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Published: November 8th 2013
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Wentworth Falls
Needs some more water. Not rained here since June. This was an organised trip so 8.15 saw us standing outside the hotel waiting for our pickup in a minibus. We booked with Oz Trails as their schedule missed out the zoo which we weren't fussed about. Real mixed bag on the trip - we had Fins, Indonesians, Irish, Japanese, Americans as well as us Brits.
First stop was a bit random (by the parramatta river where the rowing took place at the Sydney Olympics) and appeared to be for the sole reason of making sure you had already paid for your trip. From there we carried on up to the mountains and to the Wentworth Falls lookout. We were told this trip didn't include much walking which was true. What they didn't say was the the bit of walking there was involved going up and down 240 steps!! And our tour guide, JB, was no slouch!!! Wish I had worn something with shorter sleeves! Trouble was I got bitten the day before and was a bit paranoid.
View however was spectacular. Hard to show how enormous the landscape is on my little iPhone pictures. Smog was also still around which eyes deal with better than cameras.
Amazingly,
Blue Mountains
Or Smokey mountains as they are now called since the fire! given the recent bush fires there was a bloke having a ciggy! Got short shrift from our guide who reminded him of the $4,000 dollar fine if you are caught smoking in the national park. However as the day progressed it seemed a bit of bolt and horse moment. The bush, and particularly the eucalyptus trees (which burn really well apparently) are everywhere not least alongside every road and around every house. Sure they can't ban smoking everywhere and I assume these fires can also start anywhere.
We saw no sign of the current fires (apart from the smog) on this trip. Apparently it's the other side of the ridge. But we did get to see some decimation from fire at one of the sights later. This one was started deliberately and the person involved is now spending 5 years in prison.
After the falls we stopped at a town called Leura for a do it yourself lunch break. Very pretty town and good toastie. First of the trip!
After that it was on to Katoomba, the main event. They have built a sort of theme park around it called 'Scenic World' which consists of 3 rides.
A sky car which takes you over the canyon, a cable car which travels down (and up) to the board walk and a train ride which does the same at the opposite end of the board walk. The train has the title of the steepest incline train in the world with an incline of 52 degrees. Well I can confirm it's definitely steeper than the Peak tram in Hong Kong!
The board walk is a short (maybe 1/2 mile) walk that takes you through the rainforest and past the Katoomba mine. It shut just after the Second World War (and was the reason the railway was built in the first place)
Again spectacular scenery. Katoomba is renowned for the waterfalls there and is a rock formation called the 3 Sisters. However one of the most impressive views was from the sky car as it has a glass viewing platform where you can see the top of the rainforest below as you glide over. It takes 6 seconds to hit the floor if the glass bottom breaks!
After some time here, in what was a very well done amenity, it was time to get back on the coach
Leura
Nice hippy town in the hills. and make the long haul back to Sydney. One stop on the way back at a place call Lincoln's Rock. And actually probably, from a view perspective, it was definitely saving the best to last. And guess who else was there - a bride and groom! They just get everywhere!!!!
The trip ended when they put us on a ferry at the old Olympic park. There are many similarities between London and Sydney, one being the redevelopment of the athlete village into a new urban village. Apparently this has been very successful in Sydney and it's now somewhere people want to live. It's riverside setting may have the edge on Stratford! But they don't have Westfield on the corner though! The ferry return saw the most amazing houses lining the coast. As well as a lot of 4 and 8 person rowing boats. Not a mean feat when competing against loads of ferry boats causing severe wash! Ian was very jealous of the sailors as well.
By the time we got to Darling Harbour it was 6.15 so we decided to eat straight away before coming back to pack for our flight the following morning to cairns. Restaurant
6 seconds to hit the ground
Hope the glass holds! Going over the Blue Mountains in a magic school bus. Laura you would love it, was right on the harbour called 'Georges'. Had the most amazing Greek lamb - literally fell off the bone.
Home by 9 as I was flagging. View on the trip - very enjoyable but it was a long way to go. We had toyed with the idea of doing it ourself via the train and I do think this was simpler and we got to places we wouldn't have been able to. But it's a lot of time on a coach which still has shades of school trip for me. We will need to make sure we think about how we want to do the great ocean road when we get to Melbourne.
As a Friday night darling harbour and cockle bay wharf were buzzing. Pop up bars, lots of music. Very lively. I could tell Ian was wistful but I pointed out that we were probably twice the age of the average attendee. Didn't add to his mood! Too knackered to pack so I'm writing this with Ian fast out next to me. Cairns tomorrow but no wifi so getting my writings in now.
See you soon.
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