Chasing the Sunrise

The morning after our jaunt to Katoomba Falls Richie and I planned to “carpe diem” and wake up early to watch the sun rise over the Blue Mountains.  The girl at the information desk had pointed us to Sublime Point in the next town over, Leura, as a good outlook with easterly views.  The plan was to get a taxi there at 5:10 AM and then hike back along a cliff-side trail.  We woke up at 5 AM but we probably wouldn’t have gotten out of bed if we didn’t see a bright pink streak across the sky outside our window.

That sight mobilized us.  We got our taxi out there but the driver ripped us off—$20 for an eight-minute ride over to Leura.  And it turns out that Leura must be a couple hundred feet lower in elevation than Katoomba because we were firmly in the clouds and couldn’t really see anything.  Our hostel room was above the clouds, but Sublime Point not so much.  A couple times the clouds lifted for a moment so we could see into the valley, but that’s about it.

Peeking under clouds.

We decided to give up at about 6:10 AM and head back.  The experience reminded me of a family vacation to St. John a few years ago when my brothers and I woke up before light to hike out to a promontory named Ram’s Head to see the sunrise.  That attempt failed miserably as well, with a large cloud blocking the sun in front of us.  I don’t have any photos from that event, but here’s an artist’s depiction:

Facebook "graffiti" by Zack Nolan.

Back in the Blue Mountains, Richie and I couldn’t find the cliff-side trail that led back to Katoomba.  We tried bushwhacking for a little ways, but no dice.  We ended up running back along the roads, up the couple hundred feet of elevation.  When we made it to the hostel we passed out for an hour and a half but still managed to catch the 10:20 AM train back to Syndey for a great day/evening/night.

The road to Katoomba.

Later we both decided that it’s fruitless to chase the sunrise, and that you have to let the sunrise come to you.  Under a week later we (with two friends Tommy and Tina) were at a caravan park in Byron Bay, halfway through our road trip from Sydney to Brisbane (more on this later).  After a long night out on the town—I won’t go into details—we were sitting in camp chairs, discussing matters.  The sky slowly began to lighten and before we even realized it there was a sunrise in front of our eyes.

I guess you just can’t force these things.