Seeing Blue

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March 27th 2018

Published: March 27th 2018

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2Chawks

Blue haze over mountains

Blog 13

Sydney - March 24, 2018 – Weather forecast: partly cloudy, daytime temperature of 27°C; overnight temperature of 18°C

Back to the routine of up early, breakfast, then on the bus by 9:00 for a 76km ride west of the city to the Blue Mountains. The mountains are obscured by a blue haze caused in part when light is scattered by the emissions from the eucalyptus trees. The Blue Mountains is recognized as an UNESCO World Heritage Area.

Traffic out of the city, even though it was Saturday, was very heavy and it took over an hour and a half to get to our first stop at Govetts Leap Lookout so we could view Bridal Veil Falls. Since it had rained recently there was actually water cascading over the edge, 210m above the valley floor. After a short 30-minute photo stop we ventured on to the village of Leura where we paused for lunch.

On our drive back to Sydney our next scheduled stop was at the Featherdale Wildlife Park, where we had the opportunity to view many of the unusual animals and birds of Australia. We did

No Blue Haze

see koalas but could not hold them as it is against the law to do so in New South Wales; Cairns in Queensland is the only state that permits holding them. Most of the animals and birds were in protective cages or enclosures but you could walk among the kangaroos to both feed and pet them. Nocturnal creatures, like the Tasmanian Devil, were holed up in their dens making it difficult to photograph them. Unfortunately, this park did not have a platypus, so that unusual creature remains on our list for future viewing, we hope.

Just as we boarded the bus for the last 40 km to return to our hotel we were caught in a sudden rain that actually lasted all the way back into the city, only clearing just as we arrived at the hotel. Over dinner we compared notes with our friends who had taken an independent tour to the same area.

Additional photos below

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