Adventures in the Blue Mountains

The Three Sisters

Incrrrrrredible day up in the Blue Mountains last Saturday, canyoning and abseiling with the High n' Wild guide company (check out the Summer Canyoning video on their website!) The Blue Mountains, less than 3 hrs from Sydney, are a World Heritage Site for its diversity of eucalyptus species and the biodiversity around this tree's adaptability in such a climate. 
Cal organized a group of about 24 students (all girls, except for Cal and Julian) and since this was big enough for two groups, my trip was comped (so awesome). Getting out to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains is actually not bad, considering the expensive train fares within the city. A return trip to Katoomba, a 2.5 hr trip, is only $11. Which means...I'm officially going to the mountains a lot more often!

Our guides Roberta and Evan taught us the basics of abseiling (rappelling). For the first time, I felt like I actually knew what I was doing! It was no longer Olivier teaching me how to do things like rappel or anchor for the first time... I felt comfortable doing it, even if my last serious climb was back in May.

While the novices practiced abseiling on a rockface, Cal and I enjoyed making faces with sticks and taking funny pictures on Julian's camera (oops). Our first cliff was a 15m drop, I absolutely LOVED the heights and the adrenaline rush you get from standing over a cliff! Our next feat was double that height, standing 30m over a a cliff where your feet are only on the rock for about 5m before you hit a giant overhang. Without a rockface to plant your feet as you descend, you just kind of dangle in mid-air, twirl around and enjoy the view.
The view from up there is absolutely stunning-- the Blue Mountains are so named because of the abundance of eucalyptus trees, which give off a chemical that appears blue to the human eye. In the distance, the mountains (which look more like plateaus here and there) have this glowing, blue haze to them. The combination with the blue sky, green trees and the sandstone cliffs is breathtaking.
Quick stop for lunch before we hit the canyon. It was quite difficult to manage the hundreds of steps down to the canyon and Empress Falls with what felt like a food baby in my belly. The farther down we climbed, the trees and leaves went from hard and brittle to a lush rainforest that smelled of tea tree oil and fresh dirt. We spotted a lyrebird, a bird that been around for millions of years and is known for digging up dirt and causing the steep hillsides of the forest (a lyrebird can move up to 62 tons of dirt a year!)
We got on our wetsuits, which was probably the most difficult thing I did all day...not an easy task. My wettie was wayyyy too small on me, Roberta was lifting me up entirely as she was trying to pull it up over my knees. Ha! What a disaster. We filled our helmets up with water and dumped them on our heads to increase our overall body temp (also makes it easier to get in the water if your head is wet).

Empress Falls, our last 30m rappel

Our first pool we had to jump backwards off a rock, that is stand on this rock facing away from the water, jump out and try and land on our backs. So much fun! I went first. We jumped from one pool to another, it was SO much fun, although the water was so frigid that it felt like the air was getting knocked out of you. Before the 30m drop, there were two more pools that were fun for jumping and swimming. The best part was the end, where in order to get out of the canyon, you had to abseil down Empress Falls, a 30m drop into a pool below. Amazing! I was the first one in my group to get it started, since I need to get these things over with rather than be standing over a cliff in anticipation and fear. Also, I was just really cold. But I didn't want it to end! It was so much fun, with the water splashing down. At the end, you could do a big jump off the waterfall-- Roberta would let go simultaneously as you from your rope and you'll drop into the water.
Just as rewarding was watching our fellow canyoneers coming down the abseil, some of them struggled more than others! We had a good laugh..
Then for the lonnng hike back up alllll. those. stairs. This time I had the pleasure of carrying the 100m wet, heavy rope up on my back. But we were soon rewarded with a stunning view (what you'll see at the end of the video, when I'm drinking my water bottle). Cal, Julian and I went to a little Indian restaurant that was in the middle of nowhere and in an old house, weird, but the food was UNREAL. I haven't had such good Indian food since I was in India!
We booked it to the train station after finding out that we had only one train left to get back to the city.

Sunday afternoon I took the train down the Illawarra line to Woonona, to celebrate with beautiful Amanda and her friends at her bachelorette party. Here, they call it a Hens Party (and a bachelor's party is a Bucks party... don't ask me why) We were served fresh cocktails by naked butlers (well, almost naked. They wore little aprons) and played all sorts of hilarious games. My favorite was the wedding dress design, where we had to make a wedding dress with two rolls of toilet paper and some tinsel. Our model, lovely Julie the maid of honour, looked great...until Amanda pushed her in the pool!


**Pour mes amis francais: samedi j'ai fait du rappel et du canyon avec des amies dans les Montagnes Bleues, 3 hrs de Sydney. Les montagnes sont magnifiques, avec une brume bleue partout. Cette couleur est grace à les eucalypts qui donnent une couleur bleue. Le matin, on a fait des rappels de 15m et 30m pour s'améliorer à le hauteur et de maitriser un rappel. Dans l'apres-midi, on a fait un petit canyon, avec des sauts sympas, des chutes d'eau, et un grand rappel dans un cascade!!! Regardez le video pour avoir une idée du grandeur du canyon... Trop bien!!!