Blue Mountains

Today we're going into the mountains. Well, to check out the Blue Mountains, two hours west of Sydney. We're up in time to catch the train, which runs once an hour. A bit of bad luck: part of the track is closed, so we have to take the bus. After an hour on the train, we're on the outskirts of Sydney, and then another hour and a half by bus to the mountain village of Katoomba.

Arthur had forgotten his sandwich, so we decided to have a nice lunch somewhere. Very annoying, cough. It's a good way to lose the cash, which no one uses here. Not even at the market.

Carmen also has to hand in an assignment today, so the laptop was brought along and she did some work in between.

We walk through the village to the cliff.

At the gorge, you have a wide view of the valley below. The other side of the gorge is about 1-2 kilometers away. It's like a miniature Grand Canyon. And many more trees, dense rainforest. At the edge of the cliff, you can see the Three Sisters, a rock formation.

Then we walked a stretch along the cliff, the Prince Henry Cliff Walk. Excellent paths here, often even paved, very different from the Alps. Hiking boots were in the suitcase, but we didn't need them. We spoke with an Australian couple from Melbourne. We had to go there again, and to drive the coastal road south. Another time, Melbourne is 900 km south of Sydney.

There's also a cable car over the gorge and down into the forest. But we've all done something like that in Kuranda. There was a small waterfall at the end. This isn't Norway, after all. You're lucky if it rains once in spring or summer.

Near the bus, we saw another flock of cockatoos. Quite large ones, actually. And they've had human treats before, the scavengers (don't do that, it's bad for them).

Bought some nice Australian things for the grandparents. Then the long journey back to Sydney. Through the countryside and the suburbs, where the houses and cars look a bit like America.

By the way, the central station where we arrived in Sydney is enormous. We're used to it, I think, but here there are about 30 platforms, upstairs and downstairs. Carmen made a mistake once and took the wrong entrance, which cost her 10 minutes, and then the train was gone.

And Carmen had finished the assignment, handed it in on time, yippie!