Sydney, Australia - August 9, 2012

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Sorry for the delayed post of my blog. Internet is hard to find and very expensive.

We arrived at the Sydney airport around 6:30am. A successful flight but not much sleep by me, however Michael and Cindy’s Dad fairly well. Prior to landing we a good breakfast to start our day with an omelet, yogurt, croissant, and fresh fruit. What a great experience in business class on United.

Once we disembarked from the plane, we received an express pass to move through immigration. This process normally could take 20+ minutes, however we went through the process in 5 minutes. Since we did not check our bags we were able to move quickly through security and out to a cab. By the way, it is winter time here, so it is freezing cold.

We arrive at our hotel around 715am in Sydney, Grand Medina Hotel close to Darling Harbor and the train station. We dropped off our bags at the hotel, filled out the paper work and then received information on the trains and a city map.

Right across the street from our hotel was Town Hall Square, this is a train station. We bought our train tickets here to travel o Katoomba, west of Sydney. This town is where we are meeting our tour. The train system is Sydney is called MyTrain. For the most part, the train was OK, but the exterior has a lot of graffiti and the inside need cleaning. When we boarded the train and then got off the first stop which was Central Station. From there we transferred to track No. 5 to take our train to Katoomba. The train was scheduled to leave at 824am, we arrived for the train at 745am. The one way ticket was $8.20, not bad considering the train ride would be a long journey.

After a very long train ride we arrived in Katoomba around 1030am. The initial sights along the way were very rough; however once we moved through towns like Granville, the countryside was quite beautiful. Before getting closer to our destination it was mountainous with beautiful cliffs, valleys, and high peaks.

There initially was confusion on where we were to meet in our tour bus in Katoomba, however after a phone call to the tour company; we arranged a meeting location to be picked up. Our first stop on the tour was Scenic World, Blue Mountains Australia.

Scenic World, Blue Mountains Australia

We started at the visitor’s center where our tour guide gave us tickets to ride the cableway or railway to the valley. On the way to valley, we took the very fast railway. I took some photos of us descending, however it was tricky. Immediately off the railway was an observation deck overlooking the Blue Mountains and the famous Three Sisters. One of the photos attached depict 3 distinct rock formations which represent the Three Sisters. Other pictures attached show some of the awesome views of the mountainous terrain of the eastern part of Australia. I had no idea Australia had such a diverse terrain. Thought it was generally flat.

This area is absolutely incredible to the senses, just awesome. After taking photos, we walked a trail that took us through a rain forest. Very interesting fauna, unique to Australia. One plant/tree that I found interesting was a five leaf fern. I attached a photo of this. We also passed an old coal mine off the hiking trail. When finished with our short hike we took the cableway back to the visitor center. The tour guide gave us a short window to visit the area. Michael purchased a few stuffed animals and Cindy’s dad a few hats.

After we boarded our bus, we drove to a look-out area viewing more of the Blue Mountains. The tour guide explained to us the Blue Mountain get the name because certain times of day when temperature gets to a certain level in the atmosphere the mountain color turns blue. The attached photo hopefully explains the visual we observed. After our quick stop at the observation area, we had lunch at the Katoomba Golf Club. During the summer months this place is probably real nice, but everything was brown because it is winter. We ate a buffet lunch which included beef tips, pasta, rice and salad. This was acceptable but not the top on my list. We had 45 minutes to eat for lunch.

After lunch we drove to another outlook area, however here we were able to stop for a longer time. We walked down approximately 225 steps to an observation area. It took 10 minutes to walk to this area. This area was extremely windy and cold, but the view was incredible. In the area was an absolutely beautiful waterfall named Princes Waterfalls. The falls dropped off a very steep mountain and with the wind it displayed incredible rainbows and huge windblown spray. I am not sure if I have ever seen anything like this before. Again, this view and surrounding area was incredible to the senses. Michael and I posed for several photos, and awesome are for this. After about 10 minutes, we began returning to the tour bus. Michael and I began running up the steep trail, however after about 40+ steps, I was whipped. Between the high winds and cold temperature, it wore me out.

We then visited a small village called Leura. There claim to fame was shopping and sweet shops. Nothing interested us so we did the ceremonial walk around and headed back to the bus and waiting for the rest of the tour group. It was much warmer there.

Our tour bus driver drove us for about 1.5 hours back towards Sydney to stop at the Featherdale Wildlife Park. I visited this Park back in 2000 and have vivid memories of the wildlife roaming around. All the wildlife here is native to Australia. When we entered the park you were immediately able to pet some of the animals. Michael was able to pet and pose with one of the Koala bears and a Kangaroo. Some of the other animals we saw but did not touch included Dingo’s, Tasmanian Devil (would not sit still to take a picture), crocodile, and flying fox (bat). Michael’s favorite part of this place was being able to touch the animals. My favorite park was Cindy’s dad egging on a stork type bird. He would raise his arms then the bird would raise their wings. It was very entertaining.

Once we were finished at the Wildlife Park, we drove to the Olympic site of the 2000 Summer Games. What a beautiful area. The area is now for multi-use from housing, entertainment and hotels. We did not have enough time to get out and walk.

Our final stop on the tour was a river cruise on the Captain Cook cruise. Unfortunately it was dark on our journey to Darling Harbor, so the very nice narrator did little to excite us.

We exited the river cruise and search for a place to eat dinner, it was 700pm. Luckily, next to the harbor there was a restaurant named Bungalow 8. The restaurant was mainly outdoors, but it was filled with heaters above and freestanding. This made being outdoors semi-tolerable. The food here was awesome. Cindy’s dad had salmon filets, Michael had a great burger and I had a chicken breast on a bed of lettuce. The best part of my meal was the popcorn on my dish. Never figured that one out.

After dinner we walked back to our hotel, which were actually apartments. The walk was long, windy and cold this time of night, 830pm. The hotel was recommended by friends of ours that live in Australia. Thank you Deb. What a great recommendation. The apartment was very spacious and comfortable. All of us were in bed at 900pm. It had been 48 hours since we had slept and showered.

Too some up the day, Michael’s favorite part of the day was the wildlife park and mine was the Blue Mountains area.

On Friday we are up early and flying to Ayers Rock. Can’t wait to visit this area. It looks amazing.

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