The Golden Stairs get the honour of being in my first blog post of this new decade. The Golden Stairs were first mentioned by Martine to Dan and I in the pub one night in Katoomba. It sounded interesting, and the very next day we walked past the entrance/bottom part of The Golden Stairs, on route…
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Katoomba itself is a bit special. Situated 3,336 feet above sea level, it appears to be the largest settlement in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales. I’d never heard of it until I arrived in Australia. It was mentioned in passing a few times as part of Blue Mountains trips which were organised by our…
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If you were asked where the world’s steepest railway line was, you’d probably think it was in some mountain range in America, or even mid Europe. You’d be wrong. It’s in Katoomba, a small village in the Blue Mountains, in New South Wales. Right here in Australia. It only has two stops, two stations: the…
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** Please note that a video of the pool we played on this evening WAS MADE. But I no longer own the rights for that video and have removed it. Yes, it’s sad to delete memories from our lives on any blogs and this is the first time I’ve had to do it, but please…
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Live music often helps you have a good night – but this was an unexpected rock gig in the middle of The Blue Mountains – one that we didn’t even know about as we paid to get in. We were staying in Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains Central Backpackers and had been out one night…
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Halloween in 2009 crept up very slowly and took us all by surprise, especially in this new land and new environment – life in Sydney. As a child Halloween had always been special. Living in Kilmaine in Bangor, Northern Ireland Halloween meant Church Services, Remembrance Day, Harvest, School Plays, Guy Fawkes Night and fun for…
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Blackheath was another planned day out in our last few days in The Blue Mountains. We had pretty much exhausted the entire area of a hat-trick of villages: Leura, Katoomba, Wentworthville. Next one down on the map was Blackheath. Living in Australia I have noticed so many different place names stolen from the UK. I…
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It was all a bit unorganised getting to and arriving in Sydney. Just a few days before the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney, I had to book a hostel, as I wanted to be sure where we would stay the first few nights. As it turned out, the pressure and randomness of booking the…
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While in The Blue Mountains, and in particular the Jamison Valley region, we wanted to do every trek we could in the timescale. The two furthest away and toughest treks were to the “Ruined Castle” and “Mount Solitary.” Both were basically day treks, starting off from Katoomba. We decided we would rather see the Castle,…
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When you spend time in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales there is an endless list of walks, treks, hikes, points, peaks, waterfalls, gorges, valleys, rocks, forests, caves to see. During the week that we spent there we tried to bung as much in as we could. This meant constant hiking through the main…
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