Off to the Blue Mountains

The second day in Sydney saw us up bright and early though not as early as the day before when we flew to Sydney.  We were booked with Oz Tours for an all day tour up in the Blue Mountains and I was excited.  The Blue Mountains consist mainly of a sandstone plateau with the area being dissected by gorges up to 2493 feet deep.  The highest part in the Blue Mountains is 6528 feet and we were headed to the Jamison Valley which had the Three Sisters which is a rock formation formed by erosion. 

The commonly told legend of the Three Sisters is that three sisters fell in love with three men from a neighbouring tribe, but marriage was forbidden by tribal law. Battle ensued, and the sisters were turned to stone by an elder to protect them, but he was killed in the fighting and no one else could turn them back. This legend is claimed to be an Indigenous Australian Dreamtime legend.

However, a Dr Martin Thomas, in his work "The artificial horizon: imagining the Blue Mountains", clearly shows that the "aboriginal" legend is a fabrication created by a non-Aboriginal local Katoomba identity, Mel Ward, presumably to add interest to a local landmark. The story originated in the late 1920s or early 1930s and is unknown prior to that date.

On our way to the Jamison Valley we stopped at one park where we were able to view some Eastern Grey Kangaroos that another tour had spotted.  There was just a small mob of 'roos' in the park (4 or 5) but I was able to get a pic of one of them with its mouth full of blades of grass.

The kangaroo or roo as you are more likely to hear Down Under is one of two animals of Australia that grace the  Australian coat of arms - the other being the emu.  These were selected as symbols of Australia to represent the country progress because they are always moving forward and never move backwards.

Our tour guide, Paul, was awesome as he was an amazing source of knowledge about the Blue Mountains and as we walked along he'd come up with this or that leaf to nibble on and what it was good for.  There are times you wish for a tape recorder and this definitely would have been one of those times.  Not only was he knowledgeable but his love of his job was so evident - he was a tour guide because he liked doing it...so makes a difference.

We were off to ride the Katoomba Scenic Railway, the steepest railway in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records, and originally part of the Katoomba mining tramways constructed between 1878 and 1900 descends 1482 feet through sandstone cliffs, via a rock tunnel with a maximum gradient of 52 degrees. Also, at this location is the Scenic Skyway, a glass-bottom aerial cable car that traverses an arm of the Jamison Valley, and the Scenic Cableway, the steepest aerial cable car in Australia.

We went on all three of these and I got some especially neat pictures while crossing on the Scenic Skyway, not so good ones on the Scenic Cableway and definitely not anything of merit on the Katoomba Scenic Railway...might have had something about going backwards up a 1482 foot incline in the front car looking straight down with no seat belts (though there was a cage over our heads) and a (no joke) plastic chain to keep me from falling out the side.  Obviously I didn't fall out but with 'my love' of heights and needing to be in control it wasn't such a good feeling.

It was an awesome day which we ended cruising back in through the harbor.  It was quite nice sitting up top and having a few brewskies and chat with some of the people we toured with that day.

One thing I forgot to mention was the added bonus we got driving to the Blue Mountains was being able to drive past the Olympic Village that was the site of the 2000 Olympic Games hosted by Sydney.  Pretty neat!!

Now wherever you are...have a great day!!

If you would like to see more pictures taken throughout the Blue Mountains here is a link to that photo album on Picasa:  Play slideshow