The Blue Mountains National Park is about 2 hours outside of Sydney and is home to the Three Sisters, the 52-degree railroad and a portion of the Australia rainforest. The Three Sisters are a rock formation that stand over 3,000 feet above sea level. The land has deep Aboriginal ties that have a spiritual connection with the lush, green forests. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen in Nevada. We arrived around 10am and rode the Explorer red, double-decker bus to the gorge where we overlooked a gorge-ous (ha!) ravine. Despite the sudden, significant drop into the canyon, there were several hiking trails that got you safely down to the rainforest floor. We saw many beautiful waterfalls, interesting trees and even some native Australian wildlife. We didn’t hike too much because the farther down you went, the colder it became. Surprisingly, the air is so damp and heavy that it just freezes you to the core.
We took a railroad, if you could even call it that, down to the bottom of the canyon that was set at a 52-degree along the sides of the ravine. You stand in line inside this little building and, when it’s your turn to board, you’re taken down this dodgy scaffolding to the train. Seriously, you can see straight down more than 1,300 feet. When you get to the train, you realize that it is just a glorified cage that you sort of roll into. When the train starts rolling, you’re literally standing up as you move down the mountain. It’s like you’re sliding down the edge of the mountain on you’re back-end. After you get to the bottom, you can take some walks around the natural greenery and see the remains of the old coal and shale mines that use to be in existence there. After you’ve frozen, you ride a gondola back up from whence you came. You get an amazing view of the Three Sisters, or at least that’s what they’ve told me. I missed most of it because my natural human tendency to panic overwhelmed by desire to see the scenery. I spent the whole ride with my eyes shut and head buried in Bryan’s arm. We had a lot of fun seeing the “bush” and getting out of the city for a day. This is a definite must for anyone that comes to Sydney because the landscape is so ruggedly beautiful and largely un-maimed by the 3 million visitors the National Park receives each year.
Bryan
I didn't know it at the time, but waking up to catch the 2 hour train departing at 8 in the morning was a small price to pay for visiting the Blue Mountains. Supriya has done a good job supplying you with all of the interesting facts about the blue mountains off the internet so I won't get into it that much. We were lucky going on a day that visibility was good. Actually, the visibility was outstanding. From what I gathered, the Blue Mountain region gets long periods of fog and haze. We walked to the edge of the first lookout point and the valley reminded me of a tropical Grand-Canyon. What I loved about the Blue Mountains, aside from the beautiful scenery, is it was a reminder to the trips my family used to take. I explored through the pathways running along the cliffs while Kay and Supriya stuck to the sunshine route. It was remarkable how much colder it got underneath the blanket of thick greenery that covered the valley.
We met back up and decided to take the steepest railway in the southern hemisphere, or something like that. This area was used for coal mining long ago leaving behind the railway and abandoned mines.
I am looking forward to visiting back and spending more time hiking around this beautiful area. There is also a Christmas in July celebration there, because we are in winter now, that we might go to. Can't wait!