Katoomba, a Town Full of History

The Blue Mountains is a mountain range located north west of Sydney. The region is bounded by Nepean and Hawkesburry River at the west, Cox River at the west, Lake Burragorang at the south, and Colo River at the north.

The Blue Mountains was originally named the Camarthen Hill and Lansdowne Hill for the northern and southern part of the region, respectively by Captain Arthur Phillip upon landing in 1788. However, The Blue Mountains was preferred as the mountain range was seen bluish from afar.

Prior to the Colonial settlement, Blue Mountains area was inhabited by the Gundungurra people at the top and Darug people at the bottom of the mountain. Many sites were found to be Aboriginal ranging from scarred trees to rock arts. Archeologist estimated the age of the occupation to be more than 22,000 years old. 

The history of the Blue Mountains according to Gundungurra people refers to the fight of mythical creatures Mirigan and Garangatch which caused the land to be scarred and form Jamison Valley.

Nowadays, The Blue Mountains is clearly one of the top attractions in New South Wales. Based on the statistics by Destination NSW, the Blue Mountains 954,000 overnight domestic visitors, 208,400 overnight international visitors, and 2.95 millions of day trip domestic visitors. Just imagine the stream!

The top 3 major towns in this area are Katoomba, Leura, and Lithgow.

To reach Blue Mountains, visitors can either drive or take the NSW train. The duration of taking the train from Central Station in Sydney to Katoomba Station is approximately 2 hours. There are multiple trains that run along this route daily, with the frequency of every 1 hour.

Katoomba Station in Blue Mountain

Katoomba is a nice town full of shops, cafes and restaurants along the main road, which is Katoomba Street. About 200m away from the station, there is a very nice hotel called The Carrington Hotel. This hotel was opened in 1883 as The Great Western Hotel and was renamed as The Carrington Hotel in 1886. The Carrington Hotel's reputation as the premiere tourist resort was undeniable and it gained another title as premiere honeymoon destination after the introduction of stained glass facade in 1911.

This Old Lady was closed in 1985 after decades of slowing down business. Restoration of the hotel was carried out from 1991 onwards. It was reopened in 1998 but until today, the renovation works are still ongoing.

The Carrington Hotel

The beautiful front yard of the Carrington Hotel

It kind of feels mythical, well, at least for me

And who won't fall in love with these little princesses?

Walking past The Carrington Hotel, many many shops, cafes and restaurants can be found along the way. The cafes are mostly local, not branches of some franchise brand. The shops are mostly selling local and creative products.

One of the cafe

Another cafe

The town at a glance

There is one local bakery which is so delicious. It is called Hominy Bakery, located at 185 Katoomba Street. When I entered the bakery, I did not know what to purchase. All of them look and smell inviting, I could imagine them waving and asking me to get them. After a long decision time which felt like a decade, I bought the apple rhubarb danish and there's no regret.

Pastries and cakes

Breads!!!

The outside of the bakery

There is no seats inside but we can enjoy what we buy on the stone benches in front of the bakery. Another place that we got to visit is The Elephant Bean cafe. Being Singaporeans (technically, since we have been living there almost half of our life), we chose the cafe based on the crowd. And really, the technique did not fail us.

Thick and full bodied coffee

Delicious sandwich with bread supplied by Hominy Bakery

The interior of the cafe

At the end of Katoomba, there stands the famous icon of Blue Mountain. From the Echo Point viewing platform, the unsual rock formations called Three Sisters can be enjoyed. According to the legend, there were three sisters from the Katoomba tribe living at Jamison Valley. They fell in love with three brothers from Nepean tribe but they could not get marry. The three brothers decided to capture the three sisters and iginited a huge tribal battle. A witch then turned the three sisters into three stones to protect their lives during the battle. However, the witch was killed and unable to turn them back.

Legend aside, Three Sisters are actually Narrabean sandstone formations with vertical jointing and horizontal layers. Erosion caused the gaps that form the Three Sisters rock formations.

Echo Point Viewing Platform

Lower viewing platform, nearer to the sisters

There is a information board explaining the names of the mountain range

Aren't they beautiful?

Their names are Meehni, Wimlah and Gunnedoo

Selfie time!

The other side, viewed from the Echo Point

Katoomba is a pretty town. I am sure the rest of the towns in Blue Mountains are pretty too. I can't wait to explore further!

Love is in the air,
Little Feet