After a good sleep I was ready to start my adventures. On Sunday I got out of the city and took a day trip to the Blue Mountains, given that the weather forecast said cloudy but thunderstorms the next few days. Another bonus – on Sundays Sydney’s transit fares cap out at $2.80 ($1.90 US), so with a 2 hour train ride each way this seemed wise. Despite my solid planning, the weather wasn’t exactly what I’d call “nice.” As we rolled into the mountains it started getting drizzly and foggy. By the time I got off the train in the town of Katoomba around 9:45 visibility was terrible. But I wasn’t about to turn around and waste the day. I was dressed appropriately so onward I went.
I went to a visitor center near the train station to get some hiking recommendations. I was told I wanted to do a “bushwalk” and was referred to Wolfgang in the back, who has done every walk in the national park and now volunteers on Sundays. Wolfgang, who looks exactly how you think he would, told me he now runs an Airbnb and he once lived in Chicago. He gave me a recommendation, a good map, and a sheet with extremely detailed directions, which came in handy.
I had to walk about a mile through Katoomba to get to the trailhead, and so my first stop was to pick up a sandwich for lunch (like in Europe, to-go orders are called “take away” here). I went to the Yellow Deli, which my coworker Lena knew about from a family member – she keeps their yellow menu tacked to her wall in the office. It was adorable, and the food was good! At Wolfgang’s recommendation I also walked through a narrow lane with some street art, which was cool but the visibility was making it tough to see properly.
I kept walking, and as I got out of the busy part of town the visibility seemed to drop even more, if that’s possible. I could barely see 5 feet in front of me and it was very trippy. It was the type of weather they invented car headlights for – and boy did I need those to help me cross the street. I was in good spirits though, knowing it was all part of the experience.
I somehow managed to find the trailhead thanks to some other people near a parking lot. I started down some steps to a great waterfall, which was still pretty hard to see. But as I kept walking down – including many rock and steel steps – visibility got much better and the trees protected me from any remaining rain. I was now basically in a wet jungle, and it was beautiful. Even better was the intoxicating smell of eucalyptus everywhere. I wanted to bottle it up and take it home (I was honestly disappointed this wasn’t in every gift shop in Katoomba or Sydney). Good thing that scent is actually everywhere in the U.S. The hike included more waterfalls, cave hangings, and lots of loud bird sounds. Visibility at viewpoints was still bad, but later in the afternoon things cleared a little and I could see a little why they’re called the Blue Mountains, despite not looking like traditional mountains to me. True to Sydney form, when I sat to eat my lunch a black bird with yellow eyes accosted me, basically just coming close and staring at me and my food. Later I saw what looked like a red parakeet, and back at the train station some actual big white parakeets with yellow head feathers.
The bushwalk was not crowded and I was often happily alone for long stretches, but I saw people often enough to not feel too isolated. At one point I arrived at the Scenic World rail station, where there were lots of tourists and kids looking at the views and walking around a coal mining historical exhibition. It felt very out of place from the solitude and I didn’t spend too much time here. It was cool to watch the train – it’s the steepest funicular rail n the world at 52 degrees. If it weren’t $20 one way I might have taken it up and down to experience it, but didn’t feel worth it.
Finally I made it to the home stretch, the Great Staircase – about 900 rock and steel steps straight back up to the top. Lots of breaks was key. Toward the top the tourists showed up again, trying to get pictures of the famous Three Sisters rocks from the Echo Point lookout, but visibility was bad again and it was pretty comical to watch all the photo-taking. I did exchange photos with someone from the Netherlands. At the end I got some coffee and took the bus back up through Katoomba, wandered around town a bit and got back on the train around 4:30. I got some cheap pizza near the hostel and called it a night.
The next day it was time to explore another one of Sydney’s natural attractions, its world-class beaches. I started my day with a city bus ride about a half hour to reach the suburban beach communities. As I was starting my day early I got to experience rush hour, including lots of high school students and a very aggressive bus driver woman who yelled at the kids for forgetting their bus passes.
My main activity was a 4-mile cliff-side walk from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach, and it was all just stunning. The water color was perfect. The beaches were chill and uncrowded in the weekday morning, though as I got closer to Bondi the walk got more popular with tourists and locals out running and walking dogs. There were lots of rocky cliffs to explore, and there was one area with some stone steps into the water protected by rocks from crashing waves. I got to watch surfers at some of the beaches. It was very sunny which made it feel hotter than the 70-ish degrees it was. The walk included lots of hills and steps and my calves were aching from the last two days of walking. But finally I made it to Bondi, one of the most famous beaches in the world, and much deserved. I was prepared for a beach day and went swimming in the perfectly clear water with a long surf and gentle waves. The back of the beach had great street art. I got some food in the town (falafel) and ate in a park overlooking the water, though I was accosted by seagulls the long-beaked vulture birds and had to move. The weather then changed abruptly to being very windy and cloudy, so it was time to head back downtown via bus. There, I wandered a little and found some good souvenir shops, including some aboriginal art which I really like, and I went on the free walking tour of The Rocks, which I wrote about in my last post.
The next day I nearly joined a free yoga class offered by the hostel, but ultimately due to the weather decided to get an early start hearing out to Featherdale Wildlife Park, about an hour and a half with transit outside of the city. This was such a major highlight; truly magical. Featherdale is a mix of a wildlife sanctuary and zoo, with lots of opportunities to interact with the animals. I just beat the buses of Asian tourists and the lines, so I got to zoom right to the koala experience. It was just a minute, but I got to pet a koala named Rubern and take some photos. He was so fluffy. And so slow. He just munched on his eucalyptus leaves. Koalas have a low-energy diet so they sleep about 20 hours a day. Their numbers are decreasing, and many died in recent bush fires when they fell out of the trees from the hot bark and if they survived the fall couldn’t run away. It’s so sad. But I saw lots of them here and I loved watching their sluggishness.
The other highlight was playing with the baby kangaroos, who were so friendly and hop around freely in parts of the park (with a refuge area if they want to get away from the humans). You could feed them and pet them. I also got to see some bigger kangaroos jumping, which was really cool. Other animal highlights included the cassowary (a deadly big turkey-like bird with a blue head), emu (big bird with lots of pretty feathers), the Tasmanian devil (quick little possum-like thing), Kookaburra (cute singing bird), pelicans (huge beaks), echidna (spiny porcupine thing), dingo (looks like a dog), bilby (super endangered nocturnal big rodent thing), and lots of birds (including the wild ones I’d seen in the Blue Mountains). It was awesome.
I walked to a nearby bus stop which Google said would be faster, and as I waited on the quiet suburban street it started to thunderstorm. The bus came and saved me and I made it back to the hostel to nap, complete with chatty German tourists.
That night, I took myself for a night out, with dinner at The Rocks Café followed by a show at the Sydney Opera House. The Opera House scene was super fancy. There was a big public bar right outside it and everyone was really dressed up. I had a black dress with sneakers and felt out of place. But then when I went to my show in the smaller studio space I fit in better. The show was The Choir of Man, a jukebox musical featuring 9 highly-talented English performers singing about life in their local pub. The pre-show included inviting the audience up onto the stage for free beer. It was a great show, highly recommended when it comes to the US next year. After the show I finally got a nice view of Sydney at night at Circular Quay.
Finally it was my last day in Sydney on Wednesday. I packed so much in already, but I figured I had about 4-5 hours to kill before my flight, so I took the ferry to Manly. Yes, the name of the town and beach is Manly. It was a great long beach walk where I got to watch surfers, see exercisers in the park (including baby bootcamp for new moms), and read on the beach for a bit. It was a perfectly cool day with a hot sun.
I made it to the airport with plenty of time for lunch and my next flight. On to Melbourne!
travels.of.tara 