Day 22: Hiking, Swimming, Diving, Climbing, Canyoning, Rappelling, Soreness

With the daily walking/hiking/running average being 6ish miles, today was bound to dwarf that. We shipped out at 7:15 for The Blue Mountains, a "mere" two hour train ride from Sydney Central... Like Jack last week, Troy made a friend on the train and has no idea. We arrived in Katoomba and proceeded to The Three Sisters, three massive sandstone pillars jutting out on the edge of a mountain, overlooking a beautiful canyon rainforest. We met a large group of girls from Pitt and Minnesota, and I goofed by not getting a single number, as my peers would soon reiterate... The casual viewing walkways rapidly turned south, as we started with The Grand Stairway, an elaborate system of uneven metal and rock stairways that hung off shear cliffs and small juts between them. We hiked at least 8 miles of uneven terrain through beautiful forests, across streams, and along several beautiful waterfalls. Katoomba Waterfall was the most elaborate, a 150-200 foot waterfall, which led to another, and I believe another. The first half of this trip was extremely easy, as it was all downhill. Returning to the surface was, demanding... Rolling deep in the sweat as we were, Adele would have been proud... We surfaced, and this is where the day's adventure really began.

Three days previous, we encountered two people on a ferry ride in Sydney in our way to the zoo. Anna, in her mid 20's, was from Memphis, Tennessee. She works at the zoo and is an avid hiker, rock climber, and anything outdoors. Anna planned this trip with another person, and they bailed a week before the trip commenced. Talk about a crappy situation... She made the best of it, and came by herself for an entire month. In comes Ian, a 61 year old (you'd never guess it) from Sydney. They met on a canyoning forum where fellow climbers connect and journey together, who knew they had such things...? Sounds like I'll be joining soon. Any who, Ian was out taking Anna around Sydney, and I later found out they had been planning five days of canyoning going into the weekend. Interested, I talked to them about it, and Ian actually invited me and anyone else I wanted to bring with me, which I thought was extremely generous, but in the back of my head it sounded too perfect to be true. I got his number, and we stayed in touch on the matter, which got more and more realistic with every day.

Yesterday night, I communicated that Jack and I would like to go, and gave him our weights and heights for wet suits and equipment. This was actually happening... Following our morning hike with the group, Ian picked us up at Katoomba Falls and drove us 25 minutes to Empress Canyon, an area even more beautiful than what we had just been engulfed in. We parked, packed our gear which included a hiking pack, wetsuit, ropes, carabiners, harnesses, dry bags, and a dry shirt. We hiked down into the massive canyon and found our way to the stream at the bottom of the canyon. We suited up, I packed my DSLR and new lens into the dry pack and said a quick prayer, and we were on our way. As we hiked, we found out that Ian had had back surgery due to an infection near his spine, and this was his first time canyoning in two months. We jumped boulders, cat-walked fallen trees, jumped into water holes from 15 feet, slid down slippery slides, waded in neck-deep waters, back floated with the stream, and I think everything else imaginable. This canyon was roughly a mile long, and at the end was a roughly 100' waterfall, which was to be our victim. I've never had a better experience outdoors. The canyon arched over us, curving and winding in the most bizarre ways. Trees hung over and out of crevasses, allowing the perfect amount of rich blue sky to peek through. Wind and water had worked away at the sandstone walls for millions of years before us, and it will continue to do so millions of years after us. Here we are, halfway across the world with a complete stranger, on the adventure of a lifetime, and the beauty and ideal-ness of the day was sinking in. A grin never left my face. The cool water wicked away all sweat worked up, and soreness from the 12 or so miles of steep terrain we had hiked up to then was nonexistent. God was around us, and I don't know that I've ever felt so content and close to Him and His plan.

As we tied up and roped into our figure 8 rings, the adrenaline was already pumping but now ramping up. This complete stranger who had our lives in his hands might've made some weary, but I've never felt so safe and worry-free. Here I am, leaning back over a 100' edge, with only a rope holding me back, and I didn't even sweat. After the first 5 feet there is a ledge, so you actually have to work your way down, upside down for a moment as your feet cling to the underside of the ledge, before you let go and lower yourself down to the next landing. Going over the next edge was easier, and I worked my way down in what felt like no time at all. At the bottom, the route goes directly through the waterfall, so you're slowly rappelling down on extremely slick rock with the water pouring over your face and eyes and mouth. It was incredible, I was laughing and choking at the same time. I finally lowered down into the pool below, and slightly struggled to untangle myself from my line and the belay line. Free, I yelled "off belay," and floated to the edge of the swimming hole. I had just rappelled for my first time, and absolutely loved every second of it. I was ready for round two.

We hiked up to the surface with an additional 20 pounds of water weight on our backs, and made our way over to Wentworth Falls Lookout, which viewed the same canyon with a massive waterfall within earshot. We learned that the Blue Mountains were named so because of the hazy blue fog that hovers in the valley, which is from Eucalyptus oil that the trees excrete. This area is prone to bush fires, and Ian also informed us that it's common for these fires to literally leap through the air, as the oil particulates ignite when the fires occur. He showed us native plants, birds, the geology of the area, the aboriginal history of the mountains, and everything in between. As we were about to depart, passerbys informed us of an intriguing bird, which turned out to be a rare Lye bird. These birds aren't shy, and actually mimic other birds and sounds. Ian told us that years ago, he heard of a group of these birds had actually copied the sound of a DSLR camera shutter action, and would puzzle anyone in their vicinity. Ian took us to eat pizza (which we bought of course), and ended up driving us an hour and a half back because we missed the train by 5 minutes, and he didn't want us to wait any more than we had to for the next one. As if this wasn't enough, he didn't expect or want a dime from us... We gave him what we had, and thanked him for his hospitality and for the experience of a lifetime.

Ian was our tour guide, but by the end of our trip he became an old friend that we felt we had known for years. Ian gave me hope. Hope that humanity is inherently good, and inherently loving of others. People take and people give, but I have not met a more generous person that Ian was. Not to mention brilliant. He was a CPA, dominating the books because he was honest with clients, telling them when they were wrong or suggesting simple alternatives to save them money. He is a man of honesty, and values it to his core. He always wanted to become an astrophysicist and geologist, and seems to know more than most who study them as a profession. He is a trained paramedic, having been one as part of a ski search and rescue team. He jumps out of helicopters and skis entire mountains, scuba dives, body surfs, and practically everything else you could imagine... Ian is the type of guy I plan to remain friends with throughout my lifetime, and I hope I can contribute to this world in a way similar to how he has. He invited us to canyon yet again when we're back in Sydney before we head home in March, and I think I'll be skipping class/activities to do so. Oops. Not to mention he's my choice for Most Interesting Man In The World. Today checked off numero uno in the book of life, and I found out that canyoning is something I will be doing many, many more times.