Exploring The Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains – they can’t really be blue, can they? Intrigued, we took the train from central Sydney out west in search of blue mountains and all the wildlife and fresh air that we hoped would come with them. The journey is part of the adventure, and that was no more true than the train ride out to Katoomba where we would be based. Once out of the Sydney suburbs the track quickly began its climb and views emerged across densely wooded slopes. Some 50km further, 1000m uphill and a couple of hours later we pulled into the pleasant town of Katoomba.

Bush walks

Katoomba is a popular place to base yourself or to set out from into the wilderness. From here you can walk straight out into the surrounding forested hills and valleys, and that’s exactly what we did. Rafe is now a pretty firm fan of a bush walk. Dessa perhaps less so, although we have now introduced her to a Pokemon account of her own, so treks for her at the moment are billed as ‘Pokemon Walks’ (apparently one hatches eggs by logging steps, fights battles and attacks ‘gyms’ – this is all I will ever know about Pokemon). The steep hills and deep valleys surrounding Katoomba are well set up for casual walkers. Lots of easily followed tracks running that make handy loops of varying lengths from an hour or two to most of a day.

Katoomba sits high above a steep wooded valley with massive views all around of the mountains to the south. Our digs were location on the south east edge of town on the side that nudges into the neighbouring town of Leura. Mainly for this reason we spent most of our time exploring the forest tracks around Leura Falls Creek and the associated Cascades (the Prince Henry Cliff Track and surrounds), the woods that run along the top of the valley, and gazing out from the multiple lookout points along the way.

Our cottage had a great view across most of this scene, and many a cup of tea was drunk while watching the large sulphur crested cockatoos fly back and forth above the forest canopy of the forests below. Now, as we walked through those same trees we caught occasional glimpses of them from below. Rarer, it seemed to us, were our sightings of the equally large black cockatoos. The cockatoos were sometimes joined by rainbow parrakeets. All of these were quite an experience for us to see in the wild, as we might normally only see them in an aviary or a zoo. They certainly added to the sense of adventure for the kids, which was also heightened by the fact that the valleys with running water in them were home to many large tree ferns, giving it a certain ‘Jurassic World’ feel as we stepped through (Rafe often brandishing a large stick in case he had to fight off snakes, natives or worse!).

Echo Point and the Three Sisters

The prime tourist draw of Katoomba is a three-pronged rocky formation known as The Three Sisters that can be viewed, alongside broader sweeping views, from Echo Point. The large paved viewpoint provides easy access to both the vista and the gift shop. But it is all tastefully done, and there can be no denying that the whole scene is nothing short of spectacular.

Yes, yes – but are they blue?

Well, we felt they had a blue hue that was more striking at particular moments each day. You can judge for yourselves. Rafe wondered if they might be blue because they are full of lapis lazuli. He has spent a lot of time in Egyptian souks being offered trinkets. As is so often the case, scientists have dispelled such romantic notions, and tell us that the blue haze actually comes from how the sun’s rays pass through the ‘stuff’ (we can confidently say this is not the scientific term) that rises out of the leaves of the eucalyptus tree leaves and drifts into the sky.