Thanks to the operating room being closed again, Mark and I scheduled a long Easter weekend/birthday trip to the Blue Mountains. It is amazing that less than two hours away from the hustle and bustle of downtown Sydney exists a beautiful getaway. Unknowingly, we booked our getaway on their busiest weekend of the year. There is only one road up to the Blue Mountains and we heard if you leave at the wrong time you will just sit in traffic for hours. So, we decided to leave a day early and stay an extra day.
The night we arrived we decided to go see the Three Sisters at night. The person at our hotel informed us we wouldn't be able to see anything at night because they are not lit up, but I had read otherwise and we decided to go check it out for ourselves and well, I was right.
Our first day we went hiking in the Grand Canyon of the Blue Mountains. Before we started our hike we went to checkout a lookout called Govett's Leap. Then we were off on our three hour hike which started by climbing down into the canyon through a rainforest. It was a fun but somewhat challenging hike having to cross over creeks by jumping from slippery rock to slippery walk. We saw some waterfalls and other beautiful scenery before having to climb our way back out of the canyon. What seemed like several hundered stairs later we emerged back at the top of the canyon to take in the view and catch our breath. After that we were ready for a much deserved lunch and then a short walk to see the Leura Cascades.
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| Govett's Leap |
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| Govett's Leap |
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| Start of the Grand Canyon hike. |
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| View at the end of our hike. |
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| Leura Cascades |
After a quick nap we went for dinner at a French restaurant we saw the night before that Mark wanted to go to for his birthday. We found out the owners (a husband and wife team) were actually from France. The food was delicious, but we were turned down when we asked for dessert because the wife, who was the complete waitstaff, said her husband (the only one in the kitchen) was too busy to make us dessert. We couldn't skip dessert on Mark's birthday so we headed to another restaurant that was willing to serve us. We mentioned to our waiter where we had dinner and found out the couple at the French restaurant are crazy, literally. Apparently, the husband occassionally gets too drunk to cook. They even had to close the restaurant on New Years because he drank too much. They also frequently scream at one another from across the restaurant in front of their customers and one time the wife stabbed him in the arm. We did not have any of this happen while we were there but any time we mentioned we ate there the locals informed us that the food is incredible but they refuse to eat there. Anyway, while we were enjoying our dessert someone started singing happy birthday (not to Mark) and he had an amazing voice. Our waiter told us that he was a local and is a trained opera singer. People were begging for him to sing some more so he walked around the restaurant for an encore. It was a great way to end our night.
The next morning we set out for another hike. Although a little sore I was not going to miss hiking the National Pass. It is voted the number one hike in the area and one of the best day hikes in all of Australia. We began our journey again by walking down in to the valley knowing we would eventually have to climb back up. This walk was amazing! Again we started in the rainforest, but there were so many waterfalls that we constantly were stopping to take pictures and just listen to the water. You could almost always hear water throughout the hike. The best part of this hike is supposed to be Wentworth Falls near the end of the hike, but we very much enjoyed Empress Falls at the beginning of the hike. It seemed like it went on forever. Throughout the hike we walked under and through waterfalls and then made it to Wentworth Falls, which is a three tiered waterfall 187 meters in height. After relaxing, watching crazy people jump into the very cold water, and load up on some water we made our voyage up what is known as the Giant Staircase. I'm not sure exactly how many stairs there were, but they were quite big for my little legs.
Empress Falls
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| Deep in the canyon. |
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| Us leaving our mark. |
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| First view of Wentworth Falls. |
Wentworth Falls
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| That's a long way down! |
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| Giant Staircase |
After lunch we went to a place called Scenic World to ride the Scenic Skyway for a different view of the Three Sisters. The Skyway is a whooping 270 meters above the rainforest. Unfortunately, this was not a huge hit for us as the view wasn't as spectacular as we were hoping and it was just too crowded. Afterwards Mark dropped me off at Echo Point, a lookout near the Three Sisters to take some pics right before the sun was setting. That evening we were pretty exhausted so we had dinner at our hotel and tried some unusual, but delicious foods including chocolate cauliflower and oysters in champagne.
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| View from the Skyway. |
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| Three Sisters as the sun was setting. |
Easter Sunday, we were off to the Jenolan Caves. We attended their Easter church service which was actually in one of the caves. This particular cave is used due to its' excellent acoustics. They even hold concerts here. After the service we got a bite to eat from the only cafe open. It was less than appetizing (seriously, the worst food I have ever eaten but I was starving) and then we were scheduled to go on two cave tours. Our first tour was of the River Cave, which included 1298 steps (up and down). It was first discoverd in 1903 and houses many magnificent structures.
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| Area of the Lucas cave where the church service was held. |
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| Outside the caves. Not that I have seen the movies, but apparently a scene from the Star Wars movies was filmed here. |
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| Formation in River Cave. |
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| Although this picture does not look very interesting, it was actually taken through crystal clear and absolutely still water. |
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| The Minaret. |
Pool of Reflections.
Our second tour was of the Orient cave which was discovered in 1904. This cave was much easier to traverse as it only contains 358 steps. It contained several different chambers where we would stop and admire the beauty of the unique structures.
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| In the Jungle Chamber, this is an Emu. |
After the cave tour we made our journey back to our hotel to get ready for a nice night out. On our way I saw several wild kangaroos hopping around. We always see signs warning you of kangaroos and wombats, but this is the first time I have ever seen one in the wild and alive.
The next morning we pampered ourselves at the spa before heading to Palm Beach for the evening. Although we did not get to spend much time at Palm Beach, we are glad we got to see what it was all about. It is nothing more than a tiny beach town. That evening we went to go see the lighthouse and had a nice dinner near the beach. The following morning we went to go see actual Palm Beach and had breakfast at a restaurant where they film a local night time soap opera before heading back to Sydney.
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| Playing in the sand while watching the sun set. |
We had a great time in the Blue Mountains and if you ever get to visit Sydney I would highly recommend going.
