Blue Mountains

19 Blue Mountains (Fri. Feb. 20)

When we first looked at this trip and the optional trips associated with it, we decided to go on this "extra" side trip, so today we will venture into the Blue Mountains. As I said yesterday; "What the Heck? We've been to the White Mountains, Green Mountains, Black Hills, and part of the Blue Ridge so why not the Blue Mountains?" They are just a couple of hours outside of Sydney, if we were driving by car and not stopping. We are in a bus and making a number of stops along the way.

We leave early, right after breakfast and this trip includes a stop at the Featherdale Wildlife Park. This park is already very busy when we get here. I mean by tourists like us. There are already four buses here when we pull in and more than likely more are on the way. Good thing we left the hotel early. (When we leave there are 8 buses total in the parking lot.)

Some of the animals here run wild, birds mostly but also several of the animals like the Wallaby and Kangaroo. At the park we see Pheasant, Wombats, Wallaby, and a Southern Cassowary. I like this bird because it reminds me of the 2nd Jurassic Park movie when they were trying to catch some of the dinosaurs. In the movie the head hunter said to catch the one with the "Pompadour". Maybe this is it's long lost relative, who knows. Besides this bird, there are all kinds of other birds here, an Emu, Owls, hawks, swans, penguins, peacocks, bats and many more I do not know the names of, Also for animals: Koala, Lizards, turtles, a crocodile, Tasmanian Devil, Dingos, Wombats and of course kangaroos. As a matter of fact, here is a picture of one now. I call it "Kangaroo in Repose". What do you think?

As I mentioned, there are many birds, some free and some in large cages. We go into a section that has many birds of prey in these large cages. Owls (many different type), Eagles, Hawks, Osprey, Falcons and this one that thought the little kid near me looked good enough to eat. He does look mean doesn't he?

I walked by the Tasmanian Devil compound several times and it was never in sight. But, when Carmen and I were hurrying out (we had 5 minutes until the bus left) and we stop to go to the bathroom, right across from the Devil himself. I come out and there it was. I could tell it was there because people were taking pictures. I tripped one kid going to look, pushed two women off to the side; just kidding, but I did take a quick picture. I had to stretch my arm out and try and point to shoot the picture so I was lucky even to get this picture. Ain't he cute?

Also, there were many different kinds of lizards and on the way out we went by these two lizards; I think they are Comono Dragons. Not sure, but they look it and they are big around seven feet long or longer. Since I like the look of lizards and these are rather big, I took a couple of pictures. Don't they look chummy?

We drive by Glenbrook, altitude 163 meters (535 feet) and they call it the "Gateway to the Blue Mountains". But what struck me as more important on the same sign they also identify the "Australian Gnome Convention". Now that would be interesting to see. As we continue higher in elevation and go through towns, they all have a sign identifying the town's elevation and a slogan to identify themselves. For instance, at 371m "First Mountain Settlement", at 609m "Heart of the Mountains", at 673m "Jewels of the Mountains", at 732m "The Original Blue Mountain", at 769m "Blue Skies" Village and so on up to above 900 meters.

When we are almost at our destination we stop for lunch in Leura. Carmen and I buy a couple deli sandwiches at a small market and with chips and sodas eat out lunch out on a chair along the street. After walking around this quaint town, we make our way back to the bus to continue on our trip up to Echo Point and then our final destination.

In no time at all, we arrive at Katoomba and Echo Point finding an overlook of Cedar Valley and the Wild Dog Mountains which reminds me of the Mountains in Virginia (USA) along the Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Only some of these mountains have tops like those out West and in the Grand Canyon. From the Echo Point lookout there is a view of a rock formation consisting of three stone pillars known as the "Three Sisters". Of course there is a legend that goes along with the pillars, but the formations are still unusual. (For more information and legend, look for "three sisters blue mountains" on Google.)

We continue around the corner to Scenic World and Jamison Valley, our final destination here in the Blue Mountains. Here we find three rides: a gondola ride across the gorge, a cable way ride down/up to the bottom, and a scenic railway to the bottom/to the top. As usual, since we are on the bus, we only have a limited amount of time for discovering the aspects of the park. In other words we only have an hour before we have to be back on the bus, Gus.

We take the Scenic Railway to go down to the bottom of the ravine. This ride is the steepest incline railway in the world descending to a lush and hidden valley! The ride drops 415 m leading the train through a natural cliff-side tunnel at a 52 degree angle. We are in seats with a cage over us so no one falls out.

After exiting the train, instead of heading left for the Rainforest Walkway (leading to the Cableway) we turn right. About a quick 6 minute walk we come to Katoomba Falls. We do not have that much time to devote to "exploring" the falls and only get a few pictures from the walkway over the stream. But, even from here the 55 meter drop is pretty nice. Carmen and I take a number of pictures (as I usually do with waterfalls trying to capture different water effects) of the waterfall top and also some of the cascades down by the small foot bridge to cross the stream.

We return the way we came and then at the Scenic Railway we head for the Scenic Walkway. The walkway is a two kilometer boardwalk through the rainforest. It is described as a "path through a Jurassic rainforest" and indeed it is. Here we find tree ferns, these are really neat looking. Also along the walkway is a Coal Mine Exhibition.

We continue around the walkway and decide to go back up by way of the Scenic Cableway. Of course this cableway boasts itself as the steepest aerial cable car in the Southern Hemisphere. We ascend 545 meters back up to the top. The ride is nice with views of the falls, Three Sisters, and the valleys. In no time we are back on top and head into the gift shop and the bathrooms. We look around for about 10 minutes, then back on the bus.

Our next stop is a 10 minute quick look see at the overlook in the Blue Mountain National Park. This view overlooks the valleys in the National Park, different from the area at Scenic World. Here we see another waterfall. Unfortunately, the sun is not out when we first get there and Carmen and I stick around waiting for the sun. It does come out and as we are leaving, Carmen has actually left already, Roubin (our AAT Kings tour guide who has accompanied us on this excursion) notices a snake. (Good thing Carmen was not around.) Roubin calls the bus driver over and the three of us examine it trying to see if it is a poisonous snake or not (like I would know). It is a small snake, about as big around as your pinky. Anyway we just leave it alone.

After hopping back on the bus we head back to Sydney. Of course the trip back to Sydney from here is straight through, no stopping, no sightseeing, just a movie and a nap. Our first drop off location is at a ferry stop. To get there we drive through the site of the 2000 Olympics compound.

It is late, around 6:30PM when we get back to the hotel. Everyone has decided to get a drink in a bar right next to the hotel. Tomorrow we are splitting up and some of us are flying to Los Angeles and the rest of us are leaving for Fiji. For our flight to Fiji, originally Carmen and I had a flight time of 6:30 AM which meant we needed to leave the hotel no later than 3:45 AM. However, our flight is canceled and we are on a later flight, which is now at around 1:00 PM. Much easier on the wake-up.

See you tomorrow after we get to Fiji.