Prince Henry Cliffwalk (Scenic World to Echo Point)

Location: Blue Mountains National Park, NSW
Date: 2nd January, 2014
Distance: 4.4 km
Time: 1 h 40 min

We figured we couldn't come to the Blue Mountains without an obligatory visit to the three sisters, but being big haters of crowds, reasoned we might escape most of them by doing this walk early in the morning. Arriving at Scenic World at 7:30am we found the parking lot almost empty. Although we mostly encountered only joggers on the track, it hardly felt like a wilderness walk. Endless lookouts with awesome views greeted us at every corner along the cliff top, but the steady drone of motorists and rubbish littering the paths took away a lot of the enjoyment.

Katoomba Cascades are nice, but spoiled due to rubbish left by careless tourists

Elvish tree...?

Awesome views over Jamison Valley out towards Ruined Castle and Mount Solitary

At least we didn't have to fight with anyone to enjoy the lookouts along the way. Even at Echo Point there was only a couple of dozen people milling around, all searching for the best photo with the famed three sisters (ultimately they all look the same no matter where you stand... not sure why people spend so much time taking photos here). It's a shame really, that most tourists who come to the Blue Mountains only see this small section of the park (in fact, that's all I did when I came here as a kid). Actually, it's probably a good thing the tourist buses mostly just congregate around here or the rest of the park would be overrun with people too - many obviously without any appreciation for what they were seeing, given the amount of rubbish lying around.

On the walk back to Scenic World we started running into more and more people, so we didn't stop until we were back at the car. Emily was getting disgruntled because she hadn't had her morning tea yet, so we found a waffle cafe on the main drag in Katoomba to have breakfast at.

Tea and tiny teddies... everything is good in Emilyland