Day 1 in Katoomba - 11th May

The day started off well with the people next door giving us their "Hop on Hop off" bus pass. It still had 3 days to go on it. The bus goes pass all the major attractions every hour. It means we can park the bikes up for the week and walk and bus hop to get around. Our caravan park is right near the Katoomba Falls and very close to Scenic World.

Time to get the Hiking Sticks out and venture out. Off to Scenic World first, this is where the Skyway, Scenic Railway and the Cableway operate from. We opted to do the round trip, down on the Scenic Railway ( reportedly the steepest fare paying railway in the world, how do they think of all this hype? ) then back up on the Cableway. The railway goes down at about 50 degrees and is all over in about 50 seconds. The area at the bottom has been developed a lot more since I was here last. Lots of excellent boardwalks through the rain forest and very informative signage. From my last visit I never knew that they mined coal here in the cliffs of the Blue Mts. Some of the working with about 200km of old tunnels have been put on display. Interesting! We traversed the 2 km of boardwalks and as coincidences go, Trish and a woman both thought they recognised each other and after tossing around all the different possibilities it turned out that she was the school nurse where Trish has worked for years. Also turned out it was the same school nurse that had patched Trish up 11 years ago after she dropped her bike. ( First rains of summer, intersection, inexperience not a good combination ) While they were discussing that and I was talking to her husband, it turned out that he was Jean Halse's cousin. Small world and lots of coincidences.

The Cableway back up can fit about 80; there was the two of us and 78 Chinese. This is a bit slower and more scenic way to see it all. From here we set off on the Prince Henry Cliff Top Walk towards Echo Point and the Three Sisters. This is real Ooooo! Arrrrr! Scenery. Once it was the Japanese that would photograph anything and everything but now it is the Chinese and Koreans. Time to get away from the real busy touristy spots and back onto the Prince Henry Walk, so with our trusty hiking sticks we headed for Leura Cascade and Falls. Apparently it is a cascade if it goes down in stages of no more than 1.8m anything above that is a Fall. Another 4km of walking along the track that is carved into the cliff face which gets you away from traffic and urban noise. Around nearly every corner there is another postcard perfect scenery lookout.

The Leura Cascade is beautiful. Now there was just the climb back up to the roadway and a short wait for our bus so that we could return to camp. Trish is usually very restless when she has to wait a while in lines of for buses etc. but this time she was happy to sit as our bones were feeling the effects of all the ups and downs on the cliff face. Had to finish the day with the usual "This is the life Ratty!" and "Sure is Mole!"

We have decided to stay another night in Katoomba making it 4 in total. Apart from being a bit cool at night the weather has be wonderful.

Dave ( aka Ratty )