Our third day we decided to get out of the city and took
the train to Blue Mountains National Park, about two hours west of Sydney.
We got a ticket on a bus that goes around in a big loop all day so that we
could hike a little, then catch a ride to the next area. At the first stop, we took the 52° gradient Scenic Railway to the bottom of the Jamison Valley. |
In the rainforest at the bottom of the valley, we saw bright red parrots and giant tree ferns. | ||||
Katoomba Falls was just a short walk from the bottom of the Scenic Railway. |
We took the cable car back to the top -- this is a view across the valley just before we reached the top. |
According to Aboriginal legend, the Three Sisters formation was created when three sisters were turned into stone to protect them from a monster. |
We missed the (hourly) bus by just a minute, but we saw these cool rose-breasted cockatoos on someone's lawn while walking to the next stop. |
We walked along the Prince Henry Cliff walk trail. On the left is Bridal Veil falls; on the right is a view over the Jamison Valley.
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Here's Kimberly on the trail. The rainforest opened up into a gum tree (eucalyptus) forest as we got closer to the cliff top. |
There were more great views of the valley along the way to Leura Cascades.
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Here's the map for the Explorer Bus that goes around the area every
hour. Our hike along the valley rim was a little longer than we'd planned. |