Hiking in the Blue Mountains

Every semester the Marist study abroad group is invited to stay at a professor's (from the Australian university) Bed & Breakfast in the Blue Mountains, a nature retreat and major tourist destination merely a two hour train ride from Sydney. This retreat is usually organized for the Marist students upon their arrival in Australia, as it is meant as an orientation. However, because our group arrived in Australia during the winter, our Blue Mountain field trip was post-poned and scheduled for the first weekend in November.

I am so glad we waited!

The weather was absolutely perfect! All of my memories of Australia are colored blue: blue is the sky that looks so close you could touch it; blue is the ocean that you can see for miles and miles off the Sydney shore; blue are the mountains, as I discovered on this trip.

When Sean, Steph, Richie and I arrived at the Wentworth Falls train station our host for the weekend, Lew Hird, met us and drove us back to his B&B where we would be spending the weekend.

When we pulled up to our 'B&B' all of our jaws dropped...the place was no simple B&B - the Silvermere guesthouse was a Mediteranian-inspired mansion! The house was absolutely breathtaking!

The Silvermere guest house is perfectly situated on top of a hill, overlooking the Blue Mountains in one direction, and the city of Sydney in the other. Sitting over our candelight dinner in the beautiful dining room, we could literally see the skyscrapers and buildings we had come to know so well in downtown Sydney. The huge, beautifully manicured lawn is often booked for wedding ceremonies and receptions.

I already told Lew that I would be getting married here... at some point...

As beautiful as the hosue was, we would have been content to spend the entire weekend lounging out in the beautiful yard, admiring the Blue Mountains from afar. But Lew had something else in mind for us.

Lew, an environmental conservationist, is passionate about Australia's flaura and fauna and wanted to show us some of the Blue Mountain's unique wildlife up close. And so we went on an expedition: a 6 hour hike that would have us descending 1000 feet into the valley of the mountains, along the way discovering the beautiful, hidden waterfalls of Wentworth Falls..

(Lew helping me down some tricky boulders; Sean in all his glory beneath Wentworth Falls...freezing!)

(Three Sisters)

(Lew, just chillen at the Wentworth Falls' pool during a quick rest on our hike)