From the Ritz to The Rubble

The Oaks Trail

The Blue Mountains are a couple of obvious things. Firstly they're Blue, well - the Gum (or Eucalyptus) trees which populate the majority of the forests give off a vapor which makes everything over 1km away look Blue. Second, they're mountains - which for some reason, I failed to realise that they would be cold like all other mountains I'd ever been to. I awoke to Zero degrees C. I boarded the train as I saw a couple of snowflakes float past me. Thankfully that didn't carry on and by the time I reached Woodford, the air temperature had warmed enough for me to take off my hoodie.

I began cycling and soon found the beginning of the 28km route to Glenbrook. The trail was only suited for 4x4s, Bikes and walkers with some pretty huge inversions that I generally had to ride down rather than up. After all my time in the city being deprived of anything natural to shoot, I stopped quite a few times to take some pictures. By the time I was around 7kms in, the cloudy sky had broken up and the horizon was blue again. At one point I could see through the haze to see the Sydney city skyline 66kms away.

I had come to the Blue Mountains in absolute off-season, which meant that during the whole day, the only people I saw were the occasional park rangers driving past. Quite a contrast from the MPB last Friday night! After a while, the trail became decidely more 'road-like' and I was able to cruise through the trees at a quick pace. I took a detour to an old Aboriginal Cave - a 4km detour - which I would have to ride back (completely uphill). When I arrived to see the 'ancient paintings' I was treated to a dozen handprints under the overhang of a rock - thoroughly underwhelmed, not really what I was hoping to see. Regardless I pushed back up the hill (which incidentally had been the best part of the ride that day (at least, the going downhill part).

I eventually hit tarmac again, made it to 50kms per hour before having to stop for a while as my brakes were overheating. One killer final hill of the day took me back outside of the Blue Mountains national park and back into civilisation. I'd been a little dissapointed to have seen very little wildlife, though was treated to a one off as I rode downhill toward the train station; an Eagle (at least I was about 75% sure it was) perched up ahead took flight at about the same speed I was travelling - so for about 3 seconds I was riding with an eagle about 1.5metres in front of my nose.

My day was capped as I reached Glenbrook train station exactly as the once hourly train arrived at the platform. Including my detour, 36kms completed. Bonza