the search for ruined castle. blue mountains

Friday, October 2, 2009

The Blue Mountains

I woke up, wondered why someone had turned on an orange light and then closed my eyes again, a few minutes later I opened them and noticed no lights were on, but the room was orange. Wondering what alien race had invaded I went downstairs to make some breakfast. I got everything packed in the orange hue and checked out, somewhat puzzled. Someone told me it was a dust storm and I replied ‘oh really, I thought it was a Martian attack, splendid.’ Newly armed with the information that we had just had half the countries topsoil dropped on our heads I caught a train to Katoomba.

On the train I met an Australian, or ‘Tassie’ to be precise, apparently there is some rivalry. She told me about the miraculous train seats that could face either way and I proceeded to figure out exactly how this worked, figuring out leading me nowhere I sat down, soon as I did this a cold faced, no nonsense, but quite small business woman walked into the carriage and flipped several seats over to make room for herself. Feeling quite silly and also puny I had another go. Making it look a lot harder than the small lady I got the seat over and viola, I could face forward as well. The journey passed and we moved from orange city into slightly clearer countryside, which I think was only clearer because of the time passing not the location, I’m told everywhere was orange that morning. Gradually we made our way into the hazy blue of the mountains, they are called the Blue Mountains because if you look at them from a distance they are blue! Ahh the logic! I know I mentioned that already. They are blue for a reason though, which is all because of the eucalyptus that grow there, the oil from these lovely trees creates a blue haze which can be seen from afar, such as from Sydney.

While we journeyed through the mountains, I was wondering aloud (as I do often) how far Katoomba was, as getting lost was not on my agenda, I was answered by my newfound Tasmanian friend and a German guy at the same time, this same German also

happened to be getting off at Katoomba, and staying in the YHA there so we walked across the little mountain town together shivering like crazy, somehow without the sun shining Australia is really just a codename for Antarctica, and I did start to wonder perhaps if it wasn’t dust and really the Martians after all that caused this weird day! We were determined hikers however and after being plonked in the same room we decided to enjoy the fresh air.

Katoomba is a lovely little town, more of a village really. One supermarket covers everyone’s needs, if not then tough for them! It’s on the doorstep of the mountains, literally, 600 steps to reach some walks but still. Before our walk we had some lunch in the most

bizarre café I have ever seen, called the common ground café! I think the common ground they mention would be the Blue Mountains; they dressed in pyjama style trousers, wore jumpers and waistcoats, the men had beards and ponytails and the women just had ponytails. It was lit a yellow orangey colour, had a fireplace (great idea considering the current temperature) which we were nowhere near (not so great an idea considering the current temperature) and a cosy and awesome looking little upstairs area. Certainly the most interesting place id ever seen, the food was also interesting, hint: do not eat silverside, I figured seeing as I couldn’t see anything I liked on the menu I may as well experiment. Conclusion of experiment is: corned beef should be used only for display purposes much like my tin of spam. Never eaten! God knows why its called silverside as the actual ‘roast beef’ in the sandwich was actually silver, shining even! The corned beef was just pink.

On to the mountains, they are the important part in this post I figure. We left George (also in our room) after our lunch and headed into the wild windy cold mountains, I had to go back to the hostel and put on my thermals, as it was so cold, cleverly I had reckoned on not needing my jacket for my entire trip and this is still currently in storage in Sydney. We did the route called The Three Sisters, which goes under and around three, very tall sandstone rocks, there are various tales about the name, mostly involving a man turning his daughters to stone. It was cold and windy, but we climbed on rocks and enjoyed it all the same! After our long trek down the 600 steps aptly called the giants stairway we reached the path we would follow at the base of the cliff edges. The Blue Mountains are huge sandstone plateaus with deposits of iron and large sections of clay among them, the clay being washed away quickest forming the massive cliffs we explored, and the iron is clearly visible as veins all the way along it. Quite a spectacle.

The next day we ventured out on a longer route, this time George our American buddy joined us and we searched for Ruined Castle. George is a pilot we found out later, a man who wanted to be a pilot just for the sake of it and has some major knee problems but still walked faster than me the whole way there and back. Jochen is the German, proving that they weren’t just in Sydney, tall, bald and likes food and good beer. They helped me film and we wandered through the now sunny Blue Mountains enjoying the spectacular views and peaceful surroundings. Watching some of the eucalyptus turn silver at midday and still wondering at the cold ones we made our way to the castle that I was very disappointed to discover was actually just some old rocks…

On top of the old rocks which are definitely worth the walk to get to, we had a 360 degree view of the cliffs around us and it was by far the best (also scariest due to being on the precarious rock atop ruined castle) view that I have seen so far. Forget the Sydney bridge walk, just walk to ruined castle, sure it takes a few hours longer but it’s so much better and doesn’t cost almost $200 for half an hour. The walk back along the streets of Katoomba almost made my hands drop off with cold but we got some good food and beer in us later which warmed us as well as paving the way towards a very good sleep.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL4pYwuFcCo

use this link to see my first video, or click the title of this post.