Day 2: January 2, Sydney

Today’s adventure was a trip to the Blue Mountains.  East of Sydney about 100km, they get their name from a blue haze that appears on the horizon.  Not smog or pollution, which would be our assumption in LA or NY, but a result of the oils let off from the millions of eucalyptus trees which make up so much of the forest in the distance.

I was collected from the hotel at 7:15 by Gynes, a native Aussie in his (I would guess) early 50’s who has retired and spends most of this time surfing and playing golf after retiring from the hospitality industry.  He was definitely well informed about flora, fauna, history, geography and first aid, but he also was quite evidently ADD — which is always entertaining in an adult.  We picked up the others on the tour and headed up to the mountains to pick up a few more.  There were 12 of us in total:  a Swiss mom and her three teenage kids, all adopted from Guatamala, a middle aged couple from Bali who, it became quite clear early on were not suited to the difficulty of this hike, two young people from Taiwan who were staying at the same hostel as Katie from the UK, who has been traveling the globe since August, and a pair of friends of undetermined relationship — she from Belguim, he from Sydney.

We finally set out just before 10AM, and it was a bit more rigorous than I had anticipated, (and clearly the Balinese couple had assumed as well).  We were hiking the Valley of the Waters, which meant several gorgeous waterfalls, but a lot of down… There were stairs cut into the rock or rocks placed as stairs, or simply rocks to navigate as we descended to see several waterfalls from the bottom of the valley.  I was glad for my poles, as I no longer scamper among the rocks; every step is a considered one, especially at the beginning of a long holiday like this one.  We were in a forested canopy for most of the hike, and the weather cooperated so it wasn’t desperately hot, which might have made this walk even more difficult.  (A note on how the Aussie classify things — this was not a “walk” — this was a hike — like an REI level 3.5 hike!).  Our final destination was beyond the distance that most of the many people we encountered along the way we’re going — it’s school vacation and a holiday weekend so there were many people on the trail — we went all the way down to a place called Wentworth Falls, and then climbed back up to the mid level where there was yet another waterfall.  (After seeing the impact of the drought on Bridal Veil Falls in Yosemite, it was nice to see real waterfalls!)

After lunch (yes, this was only 3 hours in), we started the walk back out (up).  There were a group of canyoneerers on one waterfall, with wetsuits and helmets and ropes and other crazy things that only the young might still do!  Our entire hike was 2 hours longer than anticipated/planned because of the sweet couple from Bali who were not prepared for the degree of difficulty on this “walk”.  We stopped often and walked slowly, and the couple from Taiwan had to leave us to get a train to a plane!  And I had to cancel drinks with an old friend/colleague from Hasbro because we simply did not get back to Sydney until too late. But it was awesome, and gorgeous and inspiring. And we even had a chance for quick trip to see the “Three Sisters” on our way out.  And once again, the people I meet are interesting and well traveled and I learn something EVERY DAY!  Which is what makes a great life, right?