Douglas Climbs a Mountain!

My favorite photo of Douglas on the hike

Douglas gets all the credit....

Really, I climbed the mountain. Douglas just hung out in the backpack. 

And it wasn't technically climbing. We hiked. But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

Two weeks ago, Douglas, myself, and about 15 other people took a train from Central Station in Sydney to Katoomba Station, roughly a 2 hour train ride (approximately 50 miles from my apartment). The group consist of friends I had made from my new apartment building and some of their friends from around New South Wales. 

Katoomba is a small town in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The population size is around 8000 people and is largely a tourist town because of the....

Blue Mountains

In the distance, you can see the Three Sisters. Not pictured: A lot of Blue.

The main tourist attractions include the mountains (specifically the mountain formation The Three Sisters), Scenic World, and wonderful views. We arrived to Katoomba around 10 AM with no solid plan, ideas of what direction to go, and what sites we wanted to see. So we decided to see ALL of them. 

First site of mountains

 We hiked away from town and followed the signs that said "Scenic World" and "Three Sisters". We went to the Three Sisters first.

The Three Sisters: Meehni, Wimlah, and Gunnedoo.

"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 the neighbouring 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." [Source: Wikipedia]

Douglas admiring from afar 

 While Douglas and I were taking pictures of the Three Sisters, the cutest little old Asian women (I think she was Chinese based on the language she was speaking, but I've been wrong before) asked to take a selfie with me. I thought it was adorable, but only wish I had gotten a selfie with her as well - she was just too dang cute!

He wanted a touristy photo to show how unimpressed he was with the mountains.

After viewing the three sisters, everyone decided they wanted to hike down the mountain, into the valley, and then back up to Scenic World. The only problem was no one knew we had decided this. Nor would they until we actually arrived on the other side of the valley (on top of a different mountain) at Scenic World.

Tourist photo of me on the hike

Douglas Shoulder Surfing

Base of Katoomba Falls

 This is around where the group realizes they don't know where Scenic World is, and start randomly hiking trails. However, most people were going at different paces and the groups kind of split up into three smaller groups of 4 or 5 people each. My group was Lydia, Katy, Heiko, Lukas, and Florian. Sadly, for them, I am the least fit of the group and tend to slow everyone down, but they were total troopers! However, it took us quite a long time to hike back up the other side of the mountain to Scenic World. But we did it!

Not Pictured: The trail we just hiked on that cliffside.

Waterfall in the rainforest

Gravity, novel stuff.

This was a drippy waterfall. 

The other side of the Katoomba Falls. Basically we hiked all over that area

This was at the top of the mountain right as we got to Scenic World

 Scenic World has three attractions, a Scenic Skyway cable car ride (see through floors, go across the valley all that),  a Scenic Railway (a train ride down into the valley, steepest train in the world at a 52° grade, and a coal mine site in the valley. Our group decided to take the Scenic Skyway back to the other side of the valley so we could easily walk back to Katoomba (and not have to hike back down the mountain and back up the other side).

You can see the Three Sisters in the distance! We hiked so far!

"Its.... a rock!" - Spongebob

That is one big cool temperate rain forest (I learned that reading a plaque about the Blue Mountains on the hike)

 Finally, we made it back towards town, but not before meeting Rosie. The sweetest dog who loved being pet by hikers.

Rosie Pets

I loved the Blue Mountains! I would definitely like to go back, a little better prepared, and hike some more. The views were stunning, it was much cooler than in the city, and there's still so much we didn't get to explore. 

Shout out to my mini-group that stuck with my slow-ass self when hiking. You da real MVPs.