An Awesomely Traumatic Experience: Blue Mountains bushwalking to the Ruined Castle

I went to the Blue Mountains today to try the walk to the Ruined Castle. To save time, we started the walk from the Golden Staircase parking lot, since starting from Scenic World would have been an extra 1.5 hours - not so good if the walk was already 4 hours return.

We started the trek down the Golden Staircase and within the first 100 meters, we knew that the trip back would be challenging and a half. It was slippery, exhausting, a bit hazardous - and I loved it. Nothing like mortal fear to make a bush walk interesting, I say.

Thirty minutes later, we were at the bottom of the Golden Staircase, and began the 2 hour trek to the Ruined Castle. Most of the terrain was level, save for the last 30 minutes of the walk, closer to the Castle itself.

Just for the record, the Castle is actually made of ginormous boulders that, from afar, look like a ruined castle. If you can squeeze through the two boulders in order to reach the peak of the "Castle" (and coming down from that was actually no easy feat in itself), the view is absolutely fantastic. We had lunch in a makeshift picnic area nearby and had an awesome view of the valley.

The tricky part (and traumatic for me!) was the walk back to the car. Some of us opted for the longer but relatively more level walk to the Scenic Railway, which is the world's steepest railway (according to the Scenic World pamphlet, at least). Three of us decided to brave the trek up the Golden Staircase, and that was where I hit trouble.

I think athletes call it “hitting the wall” - when the body just refuses to go further. However, I think the more appropriate term for me is “watching the wall crash on me”. Not only did I need to have frequent stops to catch my breath and listen to my heartbeat pounding through my ears, but I began to experience cold chills, which are a sign that my body needed all my energy from my extremities (e.g. legs, arms) in order to keep my heart pumping. That is basically one step before fainting (and quite possibly death). I always remind myself that when I start hearing my dearly departed father calling me to join him in the pearly gates, it is not a good sign - and I definitely heard him whisper at one point in that walk up. I was so tired that I could barely whack away the leeches that stuck to my foot - many thanks to Reuben for actually having the energy to whack those things aside.

Rating:
Bushwalking in the Blue Mountains: 5 slices
Golden Staircase: 2 slices (but I will definitely try again once I get my fitness levels up!)