Tuesday – November 20, 2018
We had read about “The Blue Mountains” which are located about two hours west of Sydney. We left early in the morning and took the train from Central Station to the town of Katoomba.
The mountains get their blue hue from the droplets of oil in the air from the native eucalyptus trees. We took a bus from Katoomba to a tourist area called Scenic World which offered multiple ways to view the mountains. There was a cable car to go down into the valley to experience the Rainforest.
In the cablecar, we passed the rock formation called “The Three Sisters” and heard several different legends about the famous siblings.
We walked along the wooden walkways on the floor of the Rainforest. Unfortunately, there’s been a longterm drought in the region and the forest wasn’t very moist. I guess we were lucky it wasn’t raining. There was a variety of rainforest trees which was very interesting. Coal mining was the main commodity here about a century ago.
Scenic World reminded me of an amusement park with several “rides” to go over, under, in, and around the nearby mountains and valleys. At the other end of the Rainforest walkway, we took the Scenic Railway back up to the top of the mountain. It was like a short fast roller coaster ride. But we went up backwards! I imagine going down might be very scary!
Scenic World was crowded with multi-generational families. Later, we rode across another deep gorge in a giant cablecar that held 75 people. The floor of the car opened during its passage to reveal the tops of the trees below.
Later in the late afternoon, we caught a bus to take us to the train station to return to Sydney. We decided to take the train from the nearby town of Leura on the same railroad line. The Leura post office was decorated for Christmas, but with 70 degree temperatures, it doesn’t feel like Christmas! It was a fun day and gave us a chance to see the region outside Sydney.