Shady Travels: Live, Explore, Learn: Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls

When you're hiking in the mountains looking for waterfalls, you can't help but sing TLC's 'Don't go chasing waterfalls'. This was the theme song of our hike through the Blue Mountains.

Autumn settled right in, but I didn't seem to see it. Living in Sydney, the few parks I have are full of tropical flora. Many of the trees keep their leaves and if they do fall, they don't go through the colour changes you would see throughout America. That sort of makes me sad that children don't have the chance to enjoy piling a yard's full of leaves together and jumping in with making a huge splash of red, brown, yellow and green.

To enjoy the crisp Autumn air (Australian's do not call it the Fall), we took a few friends to the Blue Mountains for the day. Sydney is really an amazing city because it is a bustling metropolis surrounded by beaches on one side and mountains on the other. The Blue Mountains is only 50km away and is accessible by the City Rail train system. There are different train stops throughout the Blue Mountains. Today we were stopping at Wentworth Falls.

Wentworth Falls is less than 2 hours by train and is perfect for a short half-day hike. I'll be the first person to tell you that I don't like hiking. Dating Dave, who's been hiking his entire life, makes trips like these tough. I don't enjoy elevation or the feeling that one misstep can send me tumbling down the mountain. Back in Korea, my friend Christie and I went hiking at Suraksan, a local mountain. On our way down, I lost my footing and tumbled 20 yards down the mountain. On another hiking trip, Dave and I were climbing Seoraksan with our colleague Hannah. We went all the way to the top, or so we thought. I would still have to scale the side of a rock face with the help of a rickety handrail. I broke down crying.

Ever since that day, I have avoided hikes, walks, expeditions etc. Luckily for Dave, he has found a group of work colleagues who like to go on hikes around Sydney - there is great bushwalking all around the greater Sydney area.

For this hike through Wentworth Falls, Dave was comfortable leading the way because he had gone with his work friends previously. He consulted their favourite website for trail mapping called Wild Walks. He found a trail starting only a five minute walk from the Wentworth Falls station.

We boarded the City Rail train at 8am with our friends Ben, Blake, Max, Sophie, Jenny and Mike. Four couples cozy in our train car faced each other catching up and admiring the scenery as the train whizzed out of Sydney and through the Inner West towards the Blue Mountains. In less than 2 hours as the train scheduled promised, we arrived at Wentworth Falls station. We took in some coffees and picked up a few snack items for the trail and headed off.

For 4 hours total, we hiked (rather leisurely strolled) through the Wentworth Falls area. It wasn't the tiring and treacherous hiking experience I thought I was going to have. It was relaxing and hard to notice elevation because as we walked we would gradually go up for a while and then gradually walk down. There were a few instances where we had to climb very high, but there were sturdy hand rails and large steps. If hiking is walking, then I can handle it.

The views were breathtaking. Being a clear day, we could take in the views for miles. The place does live up to its name. There were over 10 waterfalls, all with water because it had previously rained. One of the most disappointing things you could do is go see a water fall and there be no actual water falling - similar to seeing volcanoes. They are actually just big hills.

One of the best thing about hiking with friends is that it's a good time to catch up. We not only caught up on each other's present lives, but learned a lot about our pasts and future pursuits. We talked about past hikes we've done. Things we miss about living in America. Where we want to be in the next 2-5 years and even started singing random 90s tunes - hence Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls.

By 3pm, we were back at the station. Dave and I had to go back to Sydney because I had a soccer game the next day. The rest of the group were going to stay the night in Katoomba and enjoy a bit more of the Blue Mountains. Dave and I rode back to Sydney admiring all the nature stills we took and began discussing a return trip to see the Three Sisters and more of the Blue Mountains.

If you're ever in Sydney and looking for a quick day trip out of the city, I highly suggest going to Wentworth Falls for a lovely hiking experience. It's only a train ride away!