
After getting off the cable car, I hopped on the Scenic Railway. It's said to be the steepest cable-driven railway in the world, with an incline of 52 degrees over a distance of 415 meters. It was originally constructed in the 1880s for a coal and oil shale mining operation in the Jamison Valley. It made hauling shale from the valley floor up to the escarpment above possible. It was an awesome ride. Steep. But awesome.
The railway took me to deep into the heart of Jamison Valley. From there, I followed a raised timber walkway nearly two miles, past the old coal mine relics and through an ancient rain forest. It was a very beautiful, tranquil walk. And rainy. Obviously.
The walkway ended at the base of the Scenic Cableway, the steepest aerial cable car in the Southern Hemisphere. It brought me up out of the rain forest and back to the top of the Blue Mountains. From the car, I had a magnificent view of the Three Sisters rock formation; their names are Meehni, Wimlah, and Gunnedoo. One of the most known sites in the Blue Mountain, these rocks hold many legends. One commonly held story is that the sisters lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe. They fell in love with three men from a neighboring tribe but their marriages were forbidden by tribal law. 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. (Sounds a bit like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, don't you think?) Battle ensued and the sisters were turned to stone by an elder to protect them, but he was killed in the fighting and no one else could turn them back.
After a full afternoon in the Blue Mountains, I headed back to the Sydney. It was close to rush hour so I decided to catch a ferry from the Sydney Olympic Park wharf to Darling Harbour and bypass the commuter traffic completely. And from the bow of the ferry, I enjoyed the evening breeze and setting sun. A perfect ending to a perfect day.
More to come . . .
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