The Blue Mountains and a New Year
Lying approximately 100km to the west of Sydney, the Blue Mountains are a popular short-break destination for 'Sydneysiders'. From Brisbane, however, the journey certainly wasn't short - it took 16 hours overnight on a Greyhound bus to get into Sydney, and then a 2 hour train journey to reach the town of Katoomba, our destination.The Blue Mountains are not, as the name suggests, a range of mountains, but rather a series of cliffs surrounding a plateau of rugged gorges. The say-what-you-see naming approach of explorers wasn't completely incorrect though, as there is a prominent blue haze produced by oil from the Eucalyptus trees. The cliffs and valleys make for some stunning views.
We did a couple of great walks around Katoomba. The first took us down the 800 steps of the 80 year old Giant Stairway (foolishly we had walked half-way down the day before in an explorative way, and then had to climb 400 steps back to the top - going down was much easier!). From there we walked through the valley and climbed back up to the cliffwalk, moving from viewpoint to viewpoint and finishing off in the neighbouring town of Leura for tea.
More rewarding was the 'Ruined Castle' walk, a rock formation across the valley from Katoomba which has the appearance of a castle from a distance. The walk was 12km return from the bottom of the valley so rather than traipsing up and down steps once again we reached the bottom of the valley via the 'Scenic Railway' at the imaginatively named 'Scenic World'. This was good fun as it is the steepest incline railway in the world and goes quite fast, although it was almost impossible to see anything scenic on the way down. To get back out of the valley we took a ride on the badly named 'Sceniscender', a large cable car. It took us about 5 hours to walk/climb/scramble to the rock formation and back and the views from the 'castle' were awesome. It also felt a bit special as only 10-15 people make the trip each day, as opposed to some of the more accessible vantage points which are at times crammed with day-trippers.
During our stay in the Blue Mountains it was New Years eve. We had always intended to stay in Sydney for this but left it too late to book a hostel - apparently most of them had sold out about 6 months before! Not to be defeated, we were able to get the train into Sydney on New Years Eve, and back out to Katoomba in the early hours of the new year.
Having not spent any time in Sydney, we weren't at all sure where to go so we tried following the crowds from Central Station. This worked out pretty well, as we ended up on a relatively quiet cove in between the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge (the cove is called Cambell's Cove, and it turns was actually named after a distant ancestor of Emily's). As we were unsure if there would be any alcohol restrictions, we had come unprepared; however it soon became obvious that any rules were not being enforced, and so we set off in search of an off-licence. After queuing for about half an hour just to get into the shop, we found most of the cans (glass wasn't allowed at the harbour) had sold out and had to settle with a six-pack of Jim Beam whisky and coke.
When we returned to Cambell's Cove at about 6.30pm we found that there were about three times as many people than there had been an hour earlier. So we found ourselves a spot, protected it for the next 5 hours, and hoped that we didn't need to go to the toilet too often. The time passed surprisingly quickly. We were kept entertained by 'family' fireworks at 9pm, a very drunk, lost Irish man, and a group of young loud Aussie guys, one of whom was throwing up by 11pm. It was an eventful few hours, and we ended up seeing in the New Year with three bald guys from Birmingham who were a part of the 'Barmy Army' (England cricket fans). The main firework display was superb, and from our position we could see the fireworks over the Opera House and had a great view of those coming off the Harbour Bridge.
Having caught the train out of Sydney at 1.18 and not made it to bed until four, the next day was largely spent recovering; fortunately the ever-threatening rain had returned and so we weren't missing out by being indoors. The YHA (youth hostels association) hostel was great, with a huge communal area and plenty of board games, and so we rediscovered the joys of scrabble. Unfortunately we both turned out to be quite competitive, and so ended up playing for nearly 6 hours straight!
The Blue Mountains were a great break in our largely coastal tour and we both felt much fitter and healthier by the time we left. Although spending New Years Eve in Sydney had been quite an effort it was definitely worth it, and gave us a taste of the city before our proper visit began.
Chris and Emily
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