Blue Mountains and Saturday Night in Sydney

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Saturday we got up and had breakfast in Morubra with Megan, a mutual friend of Erin's cousin, and it was a great morning after being VERY rested and forgetting to set an alarm. Sometimes it takes waking up to a phone call telling you that someone is at the cafe and waiting for you to get your day started with a jolt. TONS of surfers in the water made us want to go surfing so bad, but the water is cold right now and we'll do it in Queensland where it's warm. Plus we had an itinerary already for the day.

We got done with brekky and headed back to get ready for a day of hiking in the Blue Mountains, which are an hour and a half outside Sydney. Mark and Ursula took us to hike the Three Sisters trail, a very famous mountain hike. After navigating Sydney's web of highways we ended up in the really cute mountain town of Katoomba. After grabbing sandos to go and a few cheeserific koala tiles for Erin's bathroom we parked and headed out on the hike. The first stop was the overlook of the 3 sisters, where we were treated to stunning views of the whole valley and the 3 sisters rock formation and could see the path that we would soon be trekking. We walked down the road a bit and boarded the scenic skyway, part of the "scenic world" experience which includes gondolas and mountain trains. I don't get the whole Sea World aspect that they were trying to go with there... Anywho we took the skyway gondola across a gorge and got great pictures of a waterfall and the valley below through the glass floor. We were greeted by dozens of wild cockatoos much to Erin's delight (kidding, she has a ridiculous irrational fear of large birds) and a few smaller parrots that Mark fed from his hand. Next on the adventure was the steepest railway in the world, which we had front road seats for. We slid forward and were on our knees on the front of the cage it was so steep. Almost amusement park status!
http://www.scenicworld.com.au/index.php/rides/scenic-railway-en

Once we were on the valley floor it was MUCH cooler and we were all glad to have pants and a fleece to hike in. We spotted the elusive Liar bird, which is famous for imitating people, animals, jackhammers, just about everything, but didn't get any sound effects that they are famous for. The last and coolest but toughest part of the hike was the giant staircase- as I like to call it the stairmaster on crack. It wouldn't have been so bad if the steps were not as steep and along the edge of the cliffs. It definitely got our hearts racing! The reward was ending at the three sisters themselves for some great photo ops at sunset.

Back in Sydney the girls quickly got ready in our finest little black dresses, threw some laundry in the wash, and took our thai food to go as we raced down to the bus stop to realized we definitely missed the buss. We hailed a cab a few minutes later, which apparently is unheard of in Moroubra, and commented on our luck as we snarfed down our pad thai on the way to downtown. We met up with Jo and Jackie, Ursula's friends who are super duper fun. In the line for Ivy, the most popular club at the moment in Sydney we were handpicked to bypass the line and head straight in to the club. Ivy is beautiful and open to the Sydney sky, and had great atmosphere. The only thing that sucked about it was that in that open area smoking was allowed, so walking through that part of the club was not fun. No wonder it's the best club. We had a ton of fun dancing on our tired legs and got gluteous workout #2 of the day. In the wee hours of the morning we returned to nap for a 2 before having to get up and pack and head to the airport. On to Cairns and the tropical north!!!

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Comments

[Doug]

Freaky photo 6.
There's a really scary face staring at me in photo 6 from the rocks to the left and in front of those three spires that must be the Three Sisters. Too scary to go any further ... like something out of a Tarzan movie! Great descriptions and photos of your exploits! -Doug

[Ursula]

what a day
You guys had a pretty big Saturday! I love how tightly I am clenching my champagne...lol hope ur having fun in QLD :)