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Published: November 6th 2007
A KANGAROO!!
All the tacky tourists went crazy over this one...The Blue Mountains are a mountain range just an hour outside of Sydney. On August 27th, Danae and I headed for a little day trip to visit them. We were picked up in the morning by our tour company and we were on our way!
Our first stop was a random park where we could "see kangaroos". This is the funny thing about taking tours in Australia - they ALL have a part where you get to see kangaroos. And after you've done a few of these tours, the novelty REALLY wears off. Especially after you've been out in the outback and seen more than your share of kangaroos lying dead on the highway.
Sorry for that gruesome image, but that's the reality of Australia.
After that stop, we headed straight for the Grand Canyon (the Australian one, we didn't fly to Arizona) in the Blue Mountains for a 3 hour hike! The landscape is soo cool, at the top it's temperate vegetation but once you go into the canyon it's a rainforest! No joke! The whole canyon felt like being in Lord of the Rings or some other fantasy novel. Good times!
After the hike, we
A Kookaburra
Much cooler than a kangaroo...have you ever heard one laugh? headed to THE landmark of the Blue Mountains, the 3 sisters, a unique rock formation with particular significance to the Aboriginals.
In honour of this landmark, they've built a moderately tacky tourist area complete with a visitors centre and 2 rides - a train and a cable car. For the obscenely high price of $18, you can ride both!
Danae and I decided to spend the money, and the jury's still out on whether or not it was worth the price. It was definitely fun, though! First we rode the train down - it's actually the steepest railway in the world and it was SOOO MUCH FUN!! It was like being on a rollercoaster - but it was slow! Which may have made it SCARIER cause you kept expecting something to go wrong and the whole thing to go plummeting down the hill. I definitely screamed as much as I would have on a rollercoaster (possibly more, since it took a lot more time than a 'coaster).
At the bottom, we did a little walk around to learn about the history of the railway, etc. Then we took the cable car back up. It was somewhat less
exciting, but fun nonetheless.
Back at the top, we posed for some silly pictures outside the visitor's centre then headed back to the bus and back to Sydney. You could definitely spend more time in the Blue Mountains, but unfortunately we were running out of time in New South Wales!
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