We Went to Wentworth Falls!

Hi all,

Well I hope you appreciate my attempt to play on words in today's title? I know it's a little pathetic for an English teacher but, quite frankly, I am exhausted this evening and it is the best you're going to get!

ABC Breakfast declared the Sydney temperatures today to reach 31 degrees. ( I apologise for the lack of appropriate symbol as opposed to the full written word 'degrees' but I am on the iPad, and the symbol is on superscript which I can only access on the laptop and, I am exhausted so the ipad will have to do!). Anyway, we felt blessed considering the temperature in Melbourne was to reach 40 degrees and Adelaide, a scorching 44 degrees! I felt a twinge of guilt. Here we are in a beautiful country and the poor girls have been dragged from one admininistrative or government building to another, witnessing us filling in form after form. I wanted to do something fun as a family. The beach was out of the question. Both Erin and I are sporting big, red, raw sores in between our big toe and the second toe. The thought of sand getting anywhere near them makes me squirm. No, it had to be socks and trainers today. Socks and trainers with a swimming costume is not a good look! I suggested that we went to the Blue Mountains, Wentworth Falls, about an hour and a half west of Pennant Hills.  I fancied a nice walk with beautiful views and the kids were up for it too.

We set off in the faithful Mazda. We stopped off for petrol on the way. There are 3 choices of petrol!! Decisions, decisions. Even going for the decent stuff, it only cost the equivalent of  £37 to fill her up! We arrived at Wentworth and parked up. Having purchased a drink each, we set off for one of the tracks. We chose 'medium' for a 'moderate' walk with a 'slight gradient'. I hope you can tell already by my inventive use of inverted commas that the trek was not moderate and the gradient was not slight! However, joking aside, it was the most phenomenally beautiful hike that I have ever been on and I mean that without even the slightest hint of hyperbole. Please see photos below. Our first stop off point was Prince's Rock. We all stood there snapping away on our phones and gazing in awe at the
beauty of the landscape around us. We continued on to another view point. This time we viewed a
waterfall from the distance; I have tried to capture the resulting rainbow that formed across the waterfall as the sunlight was refracted by the water. Stunning. The weather got warmer and warmer - by now it was around 33 degrees, ( don't panic, this is not going to turn into a story about how Nathan got burned, fried and swollen: he'd smothered himself in factor 30), I am merely relaying the temperature to put the scene in context (and to make you jealous!).

We followed a sign to Wentworth Falls. The trek took us along the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen and it became steeper and steeper as we headed further down. There was lush greenery, there were caves, rock pools and naturally occuring gazebos. At one point we came across a little lake. Stones provided a convenient path across it. The water was cold as ice and crystal clear. We continued on our quest. The path and rock steps beame steeper and narrower and the sheer drop - sometimes on either side - more magnificent. I was so busy pondering the beauty of the world around me that I walked straight into a wobbly Nathan who was suddenly reliving memories of Warwick and Rochester Castle and very high French bridges. Erin suggested that if he was finding the descent difficult, he might find the ascent on the way back even worse. It was at her wise words that we all turned around and looked back the way we had come - I have no problem with heights at all but for a split second, I saw the steep and never ending stair case, carved into the mountains, through Nathan's eyes. To cut a long story short, the girls and I continued on without the head of the family. The stairs got narrower and steeper. The sun beat harder. We kept going, admiring the beauty of the nature around us. Becky led the way, Erin was in the middle and I was bringing up the rear. Suddenly, Erin turned around and issued an exclamation. She told me to turn around too. I duly did.

What I saw will stay with me forever. Even as I write this, I cringe at how cheesy it sounds but the view of Wentworth Falls from where we stood was utterly breathtaking. The pictures do not do it justice. We spent some time, taking photos and splashing each other with the ice cold water from the numerous rock pools. Then we remembered that we had abandoned 'dad' so decided to head back up. The sun continued to beat down and Erin decided that now would be a really good time to have a 'woohey'. We are right at the bottom of a mountain, standing in front of this majestic waterfall, in the middle of nowhere with no choice but to climb upwards and Erin decides that she is going to feel faint!