Sydney take 1 and the Blue Mountains

So its the 6th of January, and after an uncomfortable overnight bus journey I have made it to the big city, Sydney! After sad goodbye to Gemma and seeing her safely on to the Canberra coach we trudge to our hostel, freshen up and head out to explore a sunny Sydney. We wander around the main retail area and have some lunch before spending too long waiting in a travel agency so that Dan can book some onward tours. In the evening we get the train to the Circular quay and as we leave the train we get a brilliant view across the harbour to the bridge and the Opera house, a very exciting moment to be honest! We make our way to the Rocks, the area of the original settlement of Sydney and the home to many stories, some of which we heard about on our Rocks ghost tour, including the ghost of Scottish George who supposedly haunts the harbour bridge after falling into the concrete whilst they were building one of the pillars! The tour was great fun, as well as informative, as the guide got everyone involved by assigning different characters to each of us, which we then had to assume the role of when he was telling the particular story.







The next day I had booked a tour of the Opera House, so I made my way to the Quay again for my 10am Essential Opera house Tour. Unfortunately I had managed to book onto a sold out tour, so I was sharing my experience with over 30 others, but luckily in these circumstances they issue everyone with headsets so that some of the tour is conducted via video screening dotted through the buildings. We started with a quick history of the Opera House and how the design was chosen and the project begun before climbing round the back of the building, which has good views of the bridge, and entering through the back reception area, which is hired out to people including Tom Cruise for functions. Here we saw a video on the different mediums that are performed here and saw a montage of past performers from Dame Joan Sutherland and Toni Collette to Rolf Harris and Bugs Bunny. Next it was time for the stunning Concert Hall which is both aesthetically pleasing and full of features designed to enhance acoustics, from the all natural materials to the graduated seating the the glass rings than are lowered to reduce the ceiling height above the performers. The final stop was the Opera hall itself, a more intimate space (only around 1000 seats!) but it has so much storage space that it is able to show a different opera every day for a week during high season. Its is a really amazing building inside and out, and I'm sure I'll see a lot more of it during my stay.





In the afternoon we caught the train out to the famous Bondi beach where the sun did shine and the beach was huge and sandy, but I have to admit despite its famous status its really no better than the ones in Dorset and the sea is almost as cold anyway! From Bondi we walked along the cliff tops past more aesthetically pleasing scenery until we reached Coogee beach, another sandy beach packed with holidaymakers enjoying the sun, so I joined in and caught a few rays before taking the plunge in the water! In the evening back in the City I took the ferry, as the sun was going down, under the harbour bridge to Darling Harbour where I spent some time with the underwater creatures at the Sydney Aquarium, it was nice to see some animals that I'd never seen in the flesh like a platypus and sting ray and also to see some fish and corals that I'd seen for real whilst snorkeling on the reefs.





The next day we left the city in our hired automatic (eek!) car and headed out into the Blue Mountains and I could not believe what I was seeing only a couple of hours west of Sydney. We arrived and after lunch headed down the road from arguably the best hostel so far, to the edge of the Blue Mountains National Park and the first glimpse was beautiful and true to their name they really do appear to be blue. We went for one of the shorter walks to the Leura cascades, not wanting to get lost in the vast forests when it got dark, but just those 2 or 3 hours gave us so much scenery to gaze at.





On Wednesday we put on our walking feet again and headed down to the mountains, unfortunately the fog had rolled in and our first look at the famous 3 sisters was postponed a little! But undeterred we walked a bit further down into the valley and saw them a bit closer before descending the 900 odd steps of the Giant Stairway down to the valley below, from there it was only 2.5km along the Frontier Pass (I think!) to Scenic World where we were able to get the cable car up and saw the 3 sisters during our ascent. We took advantage of the Skyway to get across to another viewing platform, passing the Katoomba falls on our way. We had our lunch in the shadow of Mount Solitaire with the 3 sisters to our left, the Orphan rock to our right with miles and miles of mountains and valleys ahead of us. Back at Scenic World we got the cable car back down into the valley and walked through the rainforest on the boardwalk until we reached the old mining railway now a steep scenic railway, up to 52 degrees in places. We took this up the track, which was a strange sensation, and then back down again to the sound of the Indiana Jones soundtrack, very atmospheric and brilliant fun! We finished the day with a trip to the Edge, a 3 storey high cinema screen near Katoomba where they show a film on the Blue Mountains giving you a brief history and amazing views of the region whilst highlighting some environmental issues as well.





Thursday we made use of the car and headed to the Jenolan caves, about 70km from Katoomba. The first part of the drive was fairly easy, only a few ups and downs; however the last 8km was on a mountain road driving along a small road with just enough room for two cars and with a sheer drop down to the valley on one side and rock the other. (Not to worry though Mum, I didn't drive there....... I drove on the way back so that I was nearer the rock than the drop!!). The drive was was it though, we first toured around the huge Lucas caves with its big chambers, one called the Cathedral where they played a CD to demonstrate the acoustics, a really goosebumbly moment! In the afternoon we did a self guided audio tour of the Devils Coach House (named I think because its big enough for all the Devil's coaches and horses??) and the Nettle Cave (named because of the amount of nettles surrounding it which were a problem for the first visitors). Our final cave was the Orient Cave which has stunning crystal formations and several chambers, the Persian, the Eqyptian, the Indian and the Jungle. And then it was time to take the bendy road back and it was fine, even with Dan hanging out of the back window, like a dog, trying to take photos of the amazing scenery!

On our final day in the mountains, Friday 11th, we started out at the Zig Zag Railway built as the most efficient way of getting the train down into the valley with 3 'roads', top middle and bottom and 2 points which allowed the engines to switch ends and take the train down the next bit of the zigzag. Although the current train line only runs along the bottom 'road' enthusiasts run a Steam Engine (or old regular engine) along the track and back so we hopped on board for an experience and got covered in soot for our troubles! However despite not being an avid trainspotter it was a lot of fun and gave some more great views of the National Park. Following a brief lunch stop in the town of Leura we headed to the Wentworth Falls, which were on our way back to the city. It was a huge waterfall and part of the experience was the noise it made even from a distance! From there we reluctantly headed back to Sydney and returned the car, back to slumming it on public transport for us!