This is the fourth post of my time in Sydney, Australia. I'm officially on a three-day vacation and today was a truly special day. Having been to Sydney a few times before, I wanted to continue to explore areas outside of the city. Today, I decided to take a tour of Australia's Blue Mountains.
The tour started at a place you wouldn't think of - Featherdale Wildlife Park. You see, there is a zoo within the city limits of Sydney, but there are strict rules about how you can interact with the animals. Further outside of the city, you can get up-close to the animals. I started by being able to pet a cute little koala bear:
But it got even better ; ) I had the chance to hand-feed some wallaby. It was a little strange, as I could feel their tiny teeth and tongue on my hand:
At one point, I had three wallaby all eating at the same time ; ) I loved every minute of it...
The difference between wallaby and kangaroo are their size, and their noses. The wallaby has a more pointed nose and the kangaroo's nose is more blunt. I also had a chance to feed a kangaroo. This guy was much larger, and actually put his paws right on my hand, to steady himself...
In a larger area, they had a mix of grey and white kangaroos:
Elsewhere, I ran into a host of animals that you just won't find in North America. We start with the flying fox...which looks a whole lot like a giant bat:
This little guy is called a billby - to me it looks like a cross between a wallaby and a rat:
They had a couple of wombats there, as well. These are cute little marsupials that love to live in burrows:
One of the stranger animals was this bird, called a cassowary. It's like this strange cross between an emu, a turkey and a dinosaur ; )
Speaking of emus. This one was intent on staring me down. It's like we were in a blinking contest...and I lost...
This is a bird called a kookaboora. These birds are famous for their call. I couldn't get a recording of it, but it actually sounds like human laughter. Seriously. Go search for it...
The parade of strange Australian animals continued, with an echidna. These animals have spikes and looks like fat, spiky anteaters. But they're cute...
One animal that's always interesting, is the Tasmanian Devil. Unlike the famous cartoon version, this guy runs around on all fours. I could never get a picture of him, as he was constantly in motion. I had a shoot a very quick video:
I finished my time at the wildlife park and we drove for over an hour to the northwest of Sydney. Climbing into the Blue Mountains, we stopped at a area above the Jamison Valley, one of three main valleys within this area. We took a tram across the valley floor. As you can see...the views were beautiful:
This formation is called the Orphan Rock
From there, we traveled via a short railway to the floor of the Jamison Valley. This train was unbelievably steep. At a 52-degree incline, it's the steepest passenger train in the world. I couldn't get a good picture while I was on the actual train, but this is what it looked like:
This is me - before the ride. They made you pose for the typical tourist picture...and I decided to get it ; )
I'm not sure what the girl next to me is looking at...outside the frame, to our left...hope it wasn't an animal ; )
The view looking up through the canopy to the cliff wall
After hiking through the valley floor, we took a cable car back up to the top, where we started. As you might guess, it provided another fantastic view of the mountains.
We stopped at one of the more famous view sites in the area, called Echo Point:
From Echo Point, you get a really good view of a rock formation affectionately knows as the Three Sisters. As the aboriginal legend goes, these were three sisters who fell in love with three brothers from another tribe. War broke out between these two groups and a local witch doctor turned them into stone to protect them:
We stopped for lunch near Katoomba. After walking through the village, I found this really cool candy shop (I'm sure you're not surprised). Some of the candy names caught my attention:
Who wouldn't want a Wicked Fizz?
We traveled to another valley in the Blue Mountains - this one called Megalong Valley. We hiked for a bit through forest area. There were lots and lots of eucalyptus trees.
The hike path opened up into a large valley area, complete with a waterfall. As with many areas across the world, this was called Bridal Veil Falls:
Further into the hike, we came to Lincoln Point. This is a giant rock that sits overlooking the Megalong Valley. The tour guide was really nervous when I took this picture, sitting precariously on the edge of the rock. The drop below was several hundred feet:
After the end of a long and glorious day, the tour guide gave us the option of returning via harbor ferry when we reached the edge of the Sydney Harbor. I took him up on the offer and enjoyed a peaceful ride back to Darling Harbor. Yet again, another great view of the Sydney Harbor Bridge:
Yet another fantastic day in Sydney. I was exhausted from two days of hiking around Australia...but it felt great. Tomorrow is my last full day here. To be honest, I'm missing my family quite a bit. Due to some crazy circumstances, they can't be here with me on this trip. I'll take it easy on the last day, and prepare for the long journey home.
Thanks for reading!
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