Scenic point

Most of the scenic views are on my other camera, so will need to wait for a later post. Its a beautiful area, also overlooking the 3 sisters, with lots of ways to view it.

We started with a short, almost horizonal, cable car ride across a gorge and past a waterfall. Bit short on water at the moment, but plenty of birds flying around. Some were definitely cocakatoos, others may have been, or some other parroty thing, but were too far away to be certain.

After that we rode down into the valley on the world's steepest railway, which is impressively steep. The seats are park bench style, facing forwards, but tipped back at an angle more usually associated with a visit to the dentist. Tricky to get into, and impossible to do so elegantly. Once we'd wriggled into place they close the doors, warn you to hang on to any valuables, and set off. A few seconds in you realise that the steeply sloping platform was the shallow part of the journey - the train lurches suddenly downwards and the reclined seats become bolt upright ones.

At the bottom theres a choice of boardwalks through the rainforest - an hour for the full circuit, half an hour for the animatronic dinosaur display, or 10 minutes for those who find 36°C a bit on the warm side (the record fhere is 37°, and they were forecast 39° for the next day). At the end we took the cable car back up, with anothe r good view of the 3 sisters and - according to the guide - through a very clear transition from the rainforest at the bottom to the gum forest at the top. If you don't know the local trees all that well it's not a particularly obvious difference.Read more