Australia 2008 – Blue Mountains
We got out of Sydney for a few days, fortunately, just in time to miss the premiere of “Australia” the movie. We found a B&B near Katoomba in the Blue Mountains called the Naini Tal at the last minute and they were very accommodating. It was quite a nice house and location. They gave us two adjoining rooms so we had plenty of space.
They also had a lovely backyard, but we didn’t visit.
It was the first time we had cool wet weather while in Australia. There was some wet in Cairns, but it was far from cool.
The fog was thick in the morning but lifted shortly after we got to the Three Sisters lookout at Echo Point. Named for the three rocks on the point, I guess, though I’m not sure I see the resemblance. If you look carefully you can see where the trail crosses a bridge to the first sister on the left. The other sisters are hard to get… to.
There are some trails around the lookout and naturally we followed the narrow winding steep trail down the cliff side. Unfortunately, they put in stairs and railings to prevent people from actually being able to fall off, though, to be fair, the stairs are still pretty steep and one could sprain something.
This is the bridge you can see in the photo of the three sisters above.
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Yes, the photo above is, in fact, two photos. We will call it a close approximation to reality, though, to be fair, it isn’t.
Down the road is “Scenic World“, a high budget tourist trap with two ways to help you down the mountain to trails at the bottom. We took the very steep “Scenic” cable train down, seen above, that actually runs through a bit of a crevice and tunnel. We took the “Scenic” cableway (Gondola) back up the mountain after a short walk along the boardwalk at the bottom.
The area at the bottom of the hill had been used for coal mining many years ago, and there are maps and entrances to the miles of caves. They recommend not entering.
I have become quite adept at reading signs in Australia. This one indicates that no dogs or fat cats are allowed on the trail, but it is ok to slip and fall off the cliff. I don’t make them, I just interpret them.
We spend the afternoon at the Janolan Caves but I’ve saved that up for another post.