Blue Mountains

Today we went to the Blue Mountains for the day, by train. The train journey took 2 hours but was very cheap ($8 each way) and the double decker trains are very well designed (the toilet however was less well designed - the hand dryer blow-dried my hair whilst I was sitting on the loo!). After lunch in Katoomba, we got the bus to Echo Point and spent some time at the viewpoints there, including the most famous sight of the Blue Mountains National Park, the "Three Sisters" rock towers (1st photo). Could be me and my 2 sisters, Jayne and Jenny?! We walked down some very steep steps to reach the first of the "Three Sisters" too. As soon as we could, we left the main viewpoint area and went for a walk away from the crowds. We got to see more of the impressive Blue Mountains scenery and it was good to have a walk in the countryside (or the "bush" as they like to call it, both here and in NZ), particularly as we have spent the past week in cities. We saw some wildlife along the way too - parrots (including these beautiful red and blue ones in the photo, lots of cockatoos and some small fantail and robin-like birds. We didn't get back until after dark. Being closer to the equator, it gets darker here earlier than in NZ (the sun sets around 5:30pm) and seemingly faster too.Read more