The train ride from Sydney to the small town of Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains region, only took a couple of hours but the two places couldn’t be more different. Katoomba is a little town that is mainly visited by people who use it as a base to explore the surrounding mountain range.

I spent most of my first day exploring the town, trying to decide how I would spend my time in the mountains. There are several companies that offer mountain biking, rock climbing, abseiling and any other mountain activities so I needed to make up my mind on what exactly I wanted to do and with who. My afternoon was spent relaxing in the hostel’s huge back garden. After all the walking I did in Sydney and what lay ahead of me here in Katoomba I decided an afternoon chilling out was justified. I spent my time reading through my guide book and all the literature I had picked up during my walk around, planning how I was going to fill my time.

I met one of the lads I was sharing my room with. Chris is from Holland and has been travelling for a little over a week. Basically he got bored at his job so booked a flight to Sydney and a week later was here. I spent most of the evening answering his questions about where to go, what to do and basically how it all works. The funny thing is that seven weeks ago I was asking all the same questions and had all the same uncertainties.

I spent my first full day in the area exploring. I hired a mountain bike and set off following a route I had found back at the hostel. One of the main attractions in the Blue Mountains is the “Three Sisters”, three of the highest mountains in the area that happened to be all grouped together. They were recently closed off to the public due to the damage caused by the sheer numbers walking across them every day. This didn’t stop people coming to see the “Three Sisters” though and because the route I had planned to follow went straight through one of the regions busiest points I decided to forget it, go for a ride and see where I ended up.

After a couple of hours riding I arrived at the start of a walking track and decided to continue on foot. This took me 400 meters down into a valley and then continued along the forest floor for a further 5 miles. By pure coincidence I ran into Chris, who had left the hostel earlier that morning, about half way down the track. We continued the walk together, heading for a rock formation known as the “Ruined Castle”. This was situated on top of one of the smaller mountains meaning we had to scramble up to the top. The views we were rewarded with were amazing but it got even better after we decided to climb the rock formation itself. Granted that probably wasn’t the best idea in the world! If we had fallen there were near vertical drops on two sides and very steep slopes on the others. But we both made it fine and the view was stunning! We must have spent a good 45 minutes just taking in the scenery.

As we started to head back the heavens opened and we were hit by a torrential rain storm. I couldn’t have been wetter if I had stood under a shower! The rain made the climb down pretty dangerous, turning all the paths into mud combined with water up to our ankles rushing past us. With only a few serious slips between us we made it back through the forest and eventually back to the hostel.

After a relaxing evening and an early night my next day was even more adventurous. Chris and I went, with a group of about ten others, canyoning. Basically this is walking, wading, scrambling and swimming through a canyon cut out by a river. Our day started with abseil training and practice as this was to play a large part at the end of our day. We started abseiling down a 5 meter cliff and soon moved on to 15 and then 27 meters. That was a great laugh but my day was only going to get better.

After lunch we headed down to the canyon, got into our wetsuits and were soon climbing over rocks and swimming through the murky canyon river. We even had a few water jumps, leaping from rocks into small water pools below. But nothing compared with the end of the trip. To get out of the canyon we had to abseil down a 30 meter waterfall! I have to admit that I was pretty nervous as I went over the edge but I’m really glad I did it.

The whole day went rather too quickly for Chris and me as we only spent an hour at most in the canyon. So when we got back to the office we, along with two other lads from our group, signed up for a full day canyoning for the following day. We did have a bit of a problem finding a large enough canyon to fill the whole day. This was due to large bush fires several months ago, which had destroyed a significant amount of the surround area meaning they were still recovering and could not be disturbed. We had to settle for the compromise of doing a slightly shorter canyon followed by a large abseil at the end of the day. I had to get as much rest as possible ready for the next day. My first canyoning trip really took it out of me and my next trip was going to be around four times longer!

The group of four of us met at the tour company office early the next morning and then drover for about an hour and a half to the canyon and then a twenty minute walk down to the point where we would start our adventure. The canyon itself was beautiful and because there was only five of us (us four lads and our guide, Simon) it was amazingly peaceful. We did a lot of the same things that we had done the previous day, just more of it. One of the best parts was that we got to do the biggest water jump the company does. It was over seven meters into a tiny water pool! The whole experience was definitely one to remember but it was only going to get better.

We climbed out of the canyon, which took about 45 minutes and was one of the most physically demanding things I have done in a long time, we had lunch and then head to the abseil sight. It was the same sight we had visited the previous morning but I was far too nervous to appreciate the view. The abseil we were doing was named the “Super Jump” and was over 60 meters high. Going over the edge was a bit scary but once I got going it was really good fun. Half of the abseil was down a sheer rock face and the other half was a free drop to the forest floor. Another very memorable experience.

My evening was relaxing and very cosmopolitan. I spent it drinking wine from a box and chatting with the three lads I shared my room with. There was Chris from Holland, David form Spain and Martin for Germany. It was a nice end to my time in Katoomba. Tomorrow I move on the Canberra.