Our bus driver, Dave picked us up at 7:30 to head to Blue Mountains for the day. Blue Mountains is an hour and a half away, so we made a whole day trip out of it. We learned a lot about Blue Mountains and its history on our way, thanks to Dave.
Here's a little information about Blue Mountains;
The geography goes back three hundred million years ago, which is older than the Grand Canyon. The region was named Blue Mountains because of the visible blue haze . The eucalyptuses in the air causes this blue haze. What I found very interesting is that no koalas live in the mountains.
Our first stop of the trip was in a town called Katoomba, where we rode on three rides. First, we rode in a cable car to get a great view of the Blue Mountains and the "Three Sisters," which are three big rocks connected on the mountains. The cable car took us to a boardwalk that was built around all the trees, and no trees were allowed to be cut to make it. The boardwalk is four kilometers long, and has just recently been built. We were able to walk on the boardwalk, and able to take in the scenery.
Next, we rode on the world's steepest railroad. This railroad has an incline of 52 degrees, and took just about a minute to ride up. Everyone was excited because we got to ride up and down the railroad (and then up again), which Dave explained was unusual on the tours he guides. He normally only has people ride up it once. Personally, I thought it was somewhat scary, not just because of the incline but also because of the speed. There was one point that we couldn't see anything and it was all black, which was the scariest part of the ride.The last thing we did at the stop was ride the scenic skyway above the mountains. The view was pretty similar to what we saw in the cable car, but a little closer and clearer for pictures.
We stopped at Echo Point to get an even better view of the mountains after eating lunch. We actually had to stop there twice because the first time it was ranining and you could barely see anything. See pictures at the end of the blog post to enjoy the beauty of the Blue Mountains.
On our way to our last stop Dave showed us how to use a boomerang. I had never seen someone use one, so it was cool to see. He explained that as long as you don't miss, it won't come flying back and hit you. Before reaching our final destination, we stopped at a little candy store. I was amazed by all the different types of candy and flavors there were, and wanted to buy one of everything. I think everyone really needed something sweet (or sour) and going to the candy store was a great move!
Our final destination before going back to the hostel was Featherdale Wildlife Park. This park consisted of many animals and petting and feeding areas to interact with the animals. My favorite part about the park was being able to get really close to the koala bears and kangaroos. I was able to touch a koala bear and even get a selfie with one! This was probably one of the highlights of the trip so far. We were able to feed kangaroos, which also made it easier to take good pictures of them because they would come to you. I didn't feed them myself, but many people did. I also completed the "passport" we were given before entering the park, which included getting stamps when going to see certain animals. We all truly enjoyed the animal park, which was seen by all the pictures, including selfies, that everyone took.
Dave drove us to a ferry stop, and we took about an hour ferry ride back to the Circular Quay to return to the hostel. When we got back to the hostel, a group of us attended a barbecue on the roof, where we ate kangaroo and sausage. It was a great dinner for a good price!
We really lucked out on the weather, as it was predicted to rain for a portion of the day. The only time it rained was when we were just leaving the rides in Katoomba. We also were very lucky to have Dave guide us throughout the day. I think it is safe to say that everyone had a great time touring the Blue Mountains and will sleep well tonight! I hope you enjoyed reading my post about today's adventures. Enjoy the pictures below that I took throughout the day. Thanks for reading!
Emma Ganiban
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| Blue Mountains (notice the Three Sisters) |
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| The railway |
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