The Blue Mountains (outside Sydney)

The Blue Mountains begin approximately 50 kms northwest of Sydney’s central business district (Wikipedia).  The limestone plateaus and deep gorges are densely covered with tree ferns and eucalyptus.  In the warm air, supposedly, the eucalyptus oils evaporate and hang near the canopy, creating a hazy blue appearance in the distance (hence the name, Blue Mountains).

On the morning of 4 November, a Wednesday (as if actual day names have much use to a traveler who can rarely tell Sunday from Tuesday – except in how early the shops close; if they even open), mom and I woke in our Sydney apartment early.  I’m not sure either of us wanted to be up, but we had to catch our Blue Mountains tour at around 6:30 am (or was it 7:30?).

Anyhow, our bus was a touch late and, therefore, a bit in a hurry – a theme that was to prevail throughout the day.  We drove through the city and picked up a few more people before heading to our first stop.  While tours aren’t generally the way I travel when I’m solo (and broke or saving money), there is probably no other way that mom and I would have ever made it to “Olympic park”.  A stop at the 2000 summer Olympic site was not mentioned on the tour brochure, so we were pleasantly surprised.  The stadiums and sports courts are still used by teams and individuals – anyone can walk or cycle the area, though I’m not sure what the price is for using the tennis courts or pool.

The 2000 Olympic torch was converted into a fountain.  I have seen another girls picture where the torch is lit, but it wasn’t on this day.

The sculpture over the ticket office of the stadium was a double helix of bird feathers – each single feather sculpted after the national bird of each competing nation.

As we were trying to leave from this brief stop mom and I wondered if we would constantly be waiting on the same couples to board the bus at all our stops – of which there were many.  However, we had to have a bit of a chuckle a short bit later; mom and I ended up being the 2^nd to last to board after our wander about the town of Leura.  Thankfully, we weren’t THE LAST couple.  In fact, the bus even took a turn about town looking for the last couple – who did end up generally being the last to board each time.  In Leaura, we had a cup of tea and some MASSIVE “flower pot” scones (baked in terra cotta pots, bought some Australiana cookie cutters (alligator, koala, etc), and also a hat for mom (for our upcoming outback adventure).

Back on the bus, we continued to Katoomba.  One of the most well known landmarks of the Blue Mountains is the Three Sisters rock formation.  We were hoping the low clouds would lift by the time we reached “Scenic World”, but they didn’t.  We boarded the scenic train railway (once containing the steepest track in the world, but apparently an Asian country has since taken that record) and made our way to the gorge floor. We had been told several legends of the area, including the formation of the three sisters and the creation of the Lyrebird.    

The clouds draped themselves over the three sisters in a lovely fashion, however it was quite frustrating to miss the iconic formation – particularly from such a great vantage point at the lower train station. 

We continued down the path and into the bush.

The area was once mined for coal, so there were a few displays and overgrown relics left behind.

We kept an eye out on the forest floor for the elusive, ground dwelling, lyrebird. However, it wasn’t until we were near the end of the gorge walk that we spotted one – and that was only because I saw another couple intently watching the bush! LOL, some of the best wildlife spotting is found by watching other people and trying to find what they are seeing! Unfortunately, a couple of loud guys weren’t paying as close attention (or possibly weren’t interested) and went thundering down the board walk. While mom and I still got to watch the long tailed birds forage, they were scared up into the bush and far enough away to make a GOOD pictures impossible.

WOW!!!!  But here’s a fantastic Youtube link for great lyrebird footage and sounds…. Showing what good mimics these birds are (chain saw sounds!), but also great as showing their amazing tail feathers.

A couple other pictures from the gorge floor….

Mom getting ready to be tarzan on the massive vines of the bush.




A  large tree fern “koru” (aka fiddlehead)

Mom looking into a burnt out, still living, tree (turpentine I believe).

A termite mound

We took “The Cableway” gondola back to the top of the gorge and found that the clouds were lifting.  It’s not a fantastic picture because of the glass, but we had our first view of the “Three Sisters”. (Extreme zoom shot, but it saves you trying to see it through the crowd we were in).

Once at the top of the gorge again I struggled to find another view point from which to take pictures of the formation.  Unfortunately, being a theme park like area, the only good views were either on the gondolas or at the train platforms.  I managed to find this interesting shot as the clouds began descending again.  We all hoped that they would lift after lunch when we were at another view point.

While I agonized over the lack of a tree trimmed viewing site, mom occupied herself with trying to capture the sulfur crested cockatoos of the area (lured in to delight tourists with a nice big bird feeder).

After a lunch at the Katoomba RSA (returned and services’ association) we stopped at a few lookouts giving us a view of the high limestone plateaus and cliffs for which the Blue Mountains are famous.  The clouds were gracious enough to lift and even clear away, giving us a beautiful view of the lush bush and orange/grey outcroppings of rock.

Mom took this picture of the rock outcropping that looks like a dragon’s head.

When we reached the Three Sisters lookout the clouds had fully lifted and the sun was VERY warm.

There was an Aboriginal guy playing the didgeridoo at the lookout.  Our bus driver had told us he was in one of the “Crocodile Dundee” films.  I barely had the courage to ask for my picture with him (after putting a gold coin donation down), let alone ask him what character he had played! (LOL, it’s rather funny that such a shy person has traveled half way around the world!)

All of us tourists congregated around the bus at the appointed time, we had been grilled on how close we were cutting our timeline at the moment.  So I had to have a laugh that the driver was the one that was late!  By the time he showed up half the bus was off getting ice creams – despite the fact that food was not supposed to be on the bus.

We ended up at the Featherdale Wildlife Center with 30-45 minutes viewing time.  The first section of the center was an open area where wallabies and birds wandered at their leisure.  Most were hanging out behind the wooden dividers that kept us humans from harassing them, but one lone wallaby was patient while we all lined up to get our photos taken as we petted it.

While several of the wallabies seemed to have swollen bellies, telling us they had joeys in the pouch, only one gave us a great view of wallaby motherhood…… It appears to be painful, or, at the least, uncomfortable!

Most all of the birds were free to come and go.  Mom got her first view of the pelicans I’d been telling her about…. She was surprised at how big they are (enormous!); she had thought I was just over exaggerating their largeness compared to the US pelicans I’d seen.  The ibis, egrets, and ducks all seemed quite happy though.  Even these kookaburras weren’t bothered with a photo opportunity.

There were HEAPS of other animals, but most all of them made me sad – as their enclosures just seemed too small. Most of the wombats were sleeping, but one poor guy was just pacing one section of wall.  It was amazing to see a sea eagle in person, but all the bird cages – particularly the raptor ones – just seemed TOO SMALL!  This is the reason I don’t go to zoos anymore.  I don’t mind the free roaming wallabies or even the koalas in a tree, I don’t feel their lives are massively different from the wild (while koalas do have territories and move around in the wild, they are generally sluggish animals that will sit in one tree as long as there is food).

The cool part about this wildlife center, was that we actually got our picture taken with a koala this time…. For Free!  Koalas look extremely cuddly and soft, but their fur is actually really wool-like and a bit stiff.  Plus, they do have some pretty mean looking claws!

Since we were there we did look at the captive birds, dingos, and (my favorite) bats.  We took pictures of the albino wallaby and peacock.

Mom caught a great shot of a regular peacock with its tail up – it did a full display rotation before settling them back down.

Closing time found us all out in the parking lot – once again waiting for our bus!  Our guide must have been slightly stressed about getting us to our ferry on time, but he didn’t show it.  We pulled up to the terminal just as the ferry was arriving!  Whew, I hate to think how he would have entertained us for an hour until the next ferry! LOL

We had a nice, even if a little cool and breezy, ferry trip on the Parramatta River to Circular Quay.  We had good views of downtown in the distance as well as the riverside residences and their blossoming jacaranda trees.  I staked out my position at the front of the ferry as we closed in on the harbor bridge.  Afterall, I didn’t have any photos from THIS angle! LOL

Once we landed at Circular Quay we had the same problem as the day before – no free bus running L  I still hadn’t sorted out which bus took us by the hotel (easy question to have asked the concierge, I know).  So, despite a long day of getting on and off of a bus we again walked through the city to our rooms.  At least, this time, mom had a good idea of how far it was!

All in all, it was a great day.  We didn’t take a tour that took us to the Jenolan Caves, but neither of us minded at all.  I had seen several caves with Dave on his visit to Western Australia and I had caught one cave on Kangaroo Island with Kathy (Dave’s mum).  Mom said caves weren’t her thing, so we didn’t worry.  I think our smiles are telling of the day.