In a sudden, irrational fit of wanting to get out of the city, we decided we would take a day to visit the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are mainly a large, scenically eroded sandstone plateau which forms a natural western barrier to the Sydney area. We discovered that a train could take us from Sydney to the tourist center of the Blue Mountains, the town of Katoomba, for a round-trip cost under $20 apiece. We got an early start and battled the flood of commuters on the subway to go south a couple of stops to the Central Station, and then west about 65 miles to Katoomba (this took nearly two hours because of many stops, giving us plenty of time to finish the Hungry Jack's breakfast we'd picked up at the Central Station).


Katoomba is situated near the edge of a plateau, at an altitude of approximately 3000 feet. In the winter it is markedly cooler in Katoomba than it is in Sydney, a fact which didn't escape our notice on exiting the train. A map posted near the train station showed the actual edge of the plateau, where the local viewpoints could be found, to be maybe a kilometer from the station. Buses were available for a fee, but we decided we could walk this distance without much difficulty. This also gave us a chance to window-shop in the business district near the train station. But once we got past the shops, we seemed to enter a residential area, and the directions became less certain, and the distance seemed to stretch out farther than expected. And the bellyaching began ("This is really far!" "Why didn't we take the bus??" "Are you sure you know where we're going?"). Also, it was a little breezy, making the temperature (probably in the low 40's Fahrenheit) more uncomfortable ("It's COLD!!" "I can't feel my fingers!" "I'll bet the bus is heated!").

Nonetheless, we eventually arrived, cold and not on the best of terms, at Echo Point. At Echo Point there is a fine view of the Jamison Valley, and particularly of an eroded rock formation called the Three Sisters, which is probably the best-known landmark in the Blue Mountains. There was a plaque marking a spot where Queen Elizabeth (the second one, from the UK) had taken in the view in 1954. She must have enjoyed it, as it stretches from the Three Sisters on the left to sheer rock walls on the right, with the vast Jamison Valley in between.




The next promontory to the right appeared to have a cable car going down into the valley. We discovered there was an attraction near that promontory called Scenic World which offered a few ways to experience the valley, and this sounded interesting to us.

Walking apparently was not going to be an option, so we purchased tickets to a trolley bus which makes a circuit of the area that includes Echo Point and Scenic World, and which would eventually take us back to the train station. And it was heated too, as it turned out.

Scenic World offers a couple of ways to reach the valley floor – the Scenic Railway and the Scenic Cableway. The Scenic Cableway was the cable car we'd seen from echo point, and is a large gondola that dangles from a steep cable and travels up and down. The Scenic Railway is a caged-in train with bench seats which is billed as "the steepest incline passenger railway in the world". This is certainly possible, as the incline exceeds 50 degrees at one point. We decided to take the Scenic Railway down and the Scenic Cableway back up.

The Scenic Railway is something of a thrill ride, as it's so steep. It gets you down to the bottom very quickly, passing through a tunnel on the way. But being in a tunnel much of the way, the view isn't so great.


At the bottom is a boardwalk through a rainforest called the Scenic Walkway. The rainforest wasn't quite what we'd expected. There wasn't any rain (not that we're complaining about this), and it wasn't anywhere near as warm as the tropical rainforests we'd heard so much about. Apparently it's a "temperate rainforest", which seems to mean a cold one, at least in the winter. The boardwalk was fun, though, with lots of nature and some exhibits on the coal mining which went on in the area at one time.



Eventually we got to the valley station of the Scenic Cableway and had ourselves (along with a lot of other tourists) hauled back up to the top. The view from the Scenic Cableway was quite nice, with a swell vista of the valley and a brief look at Katoomba Falls.




At the top we reunited with our trolley and returned to the train station.

A train returned us to Sydney in time for the evening rush hour, where we found dinner and thawed out for the rest of the evening. In the process, we got some rest that we would need for the following day. The next day would be our last day in Australia, and we would need to prepare for departure. But first we would need to do some sightseeing - we had yet to look at the most well-known landmarks in Sydney. These can mostly be found around Sydney Cove.