Written by Kim
We began our day early on the 6:10 ferry to meet our tour to the Blue Mountains. We booked our tour directly with Anderson Tours and had an excellent guide Jay who took 20 of us in a van to visit one of Sydney’s most visited tourist attractions. The Blue Mountain area is a million hectares of preserved area (twice the size of Grand Canyon). This green space is important for Sydney as it cleans air for them and provides 90% drinking water. It is a very naturally diverse area with 100 species of eucalyptus trees, the most in the world, with some that only grow here, in case you didn’t know koalas live in these trees and koala families only live in the species of trees their mother birthed them in. Additionally, this area has 400 species of animals (70 different marsupials).
The original name for the Blue Mountains in the language of the Dharug and Gundungurra peoples is Colomatta (more accurately pronounced Gulu-mada). The meaning of the name is “koala place” from colo + matta. The name Blue Mountains, however, was preferred and is derived from the blue tinge the range takes on when viewed from a distance. The tinge is believed to be caused by Mie scattering which occurs when incoming light with shorter wavelengths is preferentially scattered by particles within the atmosphere imparting a blue-greyish colour to any distant objects, including mountains and clouds. The mountains should be called canyons because they were formed by erosion of sandstone forming valleys.
The Three Sisters are an unusual rock formation in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales on the north escarpment of the Jamison Valley. They are located close to the town of Katoomba and are one of the Blue Mountains’ best known sites, towering above the Jamison Valley. Their names are Meehni (922 m), Wimlah (918 m), and Gunnedoo (906 m). The story goes that the sisters lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe. They fell in love with three men from the neighbouring Nepean tribe, but marriage was forbidden by tribal law. The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to capture the three sisters. A major tribal battle ensued, and the sisters were turned to stone by an elder to protect them, but he was killed in the fighting and no one else could turn them back.
Scenic world – Established in 1945, Scenic World began when Harry Hammon, a local entrepreneur, had the vision to transform a former coal mine into an iconic tourist attraction.
The original Scenic Skyway opened in 1958 as Australia’s first cable car. Today it is largest aerial cable car in the Southern Hemisphere with views like none other of the Three Sisters, Katoomba Falls, and the Jamison
The Scenic Cableway is the steepest aerial cable car in the Southern Hemisphere. Enjoy one-of-a kind views of the Jamison Valley, including landmark rock formations, the Three Sisters and Orphan Rock. The cableway takes you down into the rainforest in the valley.
The rainforest was gorgeous. Here you see a bit of landslide where the sandstone was eroded.
There was a coal mine in the valley. It was incredibly difficult to get the coal out so a railway was created to transport miners and coal out of the valley. The Scenic Railway is in the Guiness Book of World Records for the steepest passenger railway in the world – it still holds the record! It was original created to take coal miners but now is a tourist ride. We were not able to ride as it was undergoing maintence it has every 6 years. It reopens in a week.
There was a dinosaur exhibit in the rainforest. This is a big school attraction
After Scenic World we had a quick stop for lunch at the Grand Hotel
Next stop was Sydney Zoo.
We saw lots of native animals
Australia has many nocturnal animals so we enjoyed the nocturnal and reptile exhibits too.
After a long day touring we enjoyed a few drinks at the Squire’s Landing with its incredible view
We decided to move on to Fortune of War, the oldest pub in Sydney, to listen to some live music and enjoy a bite to eat. This pub is in a great part of the city called The Rocks which was were the original inmates from the UK were housed when they came to Australia in the late 1700s. The Rocks is now a hopping area filled with great pubs, restaurants and shops.
We missed the ferry by a few minutes so had to wait almost an hour to return to the apartment. We were pretty tired but Alex managed to get some amazing photos on the ferry.
We leave Sydney in a few days so we are enjoying every minute in this beautiful city, Until then…l
