Australia 3: Blue Mountains

On Saturday, September 28, 2019, we got up bright and early in order to go spend the day at the Blue Mountains. Tim Stokes' family was thinking of meeting us up there by 7 a.m., so we busted a move and got ready pretty early. They didn't end up making it that day, but we were glad to have gotten an early start anyway, because there was so much to see.

My old BYU friend Dan Ventura (who spent 6 months in Australia during the first half of the year) recommended that instead of the touristy things, that we go hike the National Pass by Wentworth Falls. But Tim Stokes said that the touristy stuff was popular "for good reason—It's amazing!" So since we had a van, we decided to hit them both. (Our motto, after all, is "Do it all!")

We first drove to Echo Point, and I thought the little shelter there looked like a face.

The initial view was indeed impressive. We were pretty high up, looking down over a huge expanse of eucalyptus forest with a ridge on the other side. It felt a little like it did looking over the Grand Canyon, except with trees.

View from Echo Point, Blue Mountains, Australia

To the left was a series of rock formations called The Three Sisters.

It was just a 10 minute hike down to the base of the first of The Three Sisters, so off we went.

We were all impressed with the tenacity of this tree to hang on.

As we walked down the trail, we could see the overlook where we started.

Here is a nice panorama showing the overall view with one of the "sisters" on the left.

The last bit of the hike involved some very steep steps down to the bridge at the bottom.

Here is the base (or middle) of one of the Sisters.

From down below, we could zoom in on the platforms where we had started.

On the way back to the car, we saw some cool birds on the ground, and some more lorikeets in the trees.

Our next stop was a hike along Leura Falls Creek to see the Leura Cascades.

The main Leura Cascades had a cool little pool at the bottom.

As we hiked back up the other way, we were blessed with some beautiful views.

From one viewpoint, we could see Bridal Veil Falls down below.

Sometimes Linette and I sing "Top of the World" when we're "on the. top of world, looking. down on creation..."

We found an "R" and "L" on a rock.

We saw wild cockatoos flying about, which I thought was awesome.

After our hike we ate lunch at the Red Door Cafe in the town of Leura, which had interesting stuff on the menu.

Linette kept being astounded at how vibrant the colors were. I'm not sure if it was the hole in the ozone there or what.

Next we drove to the town of Wentworth Falls and did one more hike there. As with the other hikes we went on, we started at the top and hiked down from there.

Wentworth Falls has a pool near the top that gives way to the first waterfall, and the hike takes you quite a ways down to a set of pools halfway down the waterfall.

Upper part of Wentworth Falls

The hike takes you to some paths that are carved right into the side of a huge cliff.

The pool at the top was nice.

However, also enjoying that pool was a black snake with a red belly, which unsurprisingly turned out to be a "red-bellied black snake".

It is not aggressive, but it is venomous, with neurotoxins that can mess you up. So of course Linette stood near it for a picture. (No deaths have been recorded from this snake.) My friend Dan was a bit put out that he lived there for 6 months without seeing a poisonous snake, and we got to see one during the one week we were there. But he was the one who recommended this hike, so we owe it all to him.

Some of the trails cut into the cliff were not designed for tall folks.

Stairs went down and down along the side of the cliff. We had already hiked a while that day, and what we all kept thinking was that we were going to have to go back UP these things.

At the bottom of the stairs was an area with big boulders and beautiful pools.



Melissa took some time to ponder there.

We took the little path across the stream to hike up the far side for a bit.

From the far side, we could see a rainbow in the waterfall's spray.

There were quite a few wild cockatoos flying around the area.

The bottom of the hike was actually only halfway down the complete set of waterfalls, as you can see below.

After all this, it was time to hike back up. And up. (The handrails mercifully made it not as bad as I feared).

We met some people from Sandy, Utah up there, which was fun.

Once we were back in the car, we drove all the way back to downtown Sydney, and parked in another parking garage.

The Lyms had looked up a restaurant that had really good reviews, so we walked there. When we arrived, I laughed because of all the hundreds of places to eat in Sydney, this was the same place that Tim Stokes had brought us on my first night in Sydney, "The Happy Chef".

So I got the same delicious (but scary-looking) dish again: Laksa.

In the lobby of the mall was this dog taking a picture.

So it was funny when Shauna was in the exact same pose, taking the above picture.

Every Saturday night at 8:30pm (at least this year), Sydney puts on a fireworks show in Darling Harbor, so we all gathered where we could watch.

It was a great show, and it was fun to be in a crowd of thousands of people enjoying it with us.

It was a long day, with four hours of driving, several miles of hiking, starting very early, and going until late, so we were exhausted when we got home, especially after stopping at a grocery store to get food for Sunday. But it was an awesome day with lots of great sights.