The Blue Mountains and the Stairs of Doom

So first a Cora update.  All great news.  MRI of brain and spine came back showing no damage after the cardiac arrest episode last week and same for the heart.  It is an absolute miracle.  The spine continues to show signs of pneumonia, which started this whole nightmare, (no other infection though) so she will continue to receive meds to fight that.  Docs have advised the sprint to save her life is coming to an end and now the long process of rest, recovery and rehab.  Cora will slowly be brought out of the induced coma and start to wake up.   We can’t wait to hear our girl’s voice again.  So all positive news today.  Shout out to everyone who has reached out, kept Cora in their prayers and provided immense support to our family.  Thank you will never be enough!

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So today, I went on an all day trip to the Blue Mountains,aka the Blueys as the locals call them, with Coast Warriors.  I met the bus and our guide for the day, Ben, at 7:30 a.m. with a group of other folks and we piled into the mini-bus (“Rosie”) for an hour drive through the underground tunnels out to Western Sydney and onto the Great Western Highway.  Now I was given the prime seat of first row, beside Ben, so we ended up chatting about various travels around the world (Ben is a massive traveller as well).

Just about an hour into the drive, we exited the freeway and entered the edge of the Blue Mountains National Park just shy of the Sydney suburbs.  Ben expertly maneuvered Rosie past the Nepean River, around a series of switchbacks to Tunnel View lookout.  Once at the lookout point, we took a short hike along a trail for a fantastic view over the valley covered in thick eucalyptus bush.  The views were gorgeous, despite the fact that we had some cloud cover early this morning (which was supposed to burn off).

From the lookout point, we drove back to the freeway and about ten minutes later we stopped at the little town of Glenbrook where we had a short “breaky” break.   I wandered around and found a produce stand, bought some fresh strawberries (yum) and a smoothie and then wandered around for 15 or so minutes before joining the others back on the bus.

After the break, we headed further into the mountains climbing an additional 800 meters in altitude to our next stop at Lincoln’s Rock.  Once we parked, we hiked a few hundred meters down a small hill and up and over Lincoln’s Rock.  By now the cloud cover had lifted giving way to spectacular views across the Jamison Valley with Mt Solitary in the distance.

We spent about 20 minutes here, and even hiked down the rocks to see a cave where a man used to live over 100 years ago, as well as a couple cars that somehow ended up crashing below.

Once we hiked back up the hill, we were returned to the mini-bus for the short drive over to Wentworth Falls, a three tiered waterfall fed by the Jamison Creek near the town of Wentworth Falls.  We were going to spend two hours hiking to the falls and back.  Now I will just preface this by saying, I somehow thought that this hike was going to be a nice meandering hike through the Blue Mountains, with about a 15 minute tough hike down and back to the actual falls.  Uh … think again.  This “lovely” waterfall hike turned into a two hour hell hike.

So, the first thing we learned is that the hiking trails are over 100 years old, were built by hand and even include trails where Charles Darwin hiked.  Now because the trails are over 100 years old, let’s just say that the stairs you hike are not exactly built to code.

Anyway, it started off all well and good with a hike down from the car park to Jamison Lookout with our first initial view of the falls.  The stone staircase at this point was manageable, although some of the space in between the stairs were a lot bigger than what I had been expecting so this made it a bit tough on the knees.  (And as mentioned the spacing issue was due to the age of the trails).

After Jamison Lookout, we climbed back up the stairs and began the walk along the Princes Track trail, which took us down stairs through rainforest, past gum trees and eucalyptus trees, which give the mountains their name.  (When it is hot, the eucalyptus trees sweat eucalyptus oil, which is absorbed into the air giving the air around the mountains a blue tinge.  Today was very hot and so the Blueys were out in full force.)

Anyway, as we walked, we passed under low overhanging rocks dripping with water and hiked down multiple staircases before reaching Fletcher’s Point, which gave us another opportunity to see the falls from above, as well as the lush surroundings and the amazing mountain views.  Now this part of the hike was fabulous!

As we continued on, the rock steps became wetter, more uneven and harder to maneuver.  In fact, there were a couple points, when I slipped, which is amazing considering I was wearing my heavy duty Merrill hiking boots.  And the overhangs became lower and required a little more dexterity to avoid hitting your head.

About 50 minute into the hike, we reached the top of Wentworth Falls aka the Queen’s Cascades.  This portion was absolutely gorgeous with beautiful water and valley views.

Now here is where the “fun” began.  We were given the option to stay at the top of the falls, or hike down the “Stairs of Doom”, a walk down the very steep grand staircase comprised of 498 steps and four steep staircase sections, to the bottom of the stairs.  Now never one to quite, I opted in.  (This was a very poor choice on my part!)

Anyway, with everyone in, we walked over the top of the falls, down two sets of stairs and along a short pathway to top of the stairs of doom.  And when I looked down, all I could think of was ugh.  This is going to be a “b*tch to climb up.  So I ended up hanging back and took my time hiking down with two Chinese ladies.  The stairs were steep and the pitch was exceedingly deep.  Fortunately, there were hand rails (presumably added in more recent times) to hold on to as you walked down.

Now the view continued to be magnificent and as the sound of falls grew louder, I was hopeful I was going to make it before the group turned around and started back up.

I finally reached the bottom with the two Chinese ladies about 20 minutes after I set out (they say it takes about 15 minutes so not exactly matching the timer).

Anyway, once at the bottom, I walked to the pools of water where some of our folks were swimming.  I did not plan to swim, but enjoyed the cooling spray, snapped a couple pictures and then began the walk back up ahead of the group.  I figured it was going to take me at least 20 minutes longer than everyone else and I was just about right on. (It ended up

taking me 34 minutes to hike from the bottom to the top of the stairs of doom.

Now when I say this hike up was hard, I am not exaggerating in the slightest.  In fact, at one point, a group of young Germans came up behind me and they were sucking air (so at least I felt a bit better about my slow pace).

I took it super slow going up.  It was incredibly hot so I would walk up about 40 stairs and then take a quick break.  When I got to the top of a staircase (remember their were four giant staircases), I would drink a bunch of water, wait until my breathing was back to normal and then hit the stairs again.

Now about half way up, my group caught up to me, passed me and were gone.  I figured I would catch up to them at the car park.  At this point, I was only concerned about making it back.  Anyway, I finally reached the top of the stairs of doom at 1:25 absolutely exhausted, breathing hard and soaked in sweat.

From here, I walked up more stairs (ugh) to reach the top of the falls, then walked up more stairs (I had forgotten about the steps down to the top of the falls) and once at the top, took a break, before veering right to the Wentworth Falls Lookout Track, which was a shorter track to the car park.

Now this track was much easier than the track we took down, but I was nevertheless dying to be done at this point.  In fact, I repeatedly asked multiple people who passed me on the way down, how much further to the car park.  Finally, about a 25 minutes after I set out from the top of the falls, I reached the car park.

I found my group (who gave me some applause) and collapsed on the grass.  I ended up eating a bit of lunch, but was more interested in guzzling an entire water bottle (thanks Ben for filling up my water bottle when I could barely walk).

By 2:00, we were back in Rosie and powering further up the mountains to the town of Katoomba home of the iconic Three Sisters Rock Formations.  Now the story of the Three Sisters is that three sisters allegedly fell in love with three brothers from a competing Aboriginal tribe.  A war broke out over the brothers desire to marry the three sisters.  In order to protect the three sisters, a witch doctor turned them to stone, but was killed during the war so the Three Sisters remains frozen in stone.

Anyway, when we reached Echo Point in Katoomba, we climbed out of the Rosie and I immediately thought I was going to faint.  I kind of staggered into a nearby bar and asked the gal to get me a large glass of orange juice pronto.  I guzzled the OJ and within a few minutes immediately felt better.

And since I was feeling better, I ended up walking the hundred meters or so to the lookout point and took in the magnificence of the Three Sisters.  The views really were amazing.  I ended up spending a bit of time taking in the scenery and then opted to head back to the bar, drink some more OJ and rest.  (The other option was to walk down one level to get a slightly closer look at the Three Sisters, but I opted out.)

Anyway, by 2:45 we were back on the road and heading to Sydney.  All in all, the trip was fantastic, albeit VERY, VERY taxing.  And the plus side, is that this tour (as opposed to so many others to the Blue Mountains) was not touristy and focused solely on the beauty of the Blueys.

So tomorrow I leave Sydney and head for Tasmania for a ten day trip around Australia’s most famous island.  Fingers crossed I see the Tasmanian devil!