Walking to the ruined Castle.

Yet another trip to the Blue Mountains last Sunday. This time Allen and I had plans to walk from Katoomba to the Ruined Castle.

You can easily see the Ruined Castle from Echo Point where Greg and I were last week. It doesn't look that far away from Echo Point but long distances can be deceptive.

In the guide book the Ruined Castle walk from the Golden Steps is about six hours return and the walk to the Golden Steps from Echo Point is about three hours. We figured that we could do it in around seven hours if we had a reasonable pace and didn't get lost at all. The guides normally assume a slower pace.

We got to Katoomba by eleven, had a quick brunch and then headed off into the Mountains. Deirdre came along as well but not for the walk. She was all prepared for a day in Katoomba, browsing the shops and catching up on things in the art deco classic Carrington Hotel. Think of the hotel in the movie The Shinning.

At 12 we caught a tour bus to Scenic World, which is at the top of the railway from the base of the Blue Mountains. From here we walked to the top of the Golden Stairs where we could descend into the Blue Mountains.

I'm sad to say that the Golden Stairs didn't have any gold, but they were quite steep at some points and it helped make our decision to come back by a different route.

After a brisk walk we finally made it to the Ruined Castle. Initially we couldn't see too much of a view on the ridge because many of the trees were in the way. Then on one of the rocky outcrops we could see a couple that had climbed up there, so we figured we must be able to climb up there as well.

The climb up was a little tricky and I'm certainly glad that Allen and I didn't slip and fall at any point. It would be a long walk back with broken bones. The view from the top was really worth it. It was quite breathtaking to get to the top of a metre square ledge and look around. The views were as if we were in the middle of the Blue Mountains and we had a 360 degree panoramic view around us.

The first picture here is of me on top of the rocky outcrop that I climbed up first. The next two are of some of the views that we had from up there.

Strangely enough we had a phone signal on the top of the outcrop. So we phoned Deirdre to tell her that we were ok and that mountain rescue probably wouldn't be needed for us today. Allen had some binoculars and with these we could make out the Carrington Hotel as well as people at Echo Point. I wonder if any of them could see us as well.

In the second picture you can just about make out Echo Point and the group of houses on the left is Katoomba.

On the way back from the walk we didn't climb up the Golden Steps, instead we walked past them to follow the base of the Mountains around to the base of Scenic World and then we could climb up the same steps that Greg and I climbed last weekend.

However this route round the base of the mountains wasn't ideal. Along the path there was a landslide at some point in the past and the path was wiped out! We had to follow chalk arrows on the fallen rocks and some occasional black poles where the path used to be. Here is Allen on the edge of where an obvious mud slide had occurred recently wiping out the path as well.

At one point we did get a little lost and wondered off the path. However looking down the hill we identified one black pole and then gingerly took a route down to the pole and back onto the path. The sun was really beating down at us at this point, fortunately we both had been well prepared and bought plenty of water, sun screen and some snacks. It wasn't only the sun and landslides that we had to look out for though, the hot rocks were ideal places for venomous snakes as well.

We eventually made it past the landslides and were happily back into the cooler canopy of the trees.

We even managed to see a wallaby in the forest. Someone just walked past us only to see the wallaby run past them in the forest. We all quickly stopped and could see the frozen wallaby though the bush. Here's a small picture of it.

An hour or so later and we were finally back in Katoomba. Quite exhaused after a seven hour walk and in need of a decent pint.

We arranged to meet up with Deirdre in the Carrington for a well deserved beer.

Fortunately for me they served Guinness on tap, unfortunately it was very chilled but then that's Australians and their beer for you. Here's my Carrington Guinness in a Carrington labelled pint glass.

We had an average Thai meal in Katoomba before trying to catch the 9.25 train back to Sydney. You would think that with trains at 5.25, 6.25, 7.25 and 8.25 that there would logically be one at 9.25 as well. Unfortunately not, the next train after 8.25 was at 10.55! So seeing as there wasn't a 9.25 train we had to wait a further hour and a half for the last train home.

The good news was that we had plenty of time to get back to the Carrington then for another beer, the bad news being that we wouldn't get back to Sydney till one am and on a school night too.

Greg's Visit Down Under.

My friend Greg has been visiting me for the past week. He was going to a friends wedding on Manly beach anyhow and it was just coincidental that I was going to be here in Sydney as well.

I couldn't take any more time off work so other than weekday evenings I only had one weekend to show him around.

Seeing as the weather was a bit overcast, we decided to go to see the Maritime museum on Saturday.

There is a retired submarine moored next to the museum and we got the chance to take a look around it. It was quite fascinating to be able to wonder around a real submarine.

For all you geeks out there (me included) it's an Oberon class submarine called HMAS Onslow. A diesel/electric submarine, which was in service from 1969 to 1999. Here you can see Greg with his head in the escape tube in the forward torpedo room. As you can imagine submarines aren't really designed for people over six foot tall.

This is a picture of some of the crew quarters. I really feel sorry for the bloke who had the top bunks here. There is barely enough room to turn over in the bunks.

Even for me the passages were very narrow and I could barely walk with my shoulders square on to them. There were several retired volunteers on hand to answer questions about the submarine and explain parts of it. I had plenty of questions and it was a pleasure for me to be abroad the submarine.

The following day we planned a long day trip to the Blue Mountains to see the main sights there. We caught a train out there, which is roughly a two hour train trip from the city centre. We got there around one and had a bite to eat in Katoomba and then took a good five hour walk around Echo point, to the Three Sisters and then down into the valley into Laura forest and back around the base of the Three Sisters. Then up the other side at Orphan rock and back to Katoomba.

Here you can see the steep steps down the side of the Three Sisters rock formation. I could imagine the walk up the steps being quite a good work out! Fortunately we were walking down them, if you lost your footing on the metal steps then it would have been quite a fall down.

The weather was ideal for a long walk as it was a little overcast and a little misty in the air. If it was sunny then we would have really struggled in the heat and humidity.

This middle photo is of me in the middle of the Laura forest, obviously exploring paths never trodden by any human being. Well actually there was a well-worn path throughout most of the walk. The walk around the Laura forest was not as popular though and as a result much well worn and all the better for it. We only saw one bloke going the other way in the forest, while for the rest of the walk we saw quite a few other people doing the three sisters walk.

There were plenty of tourists around the place and I really got quite annoyed when I saw some of them nonchalantly littering the path with their rubbish. So much so that Greg and I had a loud conversation about how stupid some people are who litter the place. However, they either didn't understand us or just plain ignored us



This final photo is the obligatory photo of the Three Sisters rock formation from Echo point. Once we got round here for the second time it was quite late but at least there were only a handful of tourists about the place so it made the place much more peaceful.

You can just about make out a small walkway between the first sister and the main rock headway. That was the start of the walkway down the side of the Three Sisters.

Once we got back to Katoomba we had a well deserved Thai meal in what seemed like someone’s front room. The meal tasted so good, but then again we had just walked around 7km and really needed the fill up.