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 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.
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