In November 2007 I visited the Blue Mountains National Park for the first time. Then all was dry and no waterfalls to see. Dominik and Konrad visited the park a few weeks ago. As everybody liked it, we went there again. Our first destination was Katoomba. Here we first bought a nice pick-nick. Then we went to the start of the hike. Along the Prince Henry Cliff Walk we walked at the top of the cliffs to the Katoomba Falls. For me the landscape looks quite different as I remember it then thanks to all the water everything looks much greener. A bit after the waterfall we had to leave the track then it was closed. So we had to follow the road until we could descend a few stairs to the Lady Darley Lookout. From here the track was open again. We continued to Echo Point and I realized that from here you may see the rock formation Three Sisters. A lot of tourists were here and wanted to enjoy the view. After we made a few pictures we descended to the Three Sisters. A wide path and a few chairs led down. Also here a few tourists were fighting with the stairs, but so bad it could not be yet. There are another 800 steps you can go down to the bottom track. As it was already noon we took a break at about two third of the stairs. We enjoyed the pick-nick on a bench and refreshed of the exertion. With new strength we continued descending, but the path does not lead to the very bottom of the valley. In the shadow if the many eucalyptus trees we walked towards the Scenic Railways Station. There we continued to explore the boardwalk through the trees and saw some birds we have not seen yet. One behaved very strange: it whistled and then twitched like it had been hit by electricity.

Here once coal was mined and now a few figures are showing how it was done. Then once again we realized that the Australians do not dispose old stuff. They put a sign, call it historical and make it to tourist attraction. Also a possibility and here they have sufficient space to do so. To get back to the car we had three options: walk up the stairs step by step, take a steep cable car or go by gondola. We chose option 2 and took the cable car. It was only late afternoon and Konrad would have liked to have a look over the countryside. So we drove to Mt. Wilson. As we learnt this is the name of a village and not of a mountain. The village was on the top, but it was surrounded by trees so we did not get a proper view over the valley. On the way back we discovered a road sign to a lookout. After a short hike we could look far over a valley of the Blue Mountain National Park. We saw also the sunset, but a bit hidden by clouds. In the dark we drove back to Sydney. I could drive the last kilometers as Konrad usually in the evening gets tired earlier than I. To finish the day I drove over the Harbour Bridge with its eight lanes. After I was glad to get out of the center as it is demanding to watch so much traffic.

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Tags: Blue Mountains Harbour Bridge Katoomba Mt. Wilson Sydney Three Sisters cable car waterfall

I have a visitor: my brother-in-law Dominik is in Sydney. Before he had been working on a farm in New Zealand for two weeks and wants now to see a bit of Australia. He made a stop here in Sydney before going to the west coast to Petra. Today I took a day off and we went by car to the Blue Mountains. Our destination was Wentworth Falls. There you can see, well, the waterfall which named that village. It is above on a flat at 871 m, then there are cliffs dropping down and at the bottom is a wild and deserted valley. Along the cliffs there are three paths, one at the top, one in the middle and one at the bottom. We took the middle one and hiked from a small waterfall (Empress Falls) to the big one (Wentworth Falls). It is quite a dump story as water dripped sometimes down and we to pass behind or through small waterfalls. But when the drops fall like ten or twelve meters out then you suddenly realize how big the overhang is here. After we watched Wentworth Falls from different perspectives we hiked a bit more on the flat top. We were looking for a nice view for our pick-nick, but the bush was always in the way. We have nearly given up as we found a rock named Flat Rock which goes until the edge. There we enjoyed our lunch with a beautiful view over the Jamison Valley which is Eucalyptus covered and framed by red cliffs. On the way back we again passed the waterfall, then we took the path at the top of the cliffs which leads back to the starting point. As we did not want to return to Sydney on the same way we took the road with the strange name "Bells Line of Road". This road leads further through the mountains. Sometimes it goes up to 1100 m, but here the streets and villages are on the top and not in the valley. We stopped at the nice Blue Mountains Botanic Garden in Mount Tomah. But as it was already half past four we could not buy anything to drink anymore. The restaurant and the kiosk were already closed.

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Tags: Blue Mountains Jamison Valley Sydney Wentworth Falls