Katoomba and the Blue Mountains

Katoomba,Bullaburra,Warrimoo,Emu Plains,Lapstone,Rooty Hill,Doonside,Toongabbie,Parramatta...these Aborigini names get me. These are some of the names along the railroad tracks as I traveled to Katoomba to visit Mary Ellen and the Blue Mountains. Mary Ellen said the Aborginies did not have a written language. Some say the Hawaiians did not have a written language until the missionaries came to Hawaii. However,Herberta Kauahi Montgomery claims they did but it wasn't in English.

This is one of the many reasons why traveling is so interesting. My knowledge of the Aboriginies(spl)was almost zero. Their history as to how they were treated by the British seems unbelieveable. They occupied this land now called Australia 70,000 years ago.Today there are not many left.

The train ride from Cheltenham to Katoomba took almost three hours,but I enjoyed the ride. The trains have comfortable seats and wide windows and the view is spactacular especially as it climbs up toward the Blue Mountains.

Mary Ellen doesn't own a car but walking is very pleasant and everything is walking distance from her house. The weather and landscape is like norhern Ohio in the Fall.
It is just beautiful..oak,maple,pine,elms,everygrees,eculypic but even more varied with camelias,honeysuckle,monsteria,palms,bird of paradise,hibiscus,and many plants we have in Hawaii.
I arrived in Katoomba on Friday around 4:00pm. There are many little shops along the streets...gifts and coffee shops. So we decided on the way to her place to stop and enjoy a capucino and expresso and share a yummy moist carrot cake. I've come to realize that in Australia there are almost as many Europeans as Asians;Chinese,Indonesians,Malasians,Thai,Vietnamese,Indians,Africans,Greeks,Mexicans,South Americans,etc. and therefore many restaurants reflecting this.

I learned one of Mary Ellens hobbies is cooking so I was treated to delicious home cooked food while I stayed with her. And she buys nutritious wholesome foods like sesami,flax,fruit and nut breads. mmmmm so good.

Saturday turned out to be an extraordinarily beautiful day...especially lucky for us because they had snow on Tuesday. We packed up a lunch and left her house at 10am and was able to walk all thoughout the Blue Mountains' well maintained walkways. There are many many look out points and trails. And see the many native birds so many colorful varieties,gazila,magpie,cockatoo,even their mayna birds have bright colors.

The huge boulders,colorful sheer cliffs,and valleys and trees and shrubs and bottle brush and many types of "potea" called a different name here because they a slightly different species,and water falls,pools and vastness of the forrest and expands between the mountains made nature walking so wonderful.

When we got back I was pooped,but Mary Ellen had enough energy to make a big dish of delicious vegitarian lazanyna and garlic bread and have two couples over for dinner.
Her sister made apple crumbles for dessert. The conversation went until nearly midnight.

Before I left on the train at 1;20p next day Mary Ellen, her sister Kristy and I sat in front of the historic Carrigon Hotel,originally built in the 1850s during the gold rush era. There was a poster advertising a period Ball so we pretended we were high class society women having tea on the veranda.

The hotel had beautiful colored glass windows everywhere.

I almost forgot to tell you about having hot chocolate at one of the chocolate-coffee shops.
I haven't seen this done anywhere else. They brought a special tall narrow red cup with lighted candle at the bottom,with a special metal straw,a separate small pitcher with warm milk and another small individual bowl of chocolate chips. I was instructed to make my own chocolate drink putting in chocolate chips according to my taste.

Actually a person could spend a lot more days trekking the Blue Mountains. One could take a Scenic Skyway...the world first with Electro-Sceni Glass Floor so you can see the ancient ravines,water falls,and forest far below. Also there is a Scenic Railway with an incline of 52 degrees called the "Mountain Devil" or travel by cable car to the forst floor. I didn't do those things,but it is just as wonderful to walk the many trails.

I think it is obvious I thoroughly enjoyed my experience in the Blue Mountains.
I was told that the haze in the mountains was caused by the gum trees,but according to the article in the Blue Mountains Tourist newspaper that isn't true. When asked about it Professor Harry Messel of the Department of Physics at the University of Sydney said that it was due to an optical phenomenon called 'Rayleigh scattering'.