Sunshine at last! We took full advantage of our beautiful,
balmy weather and rode out to Katoomba, a town about two hours outside of
Sydney from which we could access the Blue Mountains national park. The Blue
Mountains are gorgeous, with sheer yellow cliffs bordering a deep,
forest-filled canyon. Waterfalls envelop you in white noise and frequent
lookouts lead you down to the ideal vantage points.
We chose to start our journey at Echo Point, where many of
the hiking paths begin, instead of at Scenic World. From our limited internet
research, it seems that Scenic World is also a starting point for hikes but
mainly draws people interested in its funicular railway, scenic skyway, and
cableway – three modes of transportation that take you on a death-defying trip
down the edge of the cliff face or over the gaping chasm between two cliff
faces. Josh wasn’t thrilled about dangling over the canyon and I was eager to
set out on foot, so Echo Point fit us well. Since we hadn’t planned a firm
route and had limited time, we opted for a sort of sampler platter of Blue
Mountain highlights, including the Honeymoon Bridge, The Three Sisters, and
some cascades.
We were unable to discover why Honeymoon Bridge is so named, but
I can only imagine the namer had a tempestuous pre-marital love life or
anticipated a rocky romance ahead. We braved a very steep descent down a
hundred or more stone steps to the bridge, which hangs between the sheer face
of the main landmass and the sheer face of a spindly rock spike about 20 meters
away (a sort of poor man’s Scenic World cableway experience - Josh was
thrilled). There isn’t anything at the other side of the bridge except a large
sign telling people not to climb the spindly rock, a notion that would never
have crossed my mind, anyway.
Another stop was The Three Sisters, or Meehni, Wimlah, and
Gunnedoo. These three rock pillars were formed by erosion of the soft sandstone
in the Jamison Valley. The sisters are, in the tradition of beautiful women,
controversial; a commonly-told “Aboriginal” legend about them has since been
debunked as a fabrication by a non-Aboriginal local to add interest to the rock
formation.
After our hike, we caught a train back to Sydney just in
time for my BridgeClimb. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is the largest steel through
arch bridge in the world and boasts beautiful views of the harbor and such
notable landmarks as the Sydney Opera House. While there have been illegal (and
possibly alcohol-fueled) expeditions to the top of the bridge since it opened
in 1932, the official (and safer) BridgeClimb experience has only been around
since 1998. This allows you to climb the southern half of the bridge to the
summit, which sits 440 feet above sea level. Based on the input of countless
wonderful online reviews, I chose to do the twilight climb and see the city in
daylight, dusk-light, and darkness. The city was beautiful from above,
particularly in the hazy twilight. Since Sydney lacks a lot of the
architectural beauty of other, more historic, skylines, it was mostly the
natural landmarks – the harbor and its bays, the mountains in the distance, the
islands – that I found beautiful. I surprised myself by feeling no nervousness.
Perhaps it was the incredibly thorough pre-climb briefing and simulation
session or the amount of safety gear strapped to my body, but the only heart
rate-raising part was the stairs. For anyone not inclined to climb the whole
bridge, you can get a beautiful view from the top of the pylons (giant stone
tower-like structures at the ends of the bridge).
[Fun fact: in 1973, Philippe Petit, the rogue highwire
walker, set up a wire between the two pylons on the south side and surprised
Sydney with the sight of a man seemingly walking on air one morning. When he
was arrested, he managed to pick the watch of the arresting officer. No word if
he gave it back. The documentary about Philippe Petit’s highwire feats,
including the Sydney bridge and the World Trade Centers, Man on Wire, is currently available on Netflix.]
Since the bridge climb (and its associated preparation)
takes 3.5 hours, I was reunited with Josh late in the evening. It had been a
long day – our last full day in Sydney – and we walked home through our
temporary hometown streets enjoying the warm summer evening.
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