Day 66: Blue Mountains

Tuesday 9th January

Blue Mountains, including falls, three sisters, and scenic world

Distance: 270km

Total Distance: 10259km

The Blue Mountains are classed as one of those "must do" sights if you are spending anytime around Sydney. Thankfully one of my hosts was due to be working in Penrith today. She gave me a lift to the train station, which is on the line leading into the mountains, and I was there in less than an hour.

I got off at Katoomba, a township over over 8000 residents, plus not a few tourists. From here I got the bus to part of the Prince Harry Track which I would be following to a variety of viewing platforms sat out on the edge of the cliff. From the cliff we could see the forest below stretching out towards a flat-topped mountain out on its own, surrounded by mist. As the day wore on the mist began to clear and I moved further along. 

The Three Sisters are a formation of three rock stacks. In Aboriginal legend they are three sisters engaged to three warrior brothers who died in battle and now stand forever waiting. There's a playing field size lookout platform alongside them, but also a small set of stairs down to them. So of course I took the steep, narrow, frankly dangerous steps to stand on one of the sisters.

I had lunch in the centre behind the sisters. There's an Aboriginal cultural show you can see, as well as a large gift shop, bar and restaurant. Quick lunch, check out the store, then I was off to "Scenic World".

The ONLY reason I went to Scenic World was because that name is SO terrible. It was begun decades ago when the name sounded good. They had big plans for the place. There's roller coaster that would never meet changing regulations for safety and so never be used. The orphan rock, a solitary rock stack used for a lot of weddings, now too unstable and crumbled for the public. They still have the worlds steepest railway though, as well as a couple of cable cars and their exhibit the mining history on the site. It was actually really good. It's something that would be very worth doing for anyone who can't (or is just too lazy to) see much of this type of area by foot.