Blue Mountains

On Saturday March 12th, Sarah, Melissa and I headed East to the Blue Mountains. We decided it would be a wise decision to take a bus tour and we had the best tour guide ever: Keenu! We left the city bright and early. As we crossed the Sydney Harbor Bridge, Keenu blasted Survivor's Eye of the Tiger. It was perfect. A few hours and a bit of snooze later (I fall asleep every time I get on a bus like this, it never fails) we had arrived. Our first stop was a hike down to Wentworth Falls. Here we are at our highest elevation. 

And this is the view we were blocking...

We had to meander our way down to the falls. Here's what a good portion of the path looked like. It was definitely not made for those a bit uncomfortable with heights.  Below the ledge we were standing on is a straight drop.

 

We also saw some mini waterfalls along the way. My main reason for inserting this picture is to showcase our sweet guide Keenu. (He's the one in the middle with the awesome hat.) There's really no way of describing Keenu. He was an extremely knowledgeable guide and I learned loads of interesting facts, but I am pretty sure he was also crazy. His favorite expression: "...BUT...so, yeah." (Ask Sarah or me to do an impression of him when we come back home. We're both pretty good at it.) No other guide will ever live up to you, Keenu...

BUT...so, yeah. When we finally made it down to the bottom, this is a taste of what we found. This photo doesn't come close to doing justice to this waterfall which measures at 250 meters.  And after we walked all the way down, guess what, we had to walk all the way back up. Trip highlight for sure...No but seriously, it was definitely worth it.

After visiting Wentworth Falls, we enjoyed a lovely lunch break (sandies and pasta, yum!) and headed to Jamison Valley. On our way to the iconic rock formation the Three Sisters, we had the pleasure of walking down the 860 Furber Stairs. That's a lot of stairs!  As we passed through the rainforest, we came across Katoomba falls.

Imagine you are looking at the falls. Now turn your head 30 degrees to the right. This is what you'll see: the Three Sisters (top left hand corner).  I can't help but think of my two amazing sisters whenever I see this :) It was a beautiful sight.

And here's a closer look...

Melissa and me admiring the views...

860 steps was a long way down, there's no way I wanted to hike back up. Luckily, we didn't have to. We took the Scenic Railway instead.  This is the world's steepest railway and it felt like it too. We were pretty much shot backwards up a mountain at what was likely a 60 degree incline. It felt like we were going straight up. And there wasn't much keeping us from falling out either (not much of a railing on the other side). As you can see by the expression on Sarah's face, it was a bit intense. Maybe too intense...

After reaching the top, we hopped back on our bus and headed back to Sydney. The highlight of our ride home? Keenu's stellar renditions of some Queen classics. All in all a fabulous trip and our first venture outside of the big city...BUT, so yeah...more to come in a bit!