The Blue Mountains are, as you would expect from the name, "mountains," though one's definition of "mountain" is relative. For Australia, these hills are big and are only short drive west of Sydney. They are close enough to be a weekend destination for people in the city and the area boasts lots of attractions. It has many quaint little towns and villages, great hiking, and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The "Three Sisters" rock formation just outside Katoomba came highly recommended. There are great views of the valley and above the rocks there is a staircase which brings you down for an up close view of Three Sisters. As you can see it was pretty windy that day.
Katoomba also boasts the steepest cable-driven funicular train in the world which brings you down to the valley floor. The ride down could easily be on any roller-coaster in your local amusement park and we certainly enjoyed it. The Scenic World complex that the train is a part of also had a glass-bottomed cable car which brought us from one side of a steep gorge to the other, giving us great views of a waterfall during a wilder than normal ride, due to the high winds.
We had a few more days in Sydney before our return to the US but didn't do too much more than hang out in the city. We've been given ski passes as Christmas presents so we're headed to Vail to ski for the last days of our trip. Hopefully there's some good snow!
Had to look up the term "funicular" and wikipedia told me this:
ReplyDeleteThe Scenic Railway at Katoomba Scenic World, Blue Mountains, Australia (which supports multiple tourist attractions such as the Skyway and Cableway), claims to be the world's steepest passenger carrying funicular railway, with a maximum incline of 52 degrees or 122%, with a total incline length of 310 Metres and a vertical lift of 206.5 M in a horizontal distance of 243.4. The railway is on the old mining track.