Last weekend, we (I and a friend of mine) went to the Blue Mountain. It is located in the west-east of Sydney. To get there, we have to catch a train and go to Katoomba first, a small city near the mountain. It takes around 2 hours from Sydney Central station to Katoomba Station. But no worries, the train is better that the one we have in Jakarta :p No seat number, but it wasn't too crowded, and you just spend $17 to get there and return.
Departed around 10 am, we arrived in Katoomba around 12 pm. The scene was very different from Sydney. It was very cold - almost like Sydney in winter, quiet, not too crowded, just like a small town, but in fact, it is the largest city in the Blue Mountain area. Soon after we arrived there, we looked for the local travel to get the bus that would bring us traveling around the area. The travel style here is quite different from the one in the Asian countries. While in the Asian countries we stick on one bus with one tour leader and one bus driver from the begining of tour until the end, in Australia, you can find a hop-on hop-off bus. It means that you can enter your first bus then if it has arrived in the spot that you like, you can hop-off and enjoy your time there. If you have get bored in that spot, just wait for another bus (of course from the same travel agent) and hop-on to go to another spot. They will give you map with all the interesting spotinfos that you can stop at.
After paid around $48, we were asked to wait in the first bus stop near Carrington Hotel, the largest hotel in Katoomba, which is built on 1882. It didn't take a long time until the bus came in. The bus is very unique, it seems come from the old time, and the driver is very welcome. We showed our tickets to the driver and came in. By telling us the stories of each spots in town, the driver took us to Gordon Falls. It's basically a small waterfall, but the scene there is very beautiful. For the waterfall itself, Munduk still better :) but the roads to the fall in here are well-built. From that spot, we can see the mountains and valleys in front of us. Here some captures:
The bus comes every one hour, but there are also express buses from the same agent which come every 30 minutes. After we finish with Gordon Falls, we had to wait around 20 minutes until the next bus came. It finally arrived and we hopped off in the next beautiful spot: Leura Cascades. Leura Cascades is basically a picnic area where we can sit there and open our lunch boxes. It's a green and beautiful place with small river and a brigde on it.
We didn't take a long time there, but the time for the bus to arrive had not come yet. So, we decided to try a walk to the next big spot: Three Sisters. Actually, there are many spots between Leura Cascades and Three Sisters, but they just small spots, so we just took a few minute there and continue our steps.
Finally we arrived in Three Sisters. Three Sisters are famous rock formation in Blue Mountain. Their names are Meehni (922 m), Wimlah (918 m), and Gunnedoo (906 m). Although they were formed by erosion, the Aboriginal Tribes have their own stories about it. They are many versions, but here is one of it:
Meehni, Wimlah and Gunnedoo were originally three beautiful sisters who fell in love with three brothers from another tribe. According to Aboriginal Culture, it's a forbidden love. And then the battle happened between the two tribes. To protect his daughters, their father, Witch Doctor Tyawan turned the girls into stone and planned to turned them back after the battle was over. Unfortunately, he died during the fighting and no one can undo his incantation.
The next big stop is Scenic World. In this place we can ride some attractions such as, Scenic Skyway, Scenic Cabbleway and Scenic Railway. Of course we tried all of them :) The most exciting one was Scenic Railway because we felt like riding rollercoaster in the jungle. In the left side and right side of us are trees. Skyway and Cabbleway are also cool, we can see three sisters scenic from far.
It was a wonderful weekend but had to ended when the night was come. So we spent our last hours in Katoomba and at 7.30pm we went back to Sydney using the last train.
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