Sisters, Stunning Scenery & Setting Sail for Snow

This morning I had to get up super early, ready to be picked up at 7.30am. Thankfully I managed to get myself ready in time and even had time for a cuppa with Robyn. Shortly after finishing that, there was a noise outside and sure enough a ute pulled up to the house. As we went outside, the doors opened and out came Dave Clark (a Rotarian) and Larissa. Dave is one of the Rotarians we met in 2005 and is a really lovely chap – he organised much of our trip. When we’d been at the Rotary meeting last week, he’d offered to take Larissa and I to the Blue Mountains.

We all hopped back in the ute and I met the others on the trip – Dani (a German Rotary school exchange student) and her friend (Amelia – a daughter of one of the other Rotarians). We headed off in the ute on the long drive to the Blue Mountains – somewhere I had never been before.

It was a fair way and as we got closer, we could see the blue of the mountains in the distance – apparently the blue colour comes from a gas that the gum trees give off. Dave was born and bred in the Blue Mountains, so knows the area very well. We passed through several little towns, including Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson (named after the men who first crossed the Blue Mountains), all of which Dave seemed to have lived, worked or owned a business in at some point in his life! We were stunned at the amazing number of different jobs and businesses he has had over the years.

Eventually we arrived at our first spot, a town called Katoomba, famous for its views across the Blue Mountains and specifically the iconic ‘3 Sisters’ – three massive rocks sticking out of the greenery. There were many other mountains in the distance but I can not remember what they were called. The vista was beautiful, if a bit windy, but well worth the long drive. We went for a walk down the path, through some trees, down some incredibly steep and worryingly rickety old stairs (which apparently Dave used to have to run up and down when he was a school boy, during PE lessons as a cross country run!) and right up to one of the Sisters; once upon a time you could climb and abseil on it, which would have been uber cool, but sadly it is no longer possible. The rocks themselves were really clearly layered (I am no good at geography or geology so can not remember what that sort of rock is called) and had lots of foliage growing from out of the cracks between the layers.

After clambering back up the steep steps and hiking back up to the top of the viewpoint, we heard the ominous sound of bagpipes being played. We all envisaged the romantic image of a lone, kilt and sporran clad Scotsman, stood, facing out across the landscape, playing his pipes sombrely. When we arrived at the top, we were disappointed to find a white hoodie wearing bloke in jeans stood in the car park playing the pipes with a baseball cap on the floor in front of him – shattered our lovely image!

We all hopped back in the ute and Dave took us on a short drive to our next stop – a very posh hotel. The purpose of our visit was nothing more than a brief hello – Dave’s daughter works there, so we had a quick look around and then jumped back in the car.

Our next port of call was to the aptly named ‘Scenic World’, where the first thing to greet us was the sight of statues depicting three naked women and a naked man. It turned out that these represent the Aboriginal story behind the 3 Sisters – apparently they fell in love with three men from a neighbouring tribe, but could not marry due to tribal law, so a battle started and the sisters were turned into rocks by a village elder, to protect them from harm, but he was killed in the battle and so no one could turn them back.

At Scenic World, there are a number of things on offer in order to appreciate the beauty of the Blue Mountains. The first was the Scenic Railway – the world’s steepest railway, with an incline of 52 degrees at its steepest point. As we waited for the train to arrive, we chatted to the man on the gate, who was holding a wild parrot (eek!). He asked me if I would like to hold it, which of course I did, so he gave me some peanuts and transferred it onto my hand. We were taken down onto the little platform and he said that I should just take it down there with me, as it would leave whenever it wanted to. I was rather over excited about holding the parrot and got even more excited when I saw some of its friends down on the platform. The train arrived and I wasn’t sure if it was going to take the train with me or not, but right at the last second, it decided against it and flew off to sit with its buddies, allowing me to get into the train with both hands (which turned out to be for the best!).

The train itself was really a bunch of cages with benches, sitting in the front ‘carriage’ with Dani and Amelia, we soon realised that it was indeed an uber steep train track – we couldn’t see where it was going to go, as the track kind of disappeared, much like when you get to the top of a rollercoaster track before a big drop! When the train started moving, we had to use our feet to keep us upright and it was actually quite scary! As we went down, I could feel the pressure change in my ears, so I could appreciate how far we had dropped down – over 400m. The views across the mountains were very pretty, but we were soon unable to see them, as we were enclosed with trees. Once at the bottom, we looked up and could see the visitor’s centre at the top in the distance.

The train had brought us to a little boardwalk through the rainforest and bush, which explained about some of the coal mining history of the area. We also saw one of the original trains which was exactly the same as what we had just travelled in, only without the protective cage. At the other end of the boardwalk was a vertical tram (also called a tram, but not like any tram I’d been on in Melbourne!) which would take us back up to the top – it was interesting to see that it had been built by the company that make the vertical trams they use in Switzerland. The journey up offered more views across the Blue Mountains and a lone rock, appropriately called ‘Orphan Rock’.

Back at the top, it was time for lunch and Dave treated us to a meal in the revolving restaurant, which both offered delicious buffet food (especially the pavolva!) and amazing views, although we it did keep us on our toes every time we tried to come back to the table from the buffet – the revolving aspect of the restaurant confused each of us on several occasions!

Following lunch we went on our last gondola, this time rather than up and down the side of a mountain, it went between two. As we started the journey across, the floor beneath us changed and suddenly it was clear, so we could see straight through to the ground below! It looked very far off, despite the thick canopy of trees! Again the views were beautiful and I enjoyed watching white dots (cockatoos) flitting about in the distance below. The cable car itself was not completely sealed so it was incredibly cold and we could feel the chill of the wind whipping through, which meant we were quite pleased when we got to the other side and then began our return trip!

Once back, we headed for the car and Dave took us on a drive through some more small towns (telling us even more stories of having lived, worked or owned businesses in them!) and to some look out points from where we had more wonderful views of the mountains, each as impressive as the last.

Weary, we started our journey home, stopping for a quick drink at the Whip and Pin, a very quaint cafe, then back to Berry, arriving eventually at 7pm. It had been such a lovely day, we were so lucky with the weather, as by all accounts, if you go there on an overcast day you really can not see anything, not even the 3 Sisters. It was also really wonderful seeing Larissa again, and spending time with her - she is looking so well having been so terribly ill. Dave is such a kind guy and made a wonderful tour guide, although he said as much as he loved living in the Blue Mountains, he is so pleased to have come to Berry as he never did like the cold climate that the mountains always have.

There was no rest for the wicked, despite an early start and a long day, with lots of fresh air – I had to finish packing my bags for my trip with Hez to the Snow. We then had a quick dinner of chops, before packing up the car (it was literally bursting at the seams, which was very funny seeing as we were only going for two days!) and heading on our way at 8.30pm.

The drive to the Snow first took us through an area called Kangaroo Valley – the clue is in the name. We had to be super careful and super alert, as the risk of some form of wildlife running out in front of the car was high and this can be very dangerous indeed (collisions involving kangaroos and wombats will write off a car). As we drove, Hez and I discussed the wildlife and I mentioned that I had never seen a real live wombat (I think I may have said before that I do not consider animals in zoos as ‘real’ – I believe they are only real if they are in the wild), apart from a dead one at the side of a road back in 2005. Anyway, only moments later, suddenly there one was, standing stupidly in the middle of the road, not sure what to do. Hez stopped and eventually it ran off! Woohoo! My first ever real live wombat! Hez was equally as excited for me! About five minutes later a possum ran across the road, then five minutes after that, a wallaby and then a couple of minutes later, another wombat! How exciting and also a good reminder of the importance of driving carefully and slowly at night.

We carried on the drive, through some little towns, then huge expanses of nothingness – total darkness. I felt so incredibly tired but had to stay awake to talk to Hez and help her stay awake! It actually wasn’t too bad as we had lots to chat about and probably didn’t stop talking for a single second along the way! Eventually at 1am we arrived at our stop off – the ski hire place. I had found it hard to believe that a ski hire shop would be open 24 hours a day, but apparently it is! So we popped in, had a wander about looking at various bits and pieces to give our legs a stretch, then I sorted out hiring my boots, stocks and skis, before chucking it all in the already-incredibly-full car and carrying on our way.

The next stretch of the journey took us through an area heavily populated with kangaroos and we saw many dead ones at the sides of the roads – some looked absolutely massive and must have done quite a lot of damage to whatever vehicle had hit them. We also saw many live ones hopping or just standing about near the roadside, so once again we had to be really attentive and alert to avoid a crisis.

Eventually, just before 2am we arrived at Jindabyne, at the caravan we were staying in. As I stepped out of the car it was impossible not to feel a drastic drop in temperature compared to Berry – it was minus 6 degrees! We dragged our stuff out of the car and over to the caravan, feeling incredibly tired, then had a bit of a saga trying to get the door to unlock (it is amazing how tiredness can reduce two women to be completely incapable of using a key!) but at last we got in and instantly turned on the heaters to try and warm the place up a bit.

The caravan seemed really nice, although I wasn’t paying much attention as it was so late and I was so tired. After we had finished unpacking the car, we got our beds sorted (with lots of extra blankets and an extra doona each!) and finally at 2.30am climbed into our bunks before shivering ourselves to sleep!