I caught the 6:53 train from Sydney Central Station to Katoomba, gateway to the Blue Mountains.

I really didn’t have solid plans, just a day trip with hiking, nature loafing, birding, and sketching. And these could happen in any order.

Central Station is a five minute walk from my digs and it was already buzzing with weekday commuter bustle. I was a little early so I sketched my train at Platform 7.

After a two hour train ride (which I birded along the way) I detrained in Katoomba and walked down the high street toward Echo Point.

This is an extremely popular place to view the vast sweep of the Blue Mountains and the limestone monoliths know as the Three Sisters (certainly the Blue Mountains poster children).

Although it was 9:30, there were a flock of people here already and I felt a tour bus (or three) was about to arrive any minute so I headed out to the trails, a sure fire method for decreasing the masses.

As soon as I was on the trails it seemed I had the National Park to myself. Here I heard the birds and experienced a new fauna and flora. Like what were those plumb greenish looking birds flying across the trail (more about them later).

I headed to an overlook and heard the loud but distinctive calls of the superb lyrebird, the poster bird of the Blue Mountains.

I then back tracked and went to another viewpoint of the Three Sisters. I was at the top of the Giant Staircase. It was over 800 steps down to the valley floor. The steep stairway was constructed in 1909, hewn out of sandstone with sections made of metal stairs.

At this point I had to decide if I was going all the way down and hike another two to three hours to Scenic World. This was really a way to avoid the masses. I swear I could hear another tour bus arriving at Echo Point! Why not, I thought as I took my first step.

As I took the first flight of steps I passed a young lass who was butt-scooting down one trend at a time. “You’re brave,” she commented. “Or stupid,” I replied.

I guess I’d soon know the answer if I didn’t roll an ankle or fall to my death before I reached the last step.

I finally made it to the end of the Giant Staircase with my quadriceps and calves burning (They were still burning after three days giving me the gait of a person 25 to 30 years my age!)

I rambled through the forest with the sandstone cliffs rising above through the gum trees.

And those plumb green birds? They were another Attenborough favorite: the satin bowerbird.