Sydney Holiday 2015, April 5

Because Sunday morning was the end of daylight savings I set my watch alarm for 7:15 am (meaning 6:15 am in adjusted time), only the watch automatically updated itself! I managed to wake up before the alarm went off however, so we still made it out in time for the first train to Katoomba, close to the Blue Mountains. The train took about two hours and was quite boring, so I just caught up on sleep most of the way.

Katoomba.

At last we arrived at the destination and set off through the main street towards the mountains, which is essentially full of bakeries and cafes and not a lot else, and dominated by two very steep hills. Our first stop was Echo Point, which was also the first stop for all of the tour buses and tourists it would seem. From here you could see the Three Sisters rock formation - which is like a poor man's Twelve Apostles I assume, although there are accurately three of them. I was more surprised by how large the surrounding mountains were, not in height as much as area, most of it looked like it would be inaccessible however, similar to visiting The Grand Canyon.

Three Sisters at Echo Point.

After squeezing in a few quick photos through the eager crowd, it was off along the Prince Henry cliff walk. Because of all the rain yesterday most of the track was full of puddles, making for slow progress. The trick was to find any dry rocks to get across the flooded points and try not to slip over - so I was two for two.

Cliff walk.

Blue Mountains.

Almost at the end of the track there was a lookout point back towards the Three Sisters, I was temporarily distracted with my phone and stepped in a big puddle, so that was pretty annoying. At the end of the trail another path was supposed to lead to Katoomba Falls, but it had already turned into a mud pit so was basically inaccessible. A detour ended up at Katoomba Cascades and Reid's Plateau, which had another view of the mountain range.

Just Stepped In A Puddle face.

Mud pit.

The falls.

Scenic World was close by, it has some stuff like a cable car and railway but didn't seem all that interesting so we headed back to the town for lunch instead - uphill all the way on return, and I had packed a heavy backpack with all kinds of stuff that turned out to be useless on the day - like hats, pants and umbrellas...

The train back to Sydney only ran once a hour, so you have to make sure to plan your time in advance - no near misses this time. On the way back to the hotel I visited the Asian bakeries again, only the bottom of the bag broke in under a minute and my buns all fell on the ground! Lucky they were each in separate plastic bags, since I didn't get to pick them up in under five seconds...

Having purchased a daily train ticket for $24 it seemed like a good idea to make use of it, so after getting back on the train to Circular Quay we grabbed the first ferry about to depart, which was going to Mosman Bay and back. As with most ferry routes you get a good view of the harbour to the north and south, as well as numerous yachts and expensive waterfront real estate. None of the stops had anything worth disembarking for, so we just stayed on until the end and came back to Circular Quay about forty minutes later.

I'm on a boat.