Winter/Summer Vacation Part 2: Blue Mountains

After a good deal of shopping, we headed off to the Blue Mountains.

The Blue Mountains is a range of valleys and mountains that run down the western side of Sydney. It's a very popular place for tourists to frequent and is conveniently accessible by the Sydney subway system (though I'm pretty sure it would take you about two or three hours to get there). The major attractions are Wentworth Falls in Leura (the highest waterfall in Australia) and the Three Sisters in Katoomba (a unique rock formation of three pinacles that lead off the Mega Long Valley wall). Another popular attraction (though less frequented due to it's location) is the Zig Zag Railway which operates a steam train that takes tourists on an hour and a half round trip down one of the valleys.

We did the Zig Zag first as we got in a little late and the weather wasn't looking very nice for scenic viewing.

This was our train conductor who was a jolly old chap and let us come in to the front and look at all his instruments! It was really interesting and he let me take as many photos as I wanted--and I did! I think this series turned out really well. I love the steam billowing in from behind him. :)





Here is Jeremy's parents: Hanya and Ken. Do you see the resemblance?



The train ride was really beautiful as we passed through some deep, green valleys. The train moved down the valley in a zig zag fashion (hence the name) and would stop at each far point to move the steam engine to the other side of the train so we could continue on in opposite the direction from which we came.



Here is the engine coming back to the other side of the train. Isn't it lovely? One cool thing about this attraction is that they sometimes run themed trips with the two main ones being Thomas the Train (in which they have a blue engine) and Hogwarts Express (in which they have a red engine). I reeeeeaallly want to come back for the Hogwarts Express trip! Everyone gets dressed up, they have a sorting hat, butter beer, and the Bottom Point Station is renamed Hogsmeade!



Here we are at the bottom of the valley! If you want to see more photos from the station including signs for Hogsmeade, check out my Flickr page.

We also spent some time exploring Leura that day and found Australia's best American candy store! I was so excited to see things like rootbeer, gobstoppers, nerds, pop rocks and--you'll never believe it--squeeze its! Do you remember drinking squeeze its when you were a kid? I didn't get one but I thought about it! :) We didn't do much that night other than play games (I beat the boys at Catan again) and try to get to bed early.

The next day we went back to Leura to check out Wentworth Falls. The weather wasn't so great with lots of fog and rain but I made do and I think I got some very nice photos regardless of the poor conditions.

I love how the fog came in and just hung on to the rock wall. I had done a lot of research on where to get the best photos before we left but because of the weather I wasn't able to follow my plan. However, no one on Flickr has nice foggy photos like these so I'm rather please with the unique photos I brought back.



My cute boyfriend (before he was sweaty and wet).



One of the cool things about Wentworth Falls is that you can do this beautiful hike around the cliff side and look down into the valley. Unfortunately, the valley was a bit foggy but I think the mood of this photo suffices for the lack of view.



Once you hike along the cliff and descend down a trillion stairs, you come up to the water fall at midway down the valley. It was really beautiful but the weather actually got worse while we were down there. The wind picked up and the waterfall spray was hitting us pretty hard plus it started to rain. I tried really hard to protect my lens and get a clean shot but there are still lots of water drops.



Here we are, a little wet and a little tired!!



More water drops but this photo is framed exactly how I wanted it so I'll be spending some time in the next few weeks retouching it in Photoshop and trying to remove those pesky blurs.

But I guess the rain and the stairs wasn't enough for us because after lunch we headed out to Katoomba to see the Three Sisters and descend the Giant Staircase!

This was taken from the main lookout point just before the fog really rolled in. Once it did, I didn't see another thing for nearly an hour.

We really wanted to see more of the valley so we decided to hit the dirt! Our chosen path would lead us across this platform and right up to the Three Sisters, then down the Giant Staircase (a very aptly named section of our trail) and along the valley floor until we reached the scenic railway (the world's steepest train).

We stopped at the information desk first just to be sure we knew where we were going. They kindly informed us that the last train would be leaving at 4:50 (it was already nearly 4:00) and that the path we wanted to take was about 5 km long. They assured us that if we didn't stop for photos or breaks then we'd probably make the last train.

I would say the majority of that time was eaten up by the staircase because it was lightly raining and the steel steps were slippery. I was pretty scared I would be taking the "quick way down" if you know what I mean because the steps were extremely steep and extremely small, so I slowed us down a bit out of caution. (I'm pretty sure that had I not been there, Jeremy would have been jumping down those steps! He's such a boy!)

We did stop for a second and I took a photo from the trail out over the valley in front of us but it wasn't for long. We still had a long way to go and not much time left!

I didn't think we were going to make the last train but I was absolutely determined not to climb those damned steps back up the valley wall!! You have no idea how steep and long that stairway was... It was incredible. It was at least twice the length of the stairs down to Wentworth Falls and my legs were already too sore and too tired to do it all again. I was pretty sure that if I didn't make that last train then I would be sleeping in the valley that night. No joke. I really felt like my life would end if I didn't make the train. So I pretty much ran there (along with Jeremy) and stretched each and every last fibre in my thighs in the process, but we made it. In fact, we made it early enough to catch the second to last train. I was so proud of myself. :)

Jeremy and I were pretty sore after all those stairs and walking so far but it wasn't over yet! The next day, we hobbled ourselves back to the car and we all went to Jenolan Caves. Jenolan Caves is one of the world's oldest open cave system with an estimate age of 340 million years. The Aboriginals called the caves "Binoomea" or "Dark Places" and believed them to be a place of healing thus they were known to take their sick there. Today, the caves are great place for exploration with at least one new cave discovered each year (the current total is 360) and 10 open for tours.

The overall lighting was pretty low with extreme highlights to show the features so the photos didn't turn out all that well but it was worth a try. This is the Imperial Cave which is supposed to be one of the best and most popular tours at Jenolan.



I can't remember what this particular formation was called but I though it looked like a lizard's skull with teetch. The color is quite nice though and you can see how translucent the crystal is.



This formation is from the River Cave (our second tour) and is called the Minaret.



When you drive up to the caves you actually drive through one! This is the entrance to Jenolan Caves and also the starting point for the River Cave tour which takes you quite deep under ground (and across 1,400 steps--like we hadn't had enough yet!) to where the River Styx (really, that's the name) flows through the cave system.



This staircase is part of the River Cave tour. I love the ambiance.



Here is the river! It's actually about 6 meters deep and all fo the formations you see in the water are reflected from the ceiling! Back in the 20's (yep, people were touring the caves even back then!) guests would cross this river by boat! Wouldn't that be wonderful to do today?



This is also in the River Cave. I love the formations, the colors and the shape of things! One of my better photos from the tour.

From Jenolan Caves, we made our very slow way to Canberra via some back roads. Along the way we saw kangaroos and wombats (though the wombats were dead on the side of the road) and quite a few semi trucks hauling what I assume to be coal back and forth from the mines to the city. We had one rather scary incident with a large truck while coming down a steep hill with lots of nasty switch-backs. He was swinging wide around a blind corner and no one saw the other coming. Luckily everyone stopped in time to avoid an accident but the semi was in the middle of a turn and on a steep incline and lost his traction. He couldn't move forward at the angle he stopped in so he kept rolling back and trying to go up again but his wheels would just spin out. There was also a car behind him and the idiots wouldn't back up and give him some more room. I was starting to get quite worried because there was no flat ground and this was becoming a bad traffic jam on a steep hill but he made it out and everyone was able to continue down the road but us ladies (me, Hanya and Eca) were all calling for a little less speed from the men (who seemed to have got a little carried away on these back roads.