Having been in Sydney for almost 6 months now, we thought it was time to explore our local region for the weekend and so hired and car and drove to the Blue Mountains for the weekend. The Blue Mountains is a bit like our Lake District (but switch lakes for mountains!) with amazing beautiful views. The area is called Blue Mountains, due to the vast coverage of eucalyptus trees which give off a hazy slate coloured mist.
The journey to the BM passed quickly (only 2 hours) and when we arrived we were got quite a fright at the drop in temperature – OMG it was freezing – hmmm, not sure if we need the shorts we both packed! This was the coldest we had been since Mongolia and it really felt like we were back in the UK.
After a leisurely breakfast on the Saturday (more so due to the ‘laid back’ service than choice) we wrapped up and headed out for a walk along the cliffs of the BM, down the ‘giant steps’ (all 900 of them), past the ‘three sisters’ making our way to catch the Sky Train back up to the top to our destination Echo Point. The Sky Train was terrifying, it’s the steepest railway in the world (we are certainly ticking them off – longest, fastest, now steepest!) and although not very long you are pretty much vertical. I can’t really say how the views were as I had my eyes closed most of the way – but the views from the Sky Way (little cable car from one mountain side to the other) were pretty impressive, especially standing on the glass floor looking down! After our bush walk we eventually managed to find ‘Echo’s’ – a fab boutique hotel / restaurant recommended by Sam & Marissa, where we rewarded ourselves with a drink. The hotel was fabulous and so we decided to treat ourselves and headed back for a bit of fine dining that evening – we couldn’t have been at more opposite ends of the spectrum – hostel accommodation, most expensive restaurant for dinner!
On the Sunday Dan had booked us in to go White water rafting at the white water centre, which was built for the 2000 Olympics. To say I was nervous is an understatement, but after being in the raft for all of 5 minutes and it overturning after the first rapid, I soon faced my fear! Thankfully the weather was much warmer in Penrith than the BM and we had a great day – a complete thrill and something to definitely do again with a gang of us!
