KATOOMBA, AUSTRALIA
The Blue Mountains are one of Australia’s best-known tourist destinations, and they’re only a couple of hours west of Sydney, which makes them a popular day trip. They get their name from the blue haze that often shrouds the mountains, supposedly the product of the eucalyptus oil evaporating from all the gum trees. (Of course, there’s a similar phenomenon associated with the Smoky Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains, so it may just be plain old water vapor that makes them look blue.)
Anyway, today Tom, Chris and I drove out to the mountains to see for ourselves. We're staying in the town of Katoomba, a former hippie enclave which now consists entirely of trendy cafés, or so it seems. We had lunch at one of the most famous ones, the Paragon, a 1920s Art Deco Tearoom with an amazing original interior of opulent carved wood. They also have some really good, but decadent, food (for example, the full Devonshire Tea with scones and cream).
We then rolled ourselves out of the restaurant and down the street to Echo Point, a scenic overlook with a dramatic view of the surrounding mountains and the Three Sisters, the area’s most famous landmark. We took the short, steep trail that led down to the first “sister,” a rock column jutting up from the valley below. There were other walking trails that descended to the valley floor, but they involved thousands of steps, so we decided to pass.
Fortunately, the town’s other attraction is a place called Scenic World, which allows visitors to travel into the rainforest at the bottom of the valley via the world's steepest incline railway (at a maximum angle of 52 degrees), or by cable car. We chose to ride the railway down and the cable car back up. Which was fun, I guess, although the steepness of the train ride made me wish that it moved a lot faster, like a rollercoaster. Instead it just sort of slid down the mountain at a medium clip. The reason the railway is there in the first place is that it used to transport coal up the mountain--parts of the old coal mine are still left at the bottom.
The Blue Mountains are one of Australia’s best-known tourist destinations, and they’re only a couple of hours west of Sydney, which makes them a popular day trip. They get their name from the blue haze that often shrouds the mountains, supposedly the product of the eucalyptus oil evaporating from all the gum trees. (Of course, there’s a similar phenomenon associated with the Smoky Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains, so it may just be plain old water vapor that makes them look blue.)
Anyway, today Tom, Chris and I drove out to the mountains to see for ourselves. We're staying in the town of Katoomba, a former hippie enclave which now consists entirely of trendy cafés, or so it seems. We had lunch at one of the most famous ones, the Paragon, a 1920s Art Deco Tearoom with an amazing original interior of opulent carved wood. They also have some really good, but decadent, food (for example, the full Devonshire Tea with scones and cream).
We then rolled ourselves out of the restaurant and down the street to Echo Point, a scenic overlook with a dramatic view of the surrounding mountains and the Three Sisters, the area’s most famous landmark. We took the short, steep trail that led down to the first “sister,” a rock column jutting up from the valley below. There were other walking trails that descended to the valley floor, but they involved thousands of steps, so we decided to pass.
Fortunately, the town’s other attraction is a place called Scenic World, which allows visitors to travel into the rainforest at the bottom of the valley via the world's steepest incline railway (at a maximum angle of 52 degrees), or by cable car. We chose to ride the railway down and the cable car back up. Which was fun, I guess, although the steepness of the train ride made me wish that it moved a lot faster, like a rollercoaster. Instead it just sort of slid down the mountain at a medium clip. The reason the railway is there in the first place is that it used to transport coal up the mountain--parts of the old coal mine are still left at the bottom.
posted by John Kuge at 8:21 PM
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