The Misty Blue Mountains

Over the weekend, I took a train from Sydney's Central Station to Katoomba two hours away, a town in the famous Blue Mountains. Katoomba is a rather small town but clearly tourist-oriented, meant to accommodate visitors to the Blue Mountains.





I arrived on late Friday afternoon and it was slightly misty and raining, so there wasn't much to do. However, the cool air was refreshing after the gradually rising temperatures in Sydney. The temperature hovered in the range of 10°C to 20°C - just cool enough but not too cold for a simple T-shirt!

But the rain wrecked havoc with the weather the following day, and there wasn't much to see due to a ridiculous amount of mist that held on the entire day. Visibility would reach as low as 50 metres, and at best it was around 200 metres.





I walked some of the tracks, and though I couldn't see the supposedly scenic mountain views, the foggy scenes weren't so bad either. It commanded another kind of beauty.







Light rain came again that night, so not unexpectedly, the mist persisted through Sunday morning, though by noon it began to clear. As a result, the breathtaking views of Blue Mountains were exposed.









At certain parts during early afternoon, some of the mist still stayed behind to give a very mystic and unique view.





While it was raining or too misty to walk, or during the night, I would hole myself up in the reading room at the YHA there because they had quite a smart collection of books. Most of my time was spent walking the trails and reading the books, which turned out to be a nice mix of activities, since the trails can be pretty weary (especially the Giant Stairway, which is not called "Giant" for nothing).





In any case, it was a great trip there, but too bad I couldn't stay longer.