Day 5 and 6 and its off to the Blue Mountains

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A great nights sleep fom everyone which was a really good start to the trip as we were expecting to suffer form jet lag for a few days (although the fact that I have been blogging since 05.30 suggests it is not completely gone away!)



Tom and Chloe headed off to school and we had a very relaxing morning at Chez Colfers before Michele, Alex, Iz and Rochelle headed off for a run to explore the local area and I went off to pick up our hire car.



After a quick spot of lunch the Colemans headed off to the Blue Mountains which lie around 2 hours west of Sydney. We subsequently found out they are "blue" because of the blue tint of the Eucalyptus leaves which are in abundance in the area.



After an easy drive to Katoomba we checked in to a wonderful hotel called Lilianfel's and then went to explore the local sights. The views were spectacular with impressive low range mountains and a huge valley which has been likened to the Grand Canyon but with trees (see photos).



We explored the local area for a couple of hours and made plans to do an extended walk into the rainforest (temperate rather than tropical apparently) the following day.



We then went back to the hotel, for the enevitable swim and then enjoyed a great meal in the hotel before retiring for the evening.



On the Friday morning we awoke to heavy cloud, mist and drizzle, which was in complete contrast to the day before. However despite this we decided to proceed with our walking plan with the only change that we decided not to take the 1000 steps down into the valley by foot but instead walk to "Scenic World" where we could get down by mechanical means. When you see the photos of the steps which we tried out on the previous day you can see why Micheles fear of heights understandably got the better of her.



We walked to the lift system along the edge of the clifftops via the lovely Katoomba cascades and then took a trip down to the valley floor via the worlds steepest railway which even had three different seat inclination settings to increase the downward slope to almost 60 degrees!!



In the valley there is an elevated walkway which takes you through the rainforest with some really different species of trees and vines. Also the area was mined for coal and shale oil a hundred years or so ago so there are a lot of relics of this period of activity on show and in fact are the reason why the railway exists. The upside of the very damp weather meant that we were able to see the rainforest in its true state....the only downside being that the only wildlife we saw was a magpie!!



After going back up the cliff face by the railway we then crosse the valley be the specatular skyway which is basically a gondola which crosses over the Katoomba waterfalls and is almost 300 metres in the air. Unfortunately the visibility was around 6 feet by this stage so we needed a vivid imagination for this one.



This landed us back within 10 minutes of the hotel but into a torrential rainstorm so we arrived back completely soaked to the skin....it was actually amusing having a bunch of Australians apologising to the POMs for the weather!!



Based on the forecast we abondened the plan to explore other towns in the Blue Mountains and instead settle for a relaxing swim and then lunch in front of the log fire back at Lilianfels (what a contrast to the 28C weather in Sydney when we left)



We headed back to the Colfers arriving around 6.30 in time for Izzi to go off and see Chloe at her gymnastics session at school.



That evening Chris's brother arrived from Toronto via Vancouver and a 20 something hour flight and we settled down for a very relaxing and enjoyable evening back at Chez Colfers



Its now 7.45 Sydney time and the blog is up to date, so looking forward to todays adventure......more to follow tomorrow

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