Not so Blue Mountains

Trip Start Oct 16, 2007
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Trip End May 09, 2008


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Monday, January 7, 2008

At least for one day we wanted to get out of the city.  So on our last day we took a day trip to the World Heritage Blue Mountains. At 6:45 in the morning and still very sleepy, we jumped on a City Rail train 2 hours west to Katoomba.  In Katoomba, there is a hop on-and-off tourist bus that circles the city, attractions, and trailheads around the mountains, which made it really easy to get around.    The mountains are supposed to look blue from a distance due to sunlight refracting through the eucalyptus oil that evaporates from the trees.   Well, they didn't look so blue to us, maybe just a dark green.  On the other hand, maybe we weren't far enough away for them to look blue.  It was pretty nice anyway. 

At one end of the Blue Mountains, there is the privately run Scenic World, which is a popular tourist destination.   At $25 a person (more sticker shock), it delivers 3 ways to travel across the canyon or up/down the cliffs - a Skyway, Cableway, and a Railway.   The rides were Disney World-like, Frank says he would have liked it better as a kid.    What was nice was the well-maintained elevated walkway through the indigenous forests with its tall tree ferns and massively tall and old trees.  We also saw some weird birds making strange noises and clawing for worms.   

After several hours of hiking in the unbearable hot sun along the canyon cliffs we finished up the day in the town of Leura.  Leura has some cute little shops and restaurants but most of them were already closed at 5pm!  All in all a nice change from the last few days in the city.
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