The beauty of the state of New South Wales in Australia is
the easy access to numerous beaches, theme parks, wild life, rain forest
reserves, national parks, mountains, the iconic landmarks like Sydney Harbor
Bridge and Sydney Opera House that define Australia. You can easily reach most
of these places of natural history as they are within a radius of 45 minutes to
a little over two hour drive from the state capital Sydney.
One of the most visited tourist attractions, located a
little under two hours from Sydney are the Blue Mountains range. The Blue
Mountains is a mountainous region in New South Wales, Australia. It borders on
Sydney's metropolitan area, its foothills starting about 50 kilometres (31 mi)
west of the state capital.
On a bright and sunny Saturday morning this summer, Meenakshi
& I decided to visit the Blue Mountains and explore parts of it. As there are a lot of activities to do in and around the Blue Mountains, which
demands a stay of two to three days, we decided to do a day trip to explore
only specific parts of Blue Mountains this time and leave the rest for future
trips. It was one of those trips that was planned at the last moment on
Saturday morning at 10.00 am. In a short notice, it was sportive of Meenakshi’s
colleague Prasad and his spouse Usha to join us on the trip.
The Three Sisters with the Blue Mountains |
We were car bound on the M4 Motorway towards Katoomba at
11.45pm from Strathfield. The traffic eased past Paramatta and I went easy on
the gas pedal, keeping pace with the speed limits which were already increasing
at the rate of 10kmph ever 20 miles. Finally on 110 kmph, with an eye on the
Satellite Navitagor or GPS, we drove smoothly to the beginning of the Blue
Mountains in 40 kms from Sydney, listening to a mix of old Hindi, Tamil &
English numbers playing on the car stereo. Meenakshi’s donkeys hours selecting
favorite songs on the internet and tuning them onto her iPhone 5c were really
handy in making the drive enjoyable. After the initial 40 kms, we entered the
Blue Mountains area and drove through numerous towns and villages for the next
50kms, with varying speeds between 60 kmph and 80 kmph. We reached our destination at Echo Point –
which is the gateway to the “Three Sisters” – one of the iconic landmarks of
the Blue Mountains by 1.40 pm. The
parking lot was flooded with holiday makers, tourists and luckily got a 2 hour
parking for the car.
Armed with our backpacks, sandwiches, light snacks, fruits,
water bottles and fizzy drinks we bid adieu to Kishore Kumar songs and car air
conditioner to take the blistering afternoon sun head on and walked towards
Echo Point. After a visit to the restrooms and collecting the free booklets
from Tourist Information Centre, we decided to follow directions towards the
Three Sisters Walk and the Giant Stairway.
Giant Stairway and
Three Sisters Walk
The Giant Stairway is an exciting experience to have just
minutes after you reach Echo Point. Enter the arch to go towards the Giant
Stairway and start walking towards the well defined path where all tourists and
fellow travelers head to. Once you reach the start of the stairways, you will
feel the steep incline that the stairway so beautifully tries to tame for us
lame humans. As you decide to climb down these stairs of around 1000 steps, one
step at a time, you will be treated to some amazing views of the Blue Mountains
and the Three Sisters from the side (you can’t see all Three Sisters from this
view).
Giant Stairway |
Once you climb down the initial 100 odd steps, you reach a spot from
where you take a small walking bridge to sit at the heart of one of the “Three
Sisters”.
It is banned to climb the “Three Sisters” partly due to Aboriginal
significance and partly due to the wear and tear, erosion and over-use after
effects that accelerate the erosion process. If you walk down further along the Giant Stairway, it will
lead to the Federal Pass. Since we had started our trip late, we decided to
give this a miss this time and head back from the Giant Stairway.
We decided to walk back and explore other areas further.
Before our next expedition, we had a picnic amongst the shade and opened up
sandwiches and fizzy drinks for a much needed lunch in the midst of greenery
and the sound of birds and fly’s trying their best to irritate us.
After this, we decided to go to the place which was the most
crowded and just opposite the main tourist information centre at Echo Point
Road. Once we reached there, we knew why all tourists crowded that narrow
viewing deck, as this is the spot for the best view of “The Three Sisters” and
the surround mountain ranges of the Blue Mountains.
The Three Sisters
The Three Sisters are a rock formation in the Blue Mountains
of New South Wales, Australia. They are close to the town of Katoomba and are
one of the Blue Mountains' best known sites, towering above the Jamison Valley.
Their names are Meehni (922 m), Wimlah (918 m), and Gunnedoo (906 m). The
Sisters were formed by land erosion. The soft sandstone of the Blue Mountains
is easily eroded over time by wind, rain and rivers, causing the cliffs
surrounding the Jamison Valley to be slowly broken up.
The commonly told legend of the Three Sisters is that three
sisters (Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo') lived in the Jamison Valley as
members of the Katoomba tribe. They fell in love with three men from a
neighbouring tribe (the Nepean tribe), but marriage was forbidden by tribal
law. The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force
to capture the three sisters. A major tribal battle ensued, and the sisters
were turned to stone by an elder to protect them, but he was killed in the
fighting and no one else could turn them back. This legend is claimed to be an
Indigenous Australian Dreamtime legend.
This is one of New South Wales iconic landmarks other than
the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. There are two viewing
platforms to view the Three Sisters from the point opposite the echo point. Good
pictures of the Three Sisters can be taken from both the upper and lower
platforms.
The Three Sisters |
Katoomba Falls:
From the lower platform, there is a trail that leads to the
Katoomba Falls, which is about an hour (without picture stops). There are
numerous lookout points along this trail, which give a very good view of the
continuous mountain ranges of the Blue Mountains.
Blue hue of the Blue Mountains |
The charred remains of some of the huge
eucalyptus and other trees from the recent New South Wales bushfire gives a
glaring reminder of Mother Nature’s fury unleaded on the greenery in late 2012.
The afternoon sun was hot enough for us to finish all the
bottles of water that we had carried with us. It was instantaneously converted
to sweat. Sun tan cream and caps to protect from the sunrays were out amongst
other fellow tourists and visitors as well. Thank God that we had collected the
free information booklet from the Visitor Centre, which became a good makeshift
cap for me for the rest of the trip!
Shade from the canopy of trees |
Once you reach near the start of Katoomba falls, you can
hear the water and explore different streams, which finally lead to the
waterfalls.
Different streams around Katoomba Falls |
Katoomba Falls with the Three Sisters |
There is also a Katoomba cascade, which gets you closer to the
water without the risk of scaling down treacherous depths to reach the
waterfall. A splash of cold water from the cold water is enough to recharge you
for the afternoon!
Katoomba Cascades |
In addition to this, since we were already armed with homemade
Indian tea/ chai (with ginger and other spices), it rejuvenated our soul
further more. We had the tea in one of the best spots I have had tea in such
trips – inside a cave. Trust me, the quietness, calmness and shade of the cave
was a contrast to the hot sun and background sun around!
Hot tea in cave |
Once we had our tea, we took a few snaps of the deep valley
against the cable cars that were a part of the Scenic World trip.
We then
walked back to where we began from. The return leg of the trip was much quicker
as there were fewer picture stops. The clock was turning around 5.30 pm and the
sun decided to be less intense, which also helped us to take larger strides
without stop as we walked back. Thankfully, there were no steep gradients, due
to which even the ladies walked almost in one breath with very few pit stops.
A shy butterfly from Blue Mountains |