Hiking at Wentworth Falls


(Photo credit: Phoenix)

The last time I went for an honest-to-God hike or trek through the Australian wilderness, I was barely a teen and the whole venture had ended in ticks, leeches tears and angry parents. Actually, come to think of it, I'm sure that since then I must've gone for at least some bush walks, but either they weren't memorable enough or I've been doing some serious memory suppression. Anyway, it's a bit disappointing that it's taken me this long to get back into hiking but as far as redemptive adventures go, I guess I couldn't have asked for a better one. 



My mates and I met up at Wentworth Falls Station at around 10:00 am on Sunday. There were seven of us: Ronny and Phoenix (merciless hiking pros), Jacinta, Yujun, Rachel, Cindy and I. Cindy was kind enough to give some of us a lift (thanks gal) so I got to sleep in for an extra hour. We hit the track at about 10:30 am and got back at 4:30 pm so that was about 5 hours of sweaty walking/climbing and 1 hour of mucking around under waterfalls.


I'll have to ask Phoenix and Ronny the specifics of the track because they basically planned the whole route for us and we just followed. I think we started off with the Charles Darwin walk but later on, we probably merged onto something else. No. Let me rephrase. We definitely merged onto something else because the Charles Darwin walk was advertised as a 5.6 km, 2 hour track but me and my sore buttcheeks can attest to the fact that we walked waaaay longer than 5.6 measly kilometres.


Asian Bear Grylls communing with the divine water spirits. 


Look at that and tell me you don't want to jump right off it. Really? Not even a little bit?


Hi Jacinta! 


This was our lunch/rest stop, right at the bottom of Wentworth Falls. (Actually, you should probably verify that with Phoenix since I'm not too sure). At this point, I'll just let the photos do all the talking because brooo.....


The following 5 photos can be credited to Phoenix's superior photography skills. Thanks girl.



Don't do the pose Cynthia. Don't do it, you'll look super lame. No, seriously don't. Isn't there something more cool you could- arggh too late, she's pulled it.


After much coaxing from our exasperated tour guides, we eventually moved on from our lunch spot in search of more holes. Of water. To keep up our energy (or to waste it - I'm not sure), we got a sort of human jukebox thing going. The other poor hikers had to listen to us belt out everything ranging from One Direction to Celine Dion. Ronny threatened to stop leading if we did Let It Go. So obviously we sang it just for him. 


(Photo credit: Jacinta)


If it wasn't for the fact that there would be no internet connection, I think I would be perfectly happy living in a tree house somewhere near a waterfall. But alas, Cynthia without wi-fi is too horrible a prospect to imagine. How will I update my instagram? My Facebook? My blog? *inserts shiver of denial*


Empress Falls


(Photo credit: Cindy)

At Empress Falls, there was a deep circular pool at the base of the waterfall that abseilers were dropping into. It was deep enough to jump into from a great height so we took the chance to do just that. That moment when you leap from the ledge and fall for longer than you've ever fallen was terrifying, especially since part of you thinks that you misjudged it and will probably smash into the rocks below. But the adrenaline was so worth it. Way better than abseiling in my opinion. And you don't even have to pay $200 to do it. 

I think there's a video floating around on Facebook of us doing our first jump. It wasn't as high up as our other one but Jacinta's squeal as she leaps is pretty hilarious. 


Thanks again Ronny and Phoenix for being our tour guides! (And for not strangling us when we lowered our pace.) To check out the walk we went on plus some other ones, click here.

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