The Blue Mountains
Three Sisters
Went to the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains to the east of Sydney yesterday. In the morning I was waiting around near the quay after getting into town way too early to catch my bus. While killing time, away in a world of my own I stumbled into and almost knocked a girl down. I recognised her face but couldn’t quite place it. Turns out it was Miss Universe doing something or other for Covergirl which explained why she looked very familiar – there were posters of her face everywhere.
So after almost sweeping Miss Universe off her feet, off I went into the Blue Mountains. Turns out they are called blue because the Eucalyptus is the dominant tree and they produce oils that evaporate and it causes a blue haze in the atmosphere. And there I was hoping to see blue cliffs. I did see some majestic ‘Grand Canyonesque’ cliffs though which made up for the lack of blue stone. There were waterfalls too, even though it’s the middle of winter but there is something of a serious drought going on so the waterfalls were no more than trickles. All the rain we had in the city just sticks to the coast and doesn’t make it into the mountains. I experienced the worlds steepest railway and at 52 degrees it is quite steep. It cost $8 for about 60 seconds but the alternative is over 2000 steps back out of the valley so it was a no brainer really.
I love the way things are named here. You discover a very big long valley so what do you all it other than Megalong valley. Then take the Eucalyptus trees, one thats bark peels off is called a stripping gum, fair enough. Any guesses for what they call the variety with no bark? How about dead dog – a dead dog has no bark, doh!