I realised yesterday that I really haven't done all that much real sight-seeing. (Too much drinking, is that possible.) Having paid a small fortune to get out here it seemed silly not to pay out a bit more and see something of Australia. I picked up a few brochures in the Apartment lobby and selected a Blue Mountains day trip run by FJ tours. For less than £50 I got a full day sight-seeing, lunch and little clip on koala. Bargain.
I was picked up on Pitt Street at 7.30am, it was going to be a long day...
One hour later after a couple of "detours" picking up the rest of 16 or so passengers from various hotels around Sydney, we eventually left for the Blue Mountains. Now it has to be said that during that hour I learnt more about Sydney than I could have from any guide book. Fitz, an Austrian (yes Austrian) who'd been in Australia for 30 years was our driver and guide. Think League of Gentlemen's Herr Lipp (I know he's german,) but looks wise it was him. Just information on Sydney's building and heritage policies. Basically nearly all the buildings in Syndey are either new, or appear to be partly new, with possibly an old facade. It turns out it's cheaper there to knock down an old building and replace it. Even incorporating the facade of an old building costs more. And with Sydney needing more and more office space and housing, they're building upwards. Small buildings replaced with bigger buildings, they are eventually replaced by even bigger buildings and so on. Skyscaper heaven.
So we're off on our tour. The first part of the tour is supposed to start by going around the Olympic Village, however the Easter Show is on, and so it's difficult for Fitz to get near to anything without being snarled up in traffic and diversions. That part of the tour will be tagged on to the end of the day instead, when it's quieter.
So our first stop is Featherdale Wildlife Park. An animal sanctuary, here it's possible to get up close to the animals, many of which are roaming around free or are in semi-partioned off sections (low walls, without cages.) We had an hour to whizz round, which was plenty of time to see the animals and stop off in the souvenir shop to buy presents using the 10% off voucher we had on entry.
A Baby Wallaby greeted us at Featherdale. - tick
Galah and Cockatoo - tick, tick
More Great Galahs
Happy Feet
A Docile Small Tazmanian Devil - tick
Stork I think
Dingoes - tick
Albino Wallaby
more albinos
Echidna or glorified hedgehog - tick
Wombat! - tick!
A lively looking Saltwater Croc
Big Bird and Big Bird
Kangaroos! - tick
Kangaroo Balls - tick!
Me and wallaby
Koalas - they're everywhere - tick
Me and Koala - tick
tick, tick
tick
tick
Cassowary - I hadn't heard of these before - but it's a tick
Kookaburra - tick
Ibis, like the hotel - tick
Then it was time to get back onto our minibus and on to our next destination. A few miles down the road Fitz pulled into a Park for our Boomerang demonstration.
Firstly you must work out the direction of the wind, then aim to throw at 90 degrees to the wind. Holding the boomerang at the very bottom, you angle it to 1 o'clock. And then with a flick of the wrist throw it...
Then he asked if anyone wished to have a go. 2 men from the group went up and through really well. It must be easy I thought...
A couple offered to take some photos for me.
You'll notice from the height and direction that this it didn't go as planned. Several goes later I realised I did not have the necessary wrist action. Everyone else was back on the bus ready to go. So I gave up and purchased a boomerang to give to Tim. I'm thinking he has more of a chance of throwing the thing right.
It was then up, up and up the Blue Mountains for some breathtaking views. We stopped halfway up for our Buffet lunch at a little motel. I piled up my plate with mushroom stroganoff, and sat on a table. I was joined by the 3 Haiwaiins from the tour. We had a good old chat over our lunch about Sydney, Haiwaii, vacations and london and England.
Our next stop after lunch was the famous 3 Sisters for more photos. I was fairly happy taking photos of the view. However the 2 irish girls insisted I had a picture of me with the 3 sisters...
In fact everyone was very keen to make sure I had me in my photos, everyone offering to take my picture with the rocks. One will do though.
If you're wondering where the
Blue Mountains get their name, take a look at the pictures below, you will see in the distance the blue hazey trees. These are actually eucalyptus trees releasing oil, giving off this blue tinge. Making for some great photos.
After we'd all got the pictures that we needed it was time to move on again. This time we were off to Scenic World. The sanatised rainforest. I had the opportunity to take the
but opted along with a few others to use our time taking the
Worlds Steepest Railway down to the Rainforest trail, then taking the walk round to the Cableway, which then took us back up to our meeting point.
Taking the advice of one of the guys who'd done
Scenic World before a few of us took the decision to go down the steepest railway, as opposed to being dragged up the hill. It made for a more exhilarating experience. Those who went up were none to impressed.
Bar these few pictures I got from the
trail, the rainforest was a bit of a let down. More money had gone into the cablecars, than anything at where the cablecars took you.
The Cableway on it's way down to collect us.
View from the Cableway
After Scenic World it was off to visit one of the tourist towns in the Blue Mountains, Leura. Leura's most famous tourist attraction is it's Candy Store. I went in and bought a few sweets to take back home to Tim and some postcards. I'm not really sure how this became a tourist attraction in it's own right, but I guess it says something about how little the Blue Mountains cater for the tourist.
We then headed back to the bus for our final part of the Blue Mountains tour, to see Wentworth Falls. We headed to Jamison's Look Out to get a good view of what we were told was more of a trickle than a fall due to the dry weather. And trickle it was. Still I got few good pictures from the lookout points again.
We were then dropped off at the jetty to catch our Matilda Cruise back to Sydney Harbour. it was raining, so I opted to sit inside in the warmth. I'd already done the river cruise in the sunshine on our trip to the Great Escape Festival, so I didn't mind that it was raining.
I was back in time to meet the guys in the pub for drink...
