Next stop planned for today was Scenic World.
I thought it might be a couple of stops before I get to the entrance proper on Violet Street, but the bus driver told us in an assuring tone that we could hitch on our first Scenic World ride at the next stop – East Station. He told us to present our proof of advance purchase of the Scenic World pass and the employee at the Cableway station will let us ride to the main building to exchange the passes for wristbands. So we did that, and indeed as the driver told, we were allowed to ride from the East Station’s Cableway to the main building.
That was fun – and time flew by so fast given the thing moved at a tourist-y pace. When we arrived at the main building, I asked the employee manning the Cableway where can I exchange the pass for the wristband, and made my way towards the location he pointed at and made the transaction. Now that I had the wristband, I assessed the time. It was 10.20am, and I have three things left to do here – the Railway (a steep incline railway), Cableway (a smaller cable car), and Walkway (an elevated rainforest boardwalk). I checked their map of the whole facility, and it was instantly clear to me what path I should take: go down using the Railway, walk through the Walkway, and at the end of the pathway, go back up with the Cableway. Pretty straightforward. I could’ve taken the reverse route (which I asked and it also works that way) but I would miss the thrill of the steep drop in the Railway. So with that tiny thing in mind, I queued up at the Railway section.
Once the first batch had descended down, I queued up for the next downward run and waited for our turn. But I did observe the guys going down and the vehicle. Lots of strategic padding inside to protect the passengers. Only a few passengers per row, likely to not overload the vehicle – I assume it has a generous payload limit but as an abundance of caution the operators intentionally limited it well below that. After more than 10 minutes, it was our turn. And I saw some passengers went up too. Hmmm, maybe a nice experience but time won’t give me that.
My seat at the ride was five rows from the front, and it seemed the rows above and below me were occupied by same groups – there was a nice elderly couple behind me, and the rows in front of me were occupied by young men of university age (given they were all wearing the exact same jacket with their uni logo at the back). The operators then closed the hatch to enclose us in the vehicle… then played the Indiana Jones theme over the vehicle’s speakers. Nice ambience.
Going down was brisk but not that fast. Definitely you can feel the steepness of that inclined railway – I assume it’s around 3/4 away from 90 degrees – and I spent my brief time looking to my left and right, enjoying the surroundings. No photos here as I assume the risk of your phone dropping in the vehicle ain’t optimally suitable to any phone. I ain’t risking. Ride definitely wasn’t that smooth either – in a good way. Smoothness on par with some roller coaster rides. At least it contributed to the charming experience.
Once the brief ride was over, we were on an elevated structure that led to the rainforest. But first, a snap of the way up:
I imagine those stairs to the right are at least a way for anyone to get back up if shit hit the fan, but those are steep too.
Once we all got out and the vehicle went back up (for some reason, some people in the back row wanted to take the ride up again), we went over these set of stairs, and off we went to the forest. There were two options for walkers – the short path (way less things to see but it directly led to the Cableway) or the much longer path (lots more to see which led deeper into the forest, but still ends up towards the Cableway). For me, I looked at my watch and thought of the alternatives. It was 10.45am, and ample time to decide. I have to be at the Leura Station by 1am, and the HOHO bus has two slots for it – 12.35pm and 1.35pm – so what do I do: spend a good hike in the forest and enjoy the brief solitudes, or catch the HOHO bus slot at 11.05am and spend the time at Leura Village?
I decided on the spot to go the longer way, after a cool gust of wind blew into my back. Good enough to get the health numbers up in my watch. So I descended on the Shale Bucket Bend to see more of the forest. I also noticed that a lot of the group that I went in with on the Railway walked past me towards the Cableway, and as I saw a tour guide, I knew that was the mandatory path for them. No choice, they had to stick to a time schedule.
For me, walking in the beautiful rainforest ended up a good decision. As it turned out, this “extraordinarily temperate rainforest” was a former coal mining site that was repurposed as a nature-forward tourist attraction. Good decision.
The pathways were wide sturdy structures of wood and steel, pleasant to walk on as well. Along the way, there were signs of two varieties – educational (the ones explaining things in the forest that might be of interest) and “for the kids” (the ones with cartoonized images of animals with child-friendly interactive equipment on hand). For the long path, there were also two options – the Lilli Pilli Link way (medium path) and the Yellow Robin Link way (longest path). I chose the Yellow Robin Link way, which descended a long way down.
Took lots of pictures, and these are just a fourth of them. But still nice.
The path I took was very picturesque, and the sunny weather only made it more beautiful. Still cold though, but the path made me work and move so much I was able to remove my padded jacket and beanie, and still felt comfortable with the temp. I was feeling good at that point, which made the threat of the fever seemed like it was days before and not like hours before. The air was also very fresh and smelled of trees and leaves. I enjoyed deep inhales along the way, which for a city dweller like me was like breathing in more health. Barely saw any notably exotic animals except for some wayward birds that go ka-kaw a lot.
For me, it was a welcomed and deserved respite. Briskly (but leisurely) walking around in this well-maintained rainforest was what I needed to go for the rest of the day.
The trail was cleverly planned too. As long as you’re going downwards, there’s still some pathways to go. Once you start going upwards, you’ll know you are on the way to the end. Once I got to the targeted end of the trail going up, I reached the Cableway. There are two sides for passengers (the cable car opens left and right) – one side was for those who took the short path, and the other side was for the ones that took the longer paths. I got there as one cable car was going back up.
After some time, my group’s turn came to ascend back to the main building. The cable car itself was definitely tourist-geared – spacious and sturdy-looking. It could fit in a lot of passengers. I got in a side overlooking the rainforest, and I wistfully looked back. Man, that was nice. I felt different towards this specific place compared to places like Jiufen. That one, you have to give me a reason to go back. For that Blue Mountains rainforest trail, why not a second time again? It was just pleasure and healthy vibes.
Once we got back to the main building, I immediately made my way towards the souvenirs section. I’d like to buy some but I knew as I plunked in a decent time in the rainforest trail, I had to be prudent with what time I had left. So after I did a quick walkaround of the entire sets of displays, I settled for a t-shirt (discounts are always welcome), three keychains and a very small stuffed kangaroo. For the keychains, I specifically targeted the ones that looked practical and stood out from the other designs – as well as avoiding the purely tourist-y ones I could buy elsewhere.
Once done, I looked around first to locate where the exit was, as it was a bit confusing to find and I came via the other station first. Well, there was also spots for a quick meal in the same building, but I was nearly out of time. The HOHO bus was coming at 12.05pm and I had one more planned spot to go to. Off to the bus stop, then.
Briathrail // Albert 2MNG 
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