Blue Mountains Day trip

Easter weekend is a big thing here in Oz.  Everyone seems to go on trips away, and one of those popular destinations is the Blue mountains.  We’ve been wanting to head up there for sometime now, so decided a day trip at easter weekend would be ideal.  So we booked a trip with an activity tours company and  got picked up at 7:20am on Friday by our driver, and guide for the day, Shane.  A very entertaining man.  The itinery on our trip was extensive and we were due to pack in a lot to the day, starting off by going to Featherdale wildlife park, followed by several blue mountains locations and then the Sydney Olympic park and finally a boat cruise back up the harbour to the city centre.

So we started the day off by going to Featherdale, yes I know, more wildlife.  But this place was different.  A lot smaller than the zoo and Sydney wildlife centre but much more entertaining. It only took 90 mins to get round it, but we could have easily spent another hour walking about.  I say it is different because everything is much more open here and there are plenty of Kangaroos, Wallabies, Emus and other various birds just walking around the park. You can stroke and feed the wallabies and emus although the Emus did seem incredible aggressive but the wallabies and roos were cool.  As you can see in the pic below they were very friendly and often come up to people and jump on them, mainly looking for food or to be stroked.  There were also plenty of koala’s there too, and the staff brought a couple out for us to feed and stroke.  They feel weird though,  a bit like a brillo brush, but they were very cute.

Next stop was Jamieson Valleys - Sublime Point, Leura Cascades and Gordon falls.  It took a while to get there as the easter traffic was a bit mental and our driver thought he knew a couple of short cuts, but we only ended up stuck in some housing areas having to ask for directions out from some bemused looking locals.  We were told we only had 30 mins and then had to be back at the bus and not to wonder too far down the track.  Our driver did tell us he lost an American who disappeared for two days as he got lost in the forest below.  We walked down to the waterfall and the stunning views as can be seen in the pictures.  When we were viewing the waterfalls there was an Indian family there too.  You are basically just standing on the edge of the cliff, on a bit of rock that sticks out a little bit and there is just a small barrier between you and a huge drop.  One of the Indian guys thought it would be a good idea to climb over this to get his picture taken, when we saw him we were pretty sure he was a goner but apart from a slight stumble he managed to keep his balance and climb back over. 

After a stop for lunch we then headed to Scenic world.  Where you can go on the Scenic Skyway, Scenicsender and the Steepest Railway in the world.  The latter two just take you on a up and down the side of the cliff.  Although we decided a walk down would be better, with more time to enjoy the scenery.  There were 1100 steps between us and the bottom, but it was well work the walk and only took 45 mins, including stops to admire the three sisters.  At the bottom it is basically a huge coal mine which we had a quick look at then jumped on the train.  It is apparently the steepest railway in the world and although from the pictures it doesn’t look to bad, it was pretty steep.  It’s got a 52% incline.   

The Three sisters:

The factual part: The soft sandstone of the Blue Mountains is easily eroded over time by wind, rain and rivers and the cliffs surrounding the Jamison Valley are being slowly broken up. Formations like the Three Sisters are created when water sweeps into small cracks in the rock, gradually enlarging them over time to form large indentations. Eventually, the Sisters will be eroded away completely.  Their names are Meehni (922 m), Wimlah (918 m), and Gunnedoo (906 m): 

The steepest railway in the world:

The coal mine.  They had TV's in the coal mine in those days obviously. Amazing.

Greig on our walk down the mountain:

So that was us done with the blue mountains and we then headed to the Olympic village which was a 90 minute drive back to the city.  We didn’t have long there, about 5 mins to be precise, so a return trip is maybe in order, as we had to catch the boat. All in all a very enjoyable day out.  

Work work work!

There haven’t been as many posts recently due to the fact I haven’t done much at all.  I am back into the working way of life.  I am in my 3^rd week now of the new job at Momentum.  It’s only a 6 week contract so I may be finished here in 3 weeks time. We’ll have to wait and see.  It’s good so far, if a bit quiet, but the people are nice and there is a cake bake sale on Wednesday, so that’s always a positive.  Also, I have been told they are happy with what I have been doing so hopefully there is a possibility it could be made permanent.  But we'll have to wait and see.

This weekend is easter and in oz that means the office is closed Friday, Monday and Tuesday, as it is Anzac Day (The National Day of Remembrance) on tuesday.  Apparently most spend it in the pub gambling, so I imagine I may participate in that!  Greig and I are also off to the Blue Mountains on Friday on a bus tour, which takes in the Olympic park and some other attractions.   

I Did not come here for Rain!

Since we got here it has rained a lot.  So much so, that apparently it's the most rain NSW has ever at this time of year.  Don't get me wrong, it has been incredibly hot and sunny too.  Hence the previous photo's of me with the sunburn.

If we wanted all this rain we could have stayed in Scotland.  Greig suggested that I do a naked rain dance to get rid of the rain today, but I didn't fancy that option.

Yesterday was a stunning day but today, as the pictures below show, is not very good at all.  This was taken from our kitchen window.

Bats in the Botanic Gardens

Before I came to Sydney people back home were telling me to look out for the bats that live in the botanic gardens.  The gardens are right in the city centre, just beside the Opera House.  In one area of the gardens there are 1000’s of bats.  Here are some photo’s.

Unfortunately though, the local council has given the botanics permission to the move the on this year as they have been killing trees for a long time.  So come next month the bats in Sydney will no longer be here. Which is a shame as it is pretty cool to see bats flying over the city centre every night.

A touristy weekend.

So we decided to have a touristy fun filled weekend, since we hadn’t done it in a while.  But due to lack of funds it needed to be relatively cheap tourist fun.  So on Saturday we decided to head for Sydney tower.  Mainly because we already had a ticket from when we bought tickets for the Wildlife centre and the aquarium a few weeks ago.  We got a multipass ticket for these two places and another thing over in Manly which we have still to do yet. 

So we arrived at the iconic tower.  You will have seen it in all the pictures of the Sydney Skyline.  It’s very famous.  We thought it would be really good and full of lots of info in the museum and fun stuff to do.  However, we were very wrong!  There was a museum, however, it is very small. And when I say small I mean 3 walls small.  One wall told us how it was built and what it is used for.  And the other just compared it to other tall buildings around the world.   That’s all it was, apart from some pillars, and on these pillars was…..nothing, apart from a small tv that showed gave you the same information on each of the tv’s on all the different pillars, this was the same info that was on the walls.  

So it didn’t take us long to get around the museum.  Then these was the gift shop, and then the lift up to the observation deck.  As you can see from the pictures, it wasn’t the clearest of days, but it wasn’t too bad.  All in all it took us about an hour to get round.  It was worth it for the views alone, but I don’t think I would be saying that if I had paid $35 for it.  

This is looking out over the harbour towards Manly.  Even though it wasn't the clearest of days, it was still a stunning view.

 This is towards our flat in Darlinghurst and way in the background, Bondi.

So on Sunday, we went to Taronga Zoo.  Many people had recommended the zoo to us and we had been wanting to go for a while.  So on Sunday we did.  And it was a great day out.  The weather was fantastic and the zoo was great.  It actually reminded me of Edinburgh zoo, the layout isn’t too dissimilar and it is also built on a hill.  

The views over to the city centre were also stunning.  The giraffe’s definitely have the best view in Sydney.  

Also, I brought this up in a previous post, but wherever we go we seem to bring out the frisky side in animals.  At the wildlife centre we had crickets and lizards going at it, at the Zoo we had two enormous tortoise’s.  The noise that the male was making could probably be heard at the other end of the zoo.  It did attract a huge crowd. Very weird. 

 

 Here is eyeing his partner/victim up.

And there we go.

The zoo also had penguins. The only reason I mention it is because Sydney actually has wild penguins living in the harbour.  We found this out a a few weeks ago when we first went to Manly, when a girl asked us if this was where the penguins came? She then proceeded to hang her head of the pier and look for them. At the time we just thought she was crazy. But it appears not, it turns out we were the fools.  Penguins come to Sydney every year.

Here are some of the highlights from the zoo.

I am tempted to sign this seal up for Killie!