May 23, 2014 To The Blue Mountains

Today we lace up our boots and head to the mountains. The Blue Mountains lie west of Sydney about 2 hours and is an escape for many in the Summer, I mean Winter, oh hell, when every it gets hot. The "Blue" color comes from water vapors off Gum Trees (Eucalytus Trees to you Yanks) and there are a ton of those. We stop for tea in a beautiful state park area and there is no one around. Out comes some Lemington (sponge cake) that gets good reviews and the famous and popular TimTam cookies that hit the spot.

Fall is a great time to be here! Birds making strange sounds and they come round to see if we will share food and to see what we are about. Oh, look at that - some Cockatoos with flaming red necks! The park in beautiful but we are looking for Kangaroos but they are shy. "Did you see that!" says our guide. "What we say". But Jim is in his usual co-pilot seat and he had seen the Wallaby dart cross the road. No more sights today so we head to the trail.
The walk we take starts down and keeps going down and that is a strange way to start a mountain hike. Eventually we level out and circle the canyon walls, peeking out now and again until we reach the first over-look. Wow! We are looking at Jamison Valley and it resembles a smaller Grand Canyon but not small.

We enter a tropical rain forest level with a small stream that drops out of view over the edge. This is a two hour walk but half is down and half is up so as we top out by the parking lot we have had a good work out. One more walk down another path leads to a most spactular view of Wentworth Falls and it was worth every step!

One more stop and it is to view the post card shot of the Blue Mountains. We have to share this spot as the tour busses stop here but sometimes the best spots have to be shared. This one is worth it to view "The Three Sisters". Sandstone spires rise from a rock formation across a deep valley and our cameras get a work out.

Talk about luck. We have hit Sydney for the first day of the "Vivid" show. Every year the entire downtown lights up the surrounding buildings with a light show and music is played and people come from all over to see it. Think Mardi Gras with families and friends. It is crowded but everyone is so nice - it is party time in Sydney. The Opera House is especially beautiful as a light show fills the "Sails" that constantly changes. It is soo cool and will still be going when we return in a week. Here's some movies to show you how cool was!

Tonight is seafood night at the hotel so we air out the wallets for the buffet. Lobster is on the menu but we found something better. "Sydney Bugs" are next to the lobster, similar but not as dry with more taste. More goodies abound including some nice calamari and we hit it hard. We drop some luggage with the bell as we are traveling light for the next part of the journey. We are off to Adelaide in the morning!

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