Sunday the 26th

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We get a fairly early rise today, it sure was cool last night, and we didn’t have the heater on, but should have, at 2 o’clock in the morning it was too much fiddling to start it up.

Jason makes breakfast for everyone (not quite the same as we’re used to, but ok for camping - it’ll get better.) We decide to use the park’s facilities for their showers, and they’re pretty good! The water is much better here than Sydney, as it turns out I’m having a pretty good hair day. We all get showered and set for the day.

First stop Scenic World. This is I guess Australia’s version of the Grand Canyon. Not quite as spectacular, but pretty cool. We take a cable car across a small canyon that has a clear glass floor. Pretty cool! The floor is made of electrically charged glass, which looks like privacy glass when you get on the cable car, but when you’re over the canyon it turns crystal clear… very cool! From the cable car we get a pretty good look at a rock formation called the three sisters. Legend has it that three beautiful sisters lived with the Gundungurra people in the valley below. The sisters were in love with a neighboring nation of Daruk people, but the marriage was forbidden by tribal law. You know the story; they got married, but got turned to stone, etc. Anyhow, we get off the car and walk 15 minutes down to a waterfall, check it out and take some pictures, and we get back on the car and start heading back to the main side. Halfway back we hear the distinctive cockatoo call, and what do ya know there are a flock of umbrella cockatoo’s flying amongst the trees, maybe 300 feet beneath us. It is quite a site seeing these graceful birds fly amongst the trees, and not in cages. They certainly sound the same, even louder outdoors than they do when they’re in the pet shops. The cable car ride is over, and we’re back on the main side.

The other part of scenic world is a tram that goes over a cliff and down to the bottom of the canyon, I think about 1 km away. We get on the tram and it’s FAST! We’re moving along horizontal to the land when suddenly we go over a cliff and are heading down at a 45 degree angle. We take the 5 minute ride and end up in what seems like a jungle down below. There is a 20 minute walk on the boardwalk, where we see some of the original things that people in the olden days did here, primarily coal mining. We get to see inside an old coal mine, & see some of the old machinery that they used move the coal up the cliffs. Time to back up! We get on a railway train, grab the first car, so there is nothing in front of us, and we’re off. We’re going up the mountain so fast, almost what seems like a 90 degree angle (actually 52 degrees, but plenty steep) It’s the steepest train ride in the world! Tell ya I wouldn’t have hade a fun time if we went down this cliff on the train. Going up was about enough I could handle. We exit the park, and head off to a town called Oberon. This is the closest RV Park to the Jenolan caves. Apparently they are some of the most spectacular caves in the world (we’ll see how they compare to Carlsbad, NM.)

This town really rolls up the streets on Sunday, not much to do at all. We do find a real nice diner that serves some really good food, we get 3 burgers, Wes gets some chicken nuggets, and Paulina gets a chicken sandwich. I’m not sure what’s with the burgers here, but this is the second time we get them with sliced beets on them. Jason gets the deluxe burger and it has fried egg on it! They were really good, sans the beets. Anyhow, we’re off to the campsite, to do some laundry, to get prepared for tomorrow!

More tomorrow!

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Photos

steepest railway in the world
and they're not kidding!