We are now at the Sydney International Airport and I have a chance to finish our trip to Australia.

Our last major outing was the Blue Mountains. We have been told several times by various people that we needed to visit the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains is actually a plateau and is about 2 hours from Sydney.

This time, we had chosen a bus day trip. Our first stop in the Blue Mountains is Flat Rock. This is designated as an official lookout and here we get our first look at the Blue Mountains.

Here it is. It is just a big outcropping of Sandstone Rock. If you’ll notice, there are no guard rails here.

From this distance, there does not appear to be much color because of the blue haze that is the reason they first people called them the Blue Mountains.

If you notice, several of the people near the edge. It is about 3,000 feet down and I am not quite so brave. I should probably point out that Rexie stayed in the bus.

Our destination is a commercial location known as Scenic World. Originally, the land was owned by Coal Mines and when they mines shut down the land and coal rights were bought by an individual many years ago. Today, the grandson of the original buyer runs and maintains Scenic World. We are left out on the far ridge and take Skyway to Scenic World. I should point out that not everyone went to Scenic World this way. Rexie was one of them. She and several others took the bus around to the main building.

As the Skyway begins, it is holding about 60 people.

We are quite high and the view is spectacular.

Because the sides were taken, I got on in the middle of the car. Beneath my feet was a smoky plastic floor. We had been told that car had a floor that would become clear and you could see below it. The car attendant said “And the floor is beginning to clear.” 

At that point, several people who were standing on the plastic floor screamed (and it wasn't me) as they knew nothing about this happening.

What we see below is Katoomba Falls. It not a fast flowing falls like Niagara, but continually has water even during dry spells. The reason this happens is that this whole mountain is basically sandstone. It soaks in any rain and then continually allows that water to flow out of the stone like Katoomba Falls. What you are seeing here is only about 1/3 of the total falls.

One of the stones we see is called Orphan Rock. It has been eroded by wind and water and rises on its own from the base of the mountain.

Next, I take the Cableway down to the bottom of the Valley.

We begin and it doesn’t look too bad. Again, Rexie is not on this either. I probably didn't have to mention that fact. 

As we get ready to go over the first pier, the attendant tells us we should probably hold on to something. The car seems to drop out from under us as we head towards the valley floor. My camera view did not move between the photo previously and the photo here.

Here, I get to see the Blue Mountains up close.

As I get to the valley floor, it is like a different world. It reminds me in many ways of the Smokey Mountains.

Scenic World has created walkways throughout the valley floor. This is the main walkway and is wheelchair accessible. They also have paths that are a little more rugged.

Years ago they had mines here, so Scenic World has re-created a mine scene as it was done back then. They have some of the original equipment that the miners used on display.

Here is how the miners got the ore out of the mine. On the right side pulling the ore car is the backend of a donkey. Was that politically correct enough for you sensitive people?

Obviously, the miners needed air. I got to look in on an air shaft and how they used fires to create a draft that pulled stale air out of the mine.

You could feel the natural air movement without the real fires.

Since Rexie was waiting topside, I didn’t explore the entire valley floor. Instead, I made my way to the railway. It does go up a steep cliff, so I assumed the cages were to make sure everyone stayed inside.

It was a little tough to get into and the seats were leaned very strangely. This is the last picture I took before we started.

I have to be honest at this point. As we started up, the cars tipped forward as the railway went almost straight up the cliff. It shook me up so much because I wasn’t expecting it. I had intended to take pictures all the way up. In my excitement (some might call it panic-actually, I call it panic), the camera got turned off. I did realize it until we had gone through the tunnel and straightened off a little. I had never experienced anything like that in my life. I thought I was going to fall out. I realized why they had a cage around the entire car.

As we are leaving, I saw this sign and realized that the railroad was on a 52 degree incline. That is steep. So, I have now been on the steepest railway in the world, the highest (about 1 ¼ miles high) cable car in Australia, the biggest cable car in Australia, and the longest boardwalk in the Southern Hemisphere. WOW! I had a busy afternoon.

As we leave the Blue Mountains, we have a few more stops. We stop at a little village near the rim and have lunch. The next stop is the Eagle Hawk Lookout. At least this one has a fence to keep you from falling off the edge.

This shot is of the valley floor where I was just an hour ago. You can hardly see any of the infrastructure because of the trees.

Here you can get a sense of the height.

And finally, I take a picture of the rock formation called the Three Sisters. These rock formations are famous in Australia. I kept seeing them when we were in Scenic World, but could not take a good picture until now.

We stop at a small village near the rim and have lunch. We ordered water to drink and they brought out a bottle of water and glasses. This is very common in Australia when you order water. It is tap water, but you don't have to keep asking them for refills.

The next place we stop is Jamison Lookout. Here we have another scenic lookout, but it is also where you can walk down 230 steps to the Wentworth Falls.

The problem with these steps, is that you then have to walk up 230 steps top get back to the top. I passed. It goes without saying that Rexie never even looked at the picture.

Here is the view from the lookout. What you are seeing is the first stop we made, Flat Rock.

Waiting on everyone to get back, we had the opportunity to see 5 cockatoos land in the field near us. They are wild birds in this part of Australia and are everywhere.

 The last Blue Mountain stop was at an aboriginal Rock Engraving. Notice the "strong" penalty for messing with the engraving.

The engraving is of a kangaroo and it appears to be dead, based on the head being back and no feet being drawn. Apparently, the aboriginals depicted dead animals without their feet. The know this engraving is at least 45 years old and possibly as much as 2,000 years old.

We will be taking a river cruise back to Sydney and on the way we swing by the Olympic Park that was created for the 2000 Olympics. It is really amazing and since that time, an entire suburb has been built around this site.

The river cruise was nothing to sneeze about as we had cruised the narbor area perviously. 

Well, that finishes our trip to the Blue Mountains and now, that finishes our trip to Australia. We are at the airport waiting to be checked-in for our flight.We are going to be in the air and one layover stop in Nadi, Fiji that will take us over 17 hours. However, when we leave at 12:55pm on Saturday from Sydney, we will arrive in Los Angeles at 2:45pm on Saturday, only 1 3/4 hours. Figure that out if you can. Hint: The International Dateline.

I must be off!