To find mountains, look down!

Katoomba.

Pretty cool name for a pretty cool town in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales near Sydney, Australia.

Except, well, where are the mountains? As I think I commented in my last post (or maybe I didn't, I don't remember and I'm not going back to check :p ), you can't see any mountains from here. Now, I'll admit that I've been a bit snobby in the past in my definition of a mountain, but there isn't even a sturdy hill to be seen! The landscape stretches into the distance in a mostly flat, slightly rolling tangle of forest. So, mountains? Yes actually. We're on top of them! Well, kind of yes. They're not pointy mountains, and they are sort of short, but depending where you stand there are some pretty massive elevation changes.

Witches Leap
(apparently "leap" is a Scottish
term for a kind of waterfall)

Katoomba sits on the edge of the Blue Mountains National Park. This whole area is built on a 1000m high limestone plateau (hence the flatness). Towards the East (and the ocean), the limestone has been eroded over thousands of years to create huge canyons and valleys - most with near-vertical (or actually vertical, or even overhanging) cliff walls, exposing the vastly varying shades of orange/white/brown in the sedimentary layers of the plateau.

This also makes for some... different... hiking. You start at the top, go down to the bottom, then have to hike back up again! I've got to admit, I think I like the start-at-the-bottom way better, since going down is usually easier. :p

Katoomba Falls

Today I followed a trail down to see Katoomba Falls, where the Katoomba river goes tumbling hundreds of feet off the side of a cliff to the valley below. The trail starts off down a steep-sided valley, passing some smaller falls, before turning into a bunch of stairs cut into the limestone cliff (this isn't one of the straight up and down cliffs, don't worry. Also, they had railings :p ).

Lizard!

At the bottom I saw a lizard! Well, some little kids saw the lizard and pointed it out to me. :p

Large flocks of the bright white cockatoos were swooping around the cliff faces and the waterfalls, settling in the big leafy branches sticking out from trees which either found purchase in cracks in the rock or grew out of scattered ledges. The cliffs also support a number of "hanging swamps."

Three Sisters

The opposite side of the cleft formed by the Katoomba river is a vertical cliff - a very, very high one. At the end, there is a point where the smaller valley hits a bigger one, where three limestone spires have evaded erosion - their name? The Three Sisters. How many mountains carry that name? A fair handful...

There was a pair of rock climbers barely visible about a quarter of the way down from the top. On my way back up the endless staircase, I passed a group of about 60 school kids coming down... who made full use of the echo potential of the valley to shout at the climbers. :p However, passing a huge, strung out group of people as high as my hip meant a mix of running up stairs and stopping for prolonged periods of time - at least half of them were exclaiming that "this is SO scary!!!!" as they went down.

A nearby fire has filled the air with smoke but caused a pretty spectacularly orange sunset.

While wandering around the shops along the main street here, I came across an old sign saying "Drink coffee. Do stupid things faster." Also they have cowbelle cheese! That makes me happy.

I noticed this in New Zealand, too (and also around UBC, for that matter, but that isn't kids) - razor scooters are making a big comeback. Also yo-yos.

OOO funny thing I heard on the radio in NZ before I left - something about the "marmageddon" ... a massive marmite shortage!

Pictures to follow, I'm having trouble with the internet.

Cheers,

Marysa

Fancy going climbing?

They did.

If Pluto had landed somewhere else, it might have still been considered a planet.