Our final destination in Australia was Sydney and the Blue Mountains. We stayed at first in Penrith – a small town at the foot of the mountains – with Roe, her son Ollie and housemate Renee. On our first day, Roe and Renee took us up to a Echo Point where you could see the Three Sisters rock formations as well as a short walk around that area.
Little did we know that there was the North Face 100 going on at the same time. Although this didn’t really disrupt our walk it did mean there was a unusually large amount of people in the area. On the flip side it did mean we got to find out that every year a group of crazy athletes run 100km through the winding paths in the Katoomba area of the Blue Mountains.
On our way home we had an unnecessary delve into how the emergency services operate in this country when an old lady pulled out on us without even looking. Luckily, nobody was hurt; we were just all a bit shaken up and had slightly sore necks.
Day 2 in the mountains we spent walking the paths around Wentworth Falls. The paths from this village took us out along the top of the ridge past 2 huge waterfalls and giving us countless beautiful views out across the Blue Mountains range.
Even at the top of the ridge the mountains went on as far as the eye could see. The waterfalls here were the biggest we’d come across since we left the UK and the biggest I have ever seen. Some had drops of over 100 meters.
What was to be our final day up in the mountains we spent walking the low lying paths from Katoomba. Taking this route was drastically different from the previous day as now we were walking down on the forest floor.
Down here the vegetation was thicker and much more lush and green and was also home to more wildlife; we heard a myriad of bird and insect calls throughout our walk. Walking at the base of the ridges meant that, of course, we had to climb our way back up to get to Katoomba. To do this we had to climb the Furber Steps, apparently over 1000 steps winding their way up the side of the cliffs.
After our walk we stopped off back at Roe’s to pick our bags up before meeting what was supposed to be our Sydney host in Parramatta. He took us for dinner at a Bavarian bar/restaurant then back to his home. We quickly decided this wasn’t a suitable place for us to stay so after just one night we left. As we now needed a place to stay we asked Roe again and very kindly she said she’d take us back for the remainder of our stay in Sydney.
With that sorted we made our way into the city itself for the first time. We were told that taking the ferry into Sydney was a great way to see the skyline and to take a few shots of the famous land marks, so this is what we did.
We boarded at Parramatta and went all the way to the end of the “line” at Circular Quay. A route which took us under the Harbour Bridge and passed the Sydney Opera House.
As we were moving we had our big bags with us so we did the same trick as in Brisbane, we went and stored them in the cloak room at the NSW gallery. Here though, the staff were much more accommodating and were happy for us to leave our things there whilst we went out to get breakfast. After breakfast in the botanical garden cafe we spent a good few hours looking around the gallery before making our way into the city. Very quickly we decided that Sydney CBD is the same as any other city – busy, crowded, noisy and full of shops. Not exactly of much interest to us.
We went into Sydney for 2:30 as Louise had found a free tour, lasting about 3 hours. It was carried out by a History student who was a “Sydneysider” through and through, meaning he gave a fantastic tour full of great information. O particularly liked passing the candy making shop..!
We started at the town hall and winded our way through the centre, the banking district and finishing up at the Rocks area of the city, at the foot of the Harbour Bridge.
Although it wasn’t exactly beach sitting weather we couldn’t miss the Sydney beaches. With an early start we made in to Coogee, Bondi and the national parks of Manly.
We had a couple hours of sunshine for our walk between Coogee and Bondi; however this whole coastline has been really built up which, for us, took some of the beauty away from the area.
Along every bay we passed there were hundreds of rather expensive looking houses and appartments all packed tightly together. I think you’d have to really like your neighbours to live there!
We got a bit of respite when we crossed over to Manly on the famous ferry. Here we took a walk around the the national park at the tip of the peninsula. As most tourists seemed to stay on the Main Beach we were alone for most of the afternoon; it selt so good to get out of the noise and bustle of the city for a few hours.
That night we went out for a bit of “Bogan watching” at the local in Penrith; amusingly there was karaoke going on which was hilarious.
Frisday was our last day, we had hoped to spend it up in the mountains again but the weather let us down. We were up and out early despite the rain, hoping that the weather would clear up by the time we had finished the 1 and half hour journey up to Blackheath. Even after a long coffee break the rain didn’t show any signs of letting up, so we jumped back on the train and made our way back to Penrith. Of course, by the time we were half way back the sun had started to come out, sod’s law eh.
Jake and Louise in Asia and Australia 2 