Blue Mountains (Day 15)

100 Kilometers West of Sydney lie the The Blue Mountains , the fourth and last UNESCO World Heritage Site we were to visit on our travels.

The Blue Mountains get their name from the fact that they have a blue hue to them. This is caused by the Gum or Eucalyptus trees releasing a blue coloured oil into the air which mixes with dust particles and reflects sunlight. Here's a few pics to give you an idea, the first two pics are of their most famous outcrop, the three sisters.

The tour bus stopped at a number of look outs along the way and we took the pics above from these.

After the look outs we stopped off at Scenic World where you could go on various cable cars etc. and forest walks. The most popular one is where you take the scenic cable car down, complete the 20 minute forest walk and take the scenic cable rail back up. We did the same tour in the opposite direction as after queueing for about twenty minutes for the tickets, I hate queueing, we would have had to wait another twenty minutes to take the tour in the normal manner. We also thought we might manage to loose a few of the other tourists along the way. The best part of the trip is the scenic railway which is the steepest railway in the world and would make a roller coaster ride seem tame by comparison. Sharon admitted later that she would not have got onto it if we had been going down as opposed to being pulled back up. Not one for the faint hearted.

After that it was back to the restaurant for some grub. After about ten minutes Sharon asked me did I notice anything unusual. I replied in the negative where by she informed me that we were in a revolving restaurant. Or to be more precise on a revolving floor of a stationary restaurant. The food was terrible and expensive for what it was and no revolving was going to make up for that fact, I also hate bad food!

After the Blue Mountains we headed back towards Sydney but before we did we had one last stop, Featherdale Wildlife Park. We were tired at this stage and we even contemplated staying in the bus while the others did the walk, but you never know what you might miss?

I did remark to Sharon, however that it would have to take something pretty special to make me take out the camera! Imagine our surprise then when one of the first things to great us on our tour was a Cassowary and they had three of these rare birds in the park! I was like a child.

Not only that, they had Koala's that you could get your photo taken with, without paying an additional fee, Taronga Zoo might take note! Here's a pic of Sharon and myself with the Koala and one or two of them in the Park.

They also had loads of wallabies and some kangaroos, some of them male! (I look forward to the parents explaining the next pic!).

And last but not least my new favourite Australian animal the Cassowary.

He almost looks disapproving! Needless to say Featherdale was brilliant and made the whole trip to the Blue Mountains worthwhile. If you have a choice between Taronga Zoo or Featherdale Wildlife Park, Featherdale is the one, as Taronga pales in comparison.

That evening when we got back to Sydney, I googled restaurants as there was nowhere in the Lonely Planet that we were interested in. I came across a web site belonging to two "foodies" and they recommended a Thai restaurant called Spice I Am . We arrived to what could only be described as a frenzy of activity. It was BYO and it did not take bookings. It also did take out and while we were waiting on the footpath for a table, wondering if it was worth the wait, Toni Collette , of Muriel's Wedding fame, walked out with some grub!

Needless to say we decided to stay after that, I nipped down to the local bottle shop, got a nice bottle of local wine and we had a wonderful meal at an incredibly reasonable price. The second of two great restaurant experiences during our time in Sydney.

Cathal