I never want to see another set of steps again! Can someone please explain why an idiot like me who's scared of heights goes DOWN the Giant Stairway then UP the Furber Steps??? Mind you, I nearly lost my nerve on one bit under a cliff that’d collapsed some time ago. Yep, I FROZE when I saw air beneath the steps.
But I made it, and the Giant Stairway does have handrails (thank God), and descends through some superb scenery - even to the base of the "third" Sister. One other track I turned back when I saw mossy stone steps and no handrail. Forget it.
Actually, I quite enjoyed the Furber Steps (a) because I took them on the "up" track, and (b) because they're not as steep as the Giant Staircase. Only one section was a bit dicey where a tree/stone had flattened the steps - literally.
But what scenery! When the sun DID come out (took a while for the fog to disappear), there's those magnificent cliff faces of the escarpment, towering trees, amazing tree ferns - and birds.
Yes, I HEARD lots, including a couple of eastern whipbirds, fantails, thornbills, an eastern yellow robin (I think) and a host of amazing twitters and tweets (the real ones) of little brown birds who either won't stay still or won't show themselves. How rude. Saw Red-tailed black cockatoos, sulphur-crested cockatoos, scrubwrens, a pied (?) which I'm enlisting my Mum to help me identify (guess who forgot the bird field guide), and…wait for it…TWO lyrebirds – Mum feeding kid.
GORGEOUS. I took photos of them (see one below).
Are there no Willie Wagtail's in Katoomba?
And to top it off, some rain and a thunderstorm, that I think hit mostly east/north-east of Katoomba.
What a simply amazing place. Oh, and there's some landmark thing that a few people like...took a photo of it...
But I made it, and the Giant Stairway does have handrails (thank God), and descends through some superb scenery - even to the base of the "third" Sister. One other track I turned back when I saw mossy stone steps and no handrail. Forget it.
Actually, I quite enjoyed the Furber Steps (a) because I took them on the "up" track, and (b) because they're not as steep as the Giant Staircase. Only one section was a bit dicey where a tree/stone had flattened the steps - literally.
But what scenery! When the sun DID come out (took a while for the fog to disappear), there's those magnificent cliff faces of the escarpment, towering trees, amazing tree ferns - and birds.
Yes, I HEARD lots, including a couple of eastern whipbirds, fantails, thornbills, an eastern yellow robin (I think) and a host of amazing twitters and tweets (the real ones) of little brown birds who either won't stay still or won't show themselves. How rude. Saw Red-tailed black cockatoos, sulphur-crested cockatoos, scrubwrens, a pied (?) which I'm enlisting my Mum to help me identify (guess who forgot the bird field guide), and…wait for it…TWO lyrebirds – Mum feeding kid.
GORGEOUS. I took photos of them (see one below).
Are there no Willie Wagtail's in Katoomba?
And to top it off, some rain and a thunderstorm, that I think hit mostly east/north-east of Katoomba.
What a simply amazing place. Oh, and there's some landmark thing that a few people like...took a photo of it...
