Lower levels:
Hanging Valley
Jenolan Caves

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Moving on to Katoomba, a small town 1000m up in the Blue Mountains (not high enough for altitude sickness but certainly high enough to be very cold and misty), I find myself booked into a... Youth Hostel.

My initial abhorrence to staying in such an establishment - the visions of sweaty socked youths and overzealous staff forcing people to enjoy themselves - is rapidly replaced with a desire to stay for a few days; the Youth Hostel turns out to be comfortable, friendly and... clean.  And to cap it all, the TV room shows cultural videos including Pulp Fiction that evening.

The hostel is close to the Three Sisters rock formation, at the top of a hanging valley. The three sisters are swathed in Aboriginal legend: The story goes that a witch doctor had three beautiful daughters who fell in love with three chaps from a rival tribe - a taboo in their culture.  The chaps decided that culture could swing - so they tried to take the sisters away by force.  A fierce battle ensued, and to prevent his daughters being captured, the quack turned them to sandstone.  

The brothers chased the old chap in a bid to get magic stick and he got caught by a couple of their spears and fell into a fire where he died - he was resurrected as a bird in the ashes with a long twin spiked tail (representing the spears) - this bird is the Kookaburra which scratches the ground looking for its magic stick to turn itself back into a man and to return his daughters to life.  What happens if he succeeds is unclear, but the local tourist industry would be knackered for a start...

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