Day 34 - The Misty Blue Mountains (Sunday 13 January)

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The day started with breakfast in the room because at 6:30 am (yes I repeat 6:30 am) we were too early for breakfast anywhere else. At 7:30 Sam our 4 WD bus driver came to the hotel to pick us up together with another guest Hien, to take us on a trip to the Blue Mountains.

As there were only three of us going the tour started immediately. Our trip was changed a little because of a fear of bush fires and the reserve rangers had closed some of the park.

Australia is a new country in terms of settlers, the first Brits arriving in 1788 when our other colony the USA refused to accept any more convicts. In terms of indigenous population nobody is too sure when and from where the aborigines arrived but they have probably been in Australia for about 10,000 years. Another interesting fact about the aborigines is that they do not have the 'Africa gene' and it may be that they will dispel the 'out of Africa theory'. In geological terms Australia is a very old country and its geological formations stopped developing a long time ago. On the whole the country is flat and is only fertile around the coastal areas. Of course there are some exceptions but most of the hinterland is the outback and barren desert.

Our first port of call was Featherdale Wildlife Park. Here we saw all varieties of Australian wild life. We could feed the kangaroos, wallabies, emus and other birds who were walking around wherever they wanted to go. We also saw wombats, dingoes and koalas but the Tasmanian Devil bedeviled us with his nonappearance. In aborigine language koala apparently means animal that does not need water. Because they eat eucalyptus which is so hard to digest and because the water they need they get only from what they eat they sleep for up to 20 hours a day. They are rare animals due to disease, hunting and bush fires.

We went through Richmond which is a suburb of Sydney some 40km from the centre. Richmond is a town of some affluence. They breed horses here and on one side of the road is a golf club and on the other a polo club. Then across the Hawksbury river and into the nature reserve.

We then went for a ride through some of the 1m hectares of national reserve park. This is the Blue Mountain region. There are 90 types of eucalyptus trees now known just as gums. There are acacias in the reserve as well, the national emblem of NSW being the yellow acacia (the yellow wattle). For those that know me well you will know that I don't know a plant from a weed so here endeth the botany lesson. I will just add that the eucalyptus thrives on bush fires. It releases an enzyme that enables it to revegetate after a fire. A word of warning - if you plant a eucalyptus in your garden beware of termites. They love these trees and you could end up with a digeridoo through your roof. For the uninitiated like we were a digeridoo is a hollow eucalyptus branch, decorated and played by the aborigines. They don't have to hollow it out as the termites have already done the hard work.

Some more interesting facts. The blue mountains get their name from the colour of the gas that is given off when eucalyptus oil evaporates. The whole area is made up of sandstone which can be yellow, ochre or white and it is in these colours the aborigines paint. Their paintings are in patterns which can be dots (depicting maps, or their histories or secret messages), skeletons (the animals that they have eaten) and/or hand paintings. The hand painting are usually different sizes together in a group and are like family photographs. These paints are also used for body painting. The aborigines used spears for hunting - the boomerang was predominantly a kid's toy. It may have been used to bring down a kangeroo, aimed at the legs, or it might have been used as a club, but it was not thrown as a weapon.

We stopped at the Mount Tomah botanical gardens for lunch. Tomah is an aboriginal word meaning tree fern hill. And all around us were tree ferns. The gardens were beautiful but unfortunately the weather was beginning to turn and it got very cloudy.

Being in a 4wd the bus was able to get to places no other bus can get to. So we were able to drive down a steep track to the site of an aboriginal holy stone. On it we could see the grooves made from the sharpening of the flint spearheads. The spears were thrown long distances and the throwers were accurate. If a person committed an offence he would be sentenced to being speared in the leg. More serious offences and the offender would be speared to death by the tribe. So there was very little crime. A bit further on we went to see The Pulpit Rock in the Kambla Valley (the fighting ground). The views were quite spectacular but it was like being up in the clouds. At both of these places we were away from the tourists.

We then went to Govett's leap which is a miniature version of the grand canyon. Unfortunately it was far too misty and every now and then the wind blew away enough mist for us to see a tiny glimpse of the waterfall at the bottom of the canyon.

Finally we drove to see the rock formation known as The 3 Sisters. A father in trying to save his three daughters from the river monster turned his daughters into rocks using his magic bone. He changed himself into a bird and flew away. But he dropped his bone and so the sisters remained rocks. The sight was spectacular.

Then it was back on the bus and the rain finally came in bucket loads. At least it waited till the end of the day. So back to the hotel.

We went out to eat with Hien to a pan-Asian vegan restaurant. A delightful end to a beautiful day.

(SCROLL DOWN PAGE to see all 5 PHOTOS, and hopefully 2 Videos pending for eventual posting)

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Photos

Common Wombat
checking out strange visitors at Featherdale Wildlife Park