Vivid Sydney #3

 Today we are heading into the Blue Mountains, so an early start 6.15am and still dark.

We travelled for about 1.5 hours and were high up by the time we reached Katoomba.

This is pretty typical aussie bush.

This is a rock formation called the three sisters.  In the background you can see the eucalypt forest.  It is the oily vapor from the eucalyptus trees that give it the blue look.  It does not disappear in rain or wind but is always present.

Yes I really was there.  It was fairly cold (about 9 deg C) this early in the morning but warmed up as the day went on.  You can see the 3 sisters behind me.  

From this viewpoint, we went to a place just out of Katoomba called Scenic World, a rainforest in the blue mountains. 

This shows how steep - what a ride!

It was an early coalmine and the train ride down into the mid-reaches of the valley is the steepest in the world.  

Of course this is a modern vehicle; I can't imagine going down it 150 years ago in what was available then.

Coal mine and coal truck

Vines similar to what Tarzan would've swung from.  They grow from the ground right up into the treetops, doing curls and tangles on the way.

We saw the gondola way above us when we were partway down.

We climbed back out of the valley and at the top there is a gondola to take us over the valley to the next ridge.  Amazing to see how high up we were.

This is the station we left from with the mountains in the background.

Then back on the bus and away we go to the next valley.

The driver took us to this area in the next valley to show us where the bush fires had been a couple of years ago.  He said there had been about ten helicopters going back and forth with water buckets to try and stop the fire going over the ridge and destroying the rainforest in the valley we had just come from.  The RHS of the pic is where the fires were.

Then off we went to Leura for some lunch.