Got up at the crack of dawn to head down to Doc’s hotel to catch my tour to the Blue Mountains. I was hoping for more backpackers, but the tour was mostly older couples. I seem to have a knack for attracting that sort of crowd.
After a quick drive through Sydney picking people up at various locations, and allowing me to see some areas I haven’t been to yet, we headed to the Featherdale Wildlife Park. Filled only with native Australian animals, the zoo was pretty interactive, allowing you to pet owls, and snakes as well as small emus, koalas, wallaby’s (wallabi?) kangaroo and a few farm animals. I’d seen a lot of the animals at the zoo previous, but there were a few, like the echidnas and the Tasmanian devil that it was nice to see. Also witnessed a crocodile feeding that was a bit of a letdown. The croc’ wasn’t being much of a showman. After the park, the driver gave us a boomerang throwing lesson. Turns out he was also selling the boomerangs, but after seeing how little luck he was having getting one to return to him, I wasn’t completely sold.
From there we ventured 100kms from Sydney to the Blue Mountains. So named because the eucalyptus that is evaporated into the air gives off a blue tinge when the sunlight hits. We passed an area with a bunch of destroyed rooftops. Seems hail the size of tennis balls had fallen about a month earlier (Note to self: buy helmet). We stopped for an all you can eat buffet, first, then headed to Echo Point which has a nice view of the Three Sisters rock formation. Met an Austrian by the name of Johannes who was also on the tour alone.
After that we took a cable car across the canyon, which overlooked Katoomba Falls. We then descended into the rainforest, where we were allowed to walk around on an elevated boardwalk. Headed to the town of Leura afterwards. Small shops and an outrageously priced candy store. Last, but not least, the bus took us through Olympic Park. Sadly we didn’t have time to stop, but I think we saw the interesting stuff from the bus. We were pushed onto a ferry that lead us back to Sydney’s Darling Harbour – and I walked home from there.
Louvelle is out at Dance rehearsal – she’s dancing with the Spanish Harlem Orchestra tomorrow, which is a big deal, indeed. Largest Spanish orchestra in the world. It’s part of the Sydney Festival. If I’m still around, I’ll try and check it out, but I’m a bit of a loss as to what I should do in Sydney tomorrow, so I might make an early departure. I’m torn between heading north up the coast, or flying to Alice Springs to see Uluru.
