I spent a very exhausting yet thoroughly relaxing four days hiking in the Blue Mountains north of Sydney, Australia.  This mountain range is utterly beautiful and takes its name from the blue haze that hovers above the mountains everywhere you look.  Interestingly enough, the blue haze is actually formed by oil released from eucalyptus plants – there is so much eucalyptus releasing oil that it tints the entire mountain range blue!

I encountered a few backpackers claiming that I should just day-trip it up to the mountain town of Katoomba (it’s just a two hour train ride north of Sydney); I figured I would just spend one night there and leave the next morning – I ended up staying for four days to hike the Giant Staircase, Wentworth Falls, and several other popular hikes in the area.

My theory: why rush!  I love hiking (who am I kidding, it’s more like a love-hate relationship really) and figured I could use the time to escape the city, relax, and get some work done.  I had a less than desirable hostelling experience in Sydney and was so thankful to have found the privately owned Flying Fox hostel in Katoomba – I simply loved the place.  It was completely charming: hot tea when you walk in the door and mulled wine next to a warm fire in the evenings.

And as for the hiking… well, my very first day in town, Ross, the owner of the hostel, gave me a laminated  map of a hike he claimed was moderate and just three hours long on the outside…I think he just said that because the truth might have kept me firmly glued to the couch in front of the fire!  I started out the hike with an ominous start: totally lost and wandering around the trails wondering where the right trailhead could be (who knew that would be the theme of my trip up into the mountains!).  Luckily, an equally lost Swiss guy was looking for the same hiking trail and we were able to locate the trailhead and begin our three hour hike.

The hike was pretty amazing; after making it to the edge of town you rapidly descend down into the rainforests on the floor of the mountain range.  The hundreds of steps leading down the mountain are carved right into the rock and the path winds around dozens of waterfalls and some pretty vast landscapes.  It’s pretty wild how fast the landscape changes – the sounds of cars whooshing overhead quickly transforms into the non-silence of a dense rainforest as you descend.  We were rapidly surrounded by the sounds of water droplets falling from branches, rushing streams somewhere in the distance, birds rustling and chirping, and the sound of our own feet on the wet path.

We walked for hours and I really can’t even begin to describe it all – it was just some really amazing vistas.  After a while though we realized that hours had in fact passed and yet we were still wandering around the forest…umm…whoops?  With a bit of head scratching and the timely assistance of another hiker, we encountered what is affectionately called the Giant Stairway.

After four and a half hours of descending into the rainforest, the Giant Stairway is more than 900 steps straight up.  The sign claimed 45 minutes to get to the top if you take stops – it took us 70 minutes and a good deal of huffing and puffing, but we made it to the top…and the view was truly spectacular!

This is a picture of the Three Sisters:

The Giant Staircase edges around the Sisters and you can’t truly see all three rock formations until you reach the top.  We were wiped out by the end but man, you really can’t complain when you are able to end the day with a view like that!  So, although the three hour hike came in closer to the six hour mark (and we were both ravenous and exhausted), we agreed that perhaps getting lost was actually the best way to explore the rainforest :)