Blue Mountains | Sydney Day 3
Early start today (at least for me). I was out the door by 7:45 so I could catch a train from Sydney Central Station to Katoomba. That’s a town in the Blue Mountains. Glad I got to the train early as it filled up fast! It was a 2 hour ride and I slept most of it.
I arrived in Katoomba around 10:30am. Beautiful day. I had bought a ticket to a hop on hop off bus so I could explore. In retrospect I should have just used the regular bus. The bus service I chose only picked you up at each stop every hour. So once you got off the bus you had to plan around that. Kinda annoying because some stops I just wanted to get a quick look and hop back on the bus. I also was not prepared clothing wise – I didn’t realize how much hiking was involved and I was only wearing a dress and my Birkenstocks. I tried not to let that stop me. I did the first suggested hike which was about a mile. Definitely not ideal in my shoes as the path was dirt and it went mostly uphill. The lookouts along the way were very beautiful though and the air was so fragrant with eucalyptus. It is the leaves of the eucalyptus that make the mountains look blue. I was relieved when I got to my destination of Echo Point. From there I could get a great view of the 3 Sisters. The 3 Sisters are a rock formation. Pretty cool. Took lots of pics.
Then I decided to get back on the bus to go to Scenic World which is where I had tickets to the world’s steepest train and a cable car. Wow! I took the train down to the forest floor. It was a CRAZY ride!!! So steep! I took a video of the ride. Once you get through the rock tunnel, it really opens up and is a beautiful view.
Once you get down to the bottom, they have a “dinosaur” park. The dinosaurs are animated! I didn’t go all the way down to the dinosaur tour because I was tired and was concerned about my shoes. So I took the cable car back up after walking along the boardwalk.
By this time I was getting a little testy. Inside the cable car was smelly. People need to shower!!! Plus it was crowded. It seemed every Asian visitor to Australia decided to visit the Blue Mountains. I had the opportunity to take another cable car across the forest but opted out so I could could catch the bus. By this time it’s after 2pm and I really needed lunch. So I took the bus to the town of Leura which is just east of Katoomba. I found a diner and had a BLT. I remembered to ask for the bacon well done as they usually serve it soft. By the time I finished I was ready to get the train back to Sydney. Leura was another cute town lined with shops, restaurants and galleries. Just like Katoomba. I walked the block to the train station and caught the train back to Sydney. I fell asleep for part of the ride. At one point I woke up and thought I missed my stop! Well Sydney was the last stop and I still had 45 minutes to go. Phew. And it was really crowded on the train by the time I woke up too.
I decided to take the bus back to the Airbnb. Really pretty walk through the neighborhood. The neighborhood I was staying in is predominantly gay. Reminded me of the Castro.
It felt so good to get back! I ordered some Italian for dinner and took a walk to pick it up. Got to see more of the neighborhood. Now it’s time to eat, shower, chill and sleep!
Site Title 