Hiking the Blue Mountains

Sunday, my host Andrew, two of his friends and I drove to Blue Mountains National Park to hike and see the Three Sisters monument (fitting, eh?). About 90 minutes outside of Sydney, it is a gorgeous national park with plenty of hiking trails and good views. 

Blue Mountains National Park, with the Three Sisters as the three points in the right middle of this photo

Although I didn't ride it, there also is a scenic railway with a train going up and down a mountain with a 52 degree incline, the steepest in the Southern Hemisphere. Riding it an unlimited number of times can be done for the low cost of $39 (what?!), so I chose to sit that one out.

Our group on the hike at the top of the Ruined Castle

A group of four of us began the morning with breakfast at a cafe in Katoomba, then drove to the trail head to go on a hike called Ruined Castle. Round trip, it is about 4 miles / 6.6 km. Despite being an on and off rainy day, it was the perfect hike since it went all the way down a hill, through a rainforest, and back up the hill at the end. When in the rainforest, we were covered and therefore, not getting rained on. 

The greens of the middle of the hike. There were plenty of cool tree stumps to look at throughout the hike, but my favorite Australian tree are the palm-tree looking fern trees.

One surprise was ahead of us: after a random run-in with someone's friend on the trail, we were informed to look down as there were leeches everywhere.  I had never heard of leeches before, but they are small, wormy creatures that come out in the rain. Suddenly every time we looked down, there would be at least 4-5 of them on the legs or shoes of each person. The danger of leeches is that they bite your skin and cause you to bleed, sometimes causing a scab or itchy patch. To kill or remove them, you have to either pull them off your leg / shoe, or cover them in salt, which we did not have. I will never forget the visual of the first leech we pulled off of someone; as someone grabbed it, it was mid-bite and required a tug to truly remove.

The worm in the middle of this photo is a leech. Now you know!

Despite the mini bites (since they do not hurt), we kept going on the hike. Unexpectedly at the top of the Ruined Castle (about halfway through the hike), we ran into three friends of another person we were with. I was pretty unsure as to how this was the second time we ran into acquaintances on a not so popular trail, but everyone I was with rock climbs together so it was safe to assume their friends are pretty adventurous. We chose to ignore the leeches as much as possible to progress without distraction, and successfully completed the four miles without too much rain or pausing, only a few minor shrieks. All the friends I made that day were fabulous, with no hesitation but to pull leeches off of each other. I found this incredibly friendly and could not envision everyone in the US on a hiking path being open to pulling wormy creatures off of a stranger's legs.

The true excitement and shock came at the top of the hill after a large uphill stretch, when we took our shoes off to find another 5-6 leeches inside. They were entering from everywhere: in shoelace holes, on the soles of the shoes, anywhere they could get. 

With blood on my gym shoes, a ruined pair of socks and five scabs on my feet, I will always remember the Blue Mountains experience with these creatures. The greens, trees and mountain views were worth it - but leeches became quite the (anti)hero of the day!