blue mountains & leura

We brought forward our planned road trip to the Blue Mountains by a day as the weather forecast promised sunny weather on New Year's Eve. We reckoned the time will be better spent exploring the Blue Mountains given such good weather than to waste it camping at some corner in the city for 12 hours to catch the fireworks no matter how spectacular they may be.

Yes I think we made the right decision. Check out how clear and blue the sky was. The blue haze, unique to the Blue Mountains, is of a different hue deeper than anywhere in the world and was clearly visible on the day. It is caused primarily by eucalyptus trees emitting oil vapour into the atmosphere which along with fine dust particles and droplets of water vapour, scatter the blue light (blue light is short wave-length) more than any other colour in the spectrum. (Extracted from the Blue Mountains Explorer Bus guide book courtesy of Becky.)





Can you tell that we had colour coordinated our outfits for the day?



Sunshine23 risked her life by getting close to the edge for this shot. Right after our trip, a man was reported dead after falling 100m down the cliffs at the Blue Mountains. Tsk tsk *wags finger disapprovingly at Sunshine23*.



The Three Sisters is a famous rock formation in the Blue Mountains. The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and 'Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe. These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry. The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle. As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come. (Extracted from the the Blue Mountains website.)

The scientific explanation for the formation of the Three Sisters according to Wiki goes like this: The Sisters were formed by erosion. The soft sandstone of the Blue Mountains is easily eroded over time by wind, rain and rivers, and the cliffs surrounding the Jamison Valley are being slowly broken up. Formations like the Three Sisters are created when water seeps into small cracks in the rock, gradually enlarging them over time to form large indentations. Eventually, the Sisters will be eroded away completely.

We tried to take a self shot with the Three Sisters at Echo Point but only managed to capture two of them.



We did the Giant Stairway walk and almost died of leg and butt cramps and exhaustion from the steep steps on the return trip. It was only after the trip when we were looking through the photos that we realised it was stated clearly at the entrance to the Giant Stairway that it's 'very steep - for strong walkers only'. That's what you get for not reading signages and guide books properly beforehand.



The is the beginning of the Giant Stairway. Going downwards was manageable.



We still could afford the energy to make funny faces for funny shots on our way down.







No photos were taken on the entire journey back up the Giant Stairway. All efforts were concentrated on just getting back to the car before the parking ticket expired.

This pic was taken at another location, either at Gordon Falls or Sublime Point, I can't really remember. This walk definitely ranks between low and medium on the difficulty level as you see me skipping quite effortlessly across the bridge. During Sunshine23's short two-week stay in Sydney, I have developed a characteristic 'Dragonfly tiptoes on water' (translate to Chinese martial arts terms) skipping style which you will see repeated in several photos on different days.



When we got enough of walking and skipping, we went for a short break in Leura (also known as "The Garden Village"), a quaint little township.



The moment we saw this sign on the gate that said "Flower Pot Scones - served all day", we dashed into Wayzgoose Cafe without hesitation. Having previously missed out on the lavender scones we drove 3 hours for, this must be god's way of consoling us.



This is me enjoying a cappuccino and scone - they are called Flower Pot Scones because they come served in mini flower pots! Cute. They tasted soooooooo good I really want to go back for more more more!



See how Sunshine23 is savouring her scone?



There was also a market just round the corner and we got some real bargains.



Showcasing my bargains from the market: a bucket of about 20 apricots for $3 and another bucket of about 15 nectarines for $3.



And two books at $1 each - Why I Live at the P.O. by Eudora Welty and Australian Short Stories No. 8 by various Australian writers. (This reminds me, I've been stuck at the same page of Neil Gaiman's American Gods for ages... note to self - have got to start my reading again soon.)



OMG. We couldn't believe how blue the sky was. We love this beautiful building but we're not sure if it's a Post Office or a restaurant or both? It didn't look open so we didn't venture an investigation to find out.



Here's Sunshine23 posing in front of the Leura Post Office Restaurant and the Christmas Cottage. She so wanted to get those cute yo-yos but eventually decided not to as they were rather expensive.



There are some really interesting shops in Leura.



This is of a mesmerised me watching the soap bubbles floating in the air outside a toy shop.



And finally, the last photo is a very well taken photo of me looking up at the blue sky thanks to Sunshine23. I enjoyed our day trip to the Blue Mountains very very much but I will definitely train myself up physically beforehand if I plan to do all the walks and trails there the next time.



For more photos, click here.