A Walk in the Blue Mountains

My time in the Blue Mountains has been another great chapter in my exploration of Australia. I have been staying in Linden with Stuart and Judy. Linden is about 100km west of Sydney and just about on the boundary of the lower and upper mountains. My stay included the Sydney dust storm from which there were some memorable images and the Wollemi Pine which will be an unfolding story. But the highlight was a walk along one of the mountain cliff faces through waterfalls and magnificent rock formations, spring flowers and the ever present gum trees. The trail known as the National Pass was originally developed for walkers in the early 1900s, it was recently restored and rebuilt to make it more accessible though it is still quite challenging especially for those compromised by a recently broken ankle (me) or wonky knees (Stuart). We started out with a rock step descent through waterfalls and hanging swamps then a long traverse across the cliff face on a well engineered path. Views of the mountains and the forest changing constantly. Close up we feasted our eyes on the rock formations and spring flowers. Towards the end of the walk we picnicked beside a huge waterfall, Wentworth Falls then climbed steeply, up steps to the plateau for a leisurely walk back to the starting point.
One day I awoke to what seemed like a very pink dawn, it was the day of the Sydney dust storm which was reported worldwide. I didn’t realise it until I was hailed to “come and look at this” By the time I got up the sun was up in eastern sky, looking like a full moon in a bronze haze. There was a fine dust coating everything, even parts of the inside of the house. The wind blew hard all day bringing down tree branches and preventing me from another cliff edge walk in the mountains.

Then there was the affair of the Wollemi Pine. I had naively hoped to hike into the canyon where this relic of the Jurassic was found in 1994. It is related to Monkey Puzzles and Norfolk Island Pine but had escaped human notice for hundreds of thousands of years. Since then its location has been shared with very few people and it has been studied incessantly. It turns out to be easy to propagate and I was able to buy my very own Wollemi Pine which will live in Linden and be nurtured by Stuart and Judy. I will receive regular photo and news updates such as, first mature leaves, first bubbly bark and dare I hope first cone !!!