Up high and Down Low in the Blue Mountains

Uncover the highs and lows of the Blue Mountains with your family, from Scenic World to the Night Lit Walk and beyond

Words and Images by: Jessica Palmer

BEYOND SKYWAY EXPERIENCE - CREDIT SCENIC WORLD

I’m quite well aware that the journey to a destination is often part of the fun; but when you only have six days to spare, sometimes it’s simply easier to fly to a destination and hire an RV rather than waste the days driving thousands of kilometres across Australia to get there. The destination in question was Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. It had been 18 years between visits, and that’s how I found myself boarding a plane in Hervey Bay en-route to Sydney with my family.

Katoomba is well known for being quite chilly in winter, and after weeks of rain in the region I was starting to wonder if I should call the whole thing off. “Have faith,” I told myself. So I did just that. Fortunately, the rain clouds blew away that morning and didn’t reappear until the day we left. How about that for a spot of good luck?

Renting a Motorhome for Our Blue Mountains Trip

We headed straight for StarRV, around two kilometres from the Sydney Domestic Airport, to pick up our motorhome for the next five nights. It was a Polaris 6, that would comfortably sleep two adults and two kids. This particular model for StarRV sleeps six and is built on either an Iveco, Mercedes or Fiat base. Regardless of which you get, they all have a classic rental RV layout with a bed up the back that converts to a lounge, a dining table and chairs that convert to a double, sleeping for two over the cab, a functional kitchen and an ensuite.

Despite the standard layout, StarRV is refreshingly different. It has iconic Australian scenes printed on the outside, light colours on the inside, and a particularly charming bookshelf print on the kitchen seating area wall inside. I was pleased to find the toilet and hand sink separate from the shower, as I’ve never warmed to the whole ‘wet bathroom’ concept in RVs.

HIKING IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS - CREDIT JESSICA PALMER

Night-Lit Walk at Katoomba Falls: A Magical Evening

Heading straight for the Blue Mountains, it wasn’t long before we reached the Katoomba Falls Tourist Park located directly across the road from the beautiful Katoomba Falls and a 500 metre walk to Scenic World. Being close to dinnertime by now and too late to take advantage of a Scenic World ticket, we instead checked in, got settled and headed straight across the road to the Katoomba Falls to walk the Night-Lit Walk.

With lighting from the top of Katoomba Falls Kiosk carpark, around Reid’s Plateau and down to Katoomba Cascades, the lights stay on until 11.00pm at night. However, if you’re planning to do this in winter like we did, I recommend wearing thermals and a few thick layers.

Scenic World: The Heart of the Blue Mountains Experience

Scenic World has been a family owned and run business for nearly 80 years and is, in fact, Australia’s most visited privately owned tourist attraction. Formerly a coal mine, the old coal skips and existing tracks were converted into a passenger train – creating the world’s steepest railway: the Scenic Railway.

The world’s steepest railway is only a fraction of what Scenic World can boast about. It’s also home to the steepest aerial cable car in the Southern Hemisphere, the Scenic Cableway; and the longest stretch of elevated boardwalk in Australia at 2.4 kilometres, the Scenic Walkway.

An Unlimited Discovery pass will set you back between $48 to $60, depending on the day of the week and whether you’re a concession holder, and this gives you unlimited rides and access to the boardwalks for the day. We rode the train three times, the Scenic Cableway once, and the Scenic Skyway twice in one day!

Speaking of the Scenic Skyway, this is how we got higher than ever in the Blue Mountains.

Riding the Scenic Skyway: A High-Altitude Adventure

Opening in 1958, the Scenic Skyway is a 720 metres long journey in the first cable car in Australia (and the largest cable car in the Southern Hemisphere). Don’t worry, it’s not the original cable car from 1958, with the current Swiss-made cabin launched in 2017. It rides 270 metres above the forest floor (twice the height of the Sydney Harbour Bridge) and provides stunning views of Katoomba Falls, the Three Sisters, Mount Solitary and Jamison Valley.

And if that isn’t high enough for you, you can do what I did and book in for ‘Beyond Skyway’. This involves a once-in-a-lifetime experience of spending 20 minutes on the roof of the Scenic Skyway while taking in the views, only to be greeted with champagne, wine, beer or hot chocolate when you return down the ladder into the cable car itself for the journey back. You are, of course, ‘strapped in’ with a harness and more than one safety line.

STARRV POLARIS 6 - CREDIT STARRV

Connecting with Gundungurra Country on the Buunyal Tour

After a day of high-up adventures interlaced with relaxed strolling on the boardwalks at Scenic World, our next day was an experience of a different kind … an opportunity to connect with Gundungurra Country on the Buunyal Tour down in the valley.

We met Uncle David King, a Gundungurra Custodian and an Indigenous Engagement Officer at Scenic World. He knew straight away how to win over the kids by announcing that we would be heading down into the valley via the steep train ride yet again, and handing them a Dilly Bag full of ‘goodies’ which included an Indigenous-designed water bottle, pencils and a notebook, and a message stick which David explained were used for long-distance communication across Australia. With thanks to David, we even managed to score the sought-after seats right up the front of the train carriage for a bird’s eye view.

Once we were down in the valley, we strolled the rainforest boardwalk and learnt of traditional connections with the native plants and animals, as well as David’s own personal journey and history. We even learnt which plants had leaves soft enough to use as toilet paper and which you should never attempt to use. A good piece of knowledge to file away should you ever have a bush emergency, if you ask me!

It turns out that when you book into the Buunyal Tour, you get an all-day ticket for Scenic World. So once the tour was over, we yet again took the steep train down, the cable car back up, and the Skyway across to another vantage point where we then walked back to the caravan park for some much-needed rest and relaxation.

Exploring Katoomba and Leura on the Blue Mountains Explorer Bus

Katoomba and the nearby town of Leura are utterly charming, as many of you already know. But they’re also very hilly, so strolling around on foot is really not that enjoyable unless you’re super fit with knees that don’t hurt. The easy solution to this is to grab yourself a ticket for the Blue Mountains Explorer Bus, a hop-on-hop-off bus for visitors driven by extremely welcoming, outgoing and helpful bus drivers. The bus does a continual loop that takes around an hour, stopping at 37 key points of interest in Katoomba and Leura and stopping (conveniently) right out front of the Katoomba Falls Tourist Park where we were staying.

Don’t Miss These Bus Stops

Being short on time, we didn’t manage all the stops. But we did jump off at the Blue Mountains Chocolate Co where we spent an hour with a hot chocolate fondue set loaded with both traditional and white chocolate. This is something that all ages can enjoy, even if the kids do go a bit silly afterwards.

Don’t worry about overindulging here, though. There is plenty of opportunity to walk those calories off – with my personal favourite being the hike down to Lyrebird Dell and the Pool of Siloam at stop 22/24. We can’t forget the famous Three Sisters at stop seven.

If trudging up and down steps doesn’t sound appealing, you can also take in the views from stop seven at the Blue Mountains Visitor Information Centre with minimal walking. Strolling around the village of Leura at stop 28 is also a big winner, as are the many cafes to choose from.

Reflecting on Our Blue Mountains Adventure

A lot has changed since our last visit to the Blue Mountains … including upgrades of tracks, upgrades to the visitor information centre, more options for those with accessibility needs and a much stronger focus on being an eco-tourism destination. Then there’s me, I’ve changed too. I can no longer hike the same tracks without taking a Panadol beforehand; I’m now responsible for two children; and I have a much stronger urge to enjoy the cafes than to abseil down a cliff chasing a thrill. However, in general, the Blue Mountains offers a lot of adventure in its ups and downs, regardless of what age you are and what type of adventure you seek.