22nd February, The Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia
Got up fairly early to catch the 8.30 train to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains about 100 km and 2 hours from Sydney. Following our problems getting a hotel in Sydney we decided to call a few places in our Rough Guide & Literature we had collected from the Tourist Office the previous day. After about half a dozen calls we landed a double room in high class backpackers hostel. Following our arrival at Katoomba we checked in and left our luggage and headed off for the edge of the canyon.
We changed direction following a conversation with other tourists and first headed for the Leura Falls - only to discover we could not descend into the canyon at that point due to a land slip. So we returned to lunch at a 2 hat establishment called Solitary. Following this we headed down the canyon on a different track via the Leura Woods and Federation Pass. We walked 5 km past the bottom of the 3 Sisters (Rock Pinacles) to the station for the Katoomba Scenic Railway. This was originally used for shifting coal and is the steepest railway in the world. It travels up a gradient of up to 45 degrees and enabled us to avoid 1350 steps back to the top of the canyon. The railway arrived at a tourist centre which also included a less steep cable car to the bottom of the canyon and a Scenic Sky Cableway which travelled horizontally from one side of the canyon to the other in a glass bottomed cable car. After a couple of beers we took the sky cableway taking pics of Katoomba falls and the 3 Sisters. After we alighted we had to walk a further mile to Echo Point which provides the "classic" view of the 3 Sisters but M was foot sore by this time and sought a bus ride back to our accommodation. We were advised the last bus had left so M hired a cab and picked up D who had made it to Echo Point to take some more pics.
We arrived back at the hostel and removed our walking boots to discover that M was bleeding copiously with semi-clotting blood all over her left sock. Following first aid we found a pin prick sized wound which we were later advised had been caused by a leech who had lunched on M until it was so full it rolled off! The problem was it had pumped M full of anti-coagulant such that her blood would not clot which is why originally it appeared she had a 4 inch cut on her leg. The pin prick sized wound refused to clot for at least half an hour after our return and we had to apply alcohol and tea tree oil to ameliorate the situation.
After showering and resting we went for a Chinese Meal in town.
