Today was our outside-of-Sydney tour day, where we would get to visit one of Australia's wildlife parks, see the majesty of the Australian Blue Mountains, and wander around one of the quaint nearby towns. It did wake us up early - we were out the door, walking from the university housing at around 6:15 am. We met up with the rest of the tourists at Sydney's Central YHA for the pickup, where we were introduced to our guide, Marcel, an engaging guide from, of all places, Amsterdam.
After an hour's drive, our first stop that morning was the Featherdale Wildlife Park, in Doonside off of the Great Western Highway. There, we got up close and personal with all number of Australian wildlife, including wallabies, koalas, kangaroos, dingos, emus, and even some Tasmanian devils.
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| James and Tabitha say hello to the kangaroos! |
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| One of the Macropus Agilis (wallabies) looks for food from James. |
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| An albino peacock shows off for the park visitors. |
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| James and Erin pose with one of the park's koalas. |
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| This tasmanian devil is more sleepy than devilish. |
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| James makes friends with an Emu. |
After our time at the zoo, we hopped back in the van and drove for a little while before briefly stopping at a park to practice boomerang throwing. Neither of us was successful in our throwing attempt.
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| Erin prepares to unleash her boomerang. |
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| James demonstrates his unsuccessful technique. |
When we returned to the tour van after our boomerang attempt, we noticed that it was starting to get very hot. And, to compound the issue, the tour bus's air conditioning did not work, which was very disappointingas it started to approach 90 degrees outside. As you might imagine, this made the ride to the Blue Mountains seem extremely long.
We survived a warm ride to the Blue Mountains's entry point near Katoomba, called "Scenic World," and waited in a fairly long line to take a cable car down into the rainforest. Once on the rainforest floor, we took a walking tour where we learned more about the coal mining that once took place in the area, as well as more about the three sisters (the three mountain rock formation) and the supposed Indigenous Australian Dreamtime legend surrounding the rock formation - a story of forbidden love, where three native sisters were turned to stone by their father when they violated tribal law.
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| Some of the massive trees in the Australian rainforest. |
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| A view of the impressive native ferns. |
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| The cable car, as seen from the rainforest floor. |
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| A good view of the Three Sisters rock formation from the rainforest. |
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| James and Erin pose with the Three Sisters in the background. |
After wandering through the area for a bit, we took a train back up to the top - specifically, the Scenic Railway, billed as the steepest incline railway in the world.
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| The Scenic Railway leaving the station - going up at an astonishing 52 degree angle. |
Once we left the Blue Mountains, we stopped for lunch nearby. Once we finished our lunch, we jumped back into the hot tour van and drove to the nearby town of Leura. The town was filled with antique shops, candy stores, and Aboriginal art stores. It reminded us a little bit of Frankenmuth, Michigan - as it was a charming tourist destination.
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| More traditional Austrailan prices - $3.00 for a Kit Kat bar. |
From there, we drove through the 2000 Olympic Park site in Sydney - which was incredibly large, and was still being used for different sporting events and concerts. However, it was clear that the park, while still in use, was beginning to show its age.
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| The ANZ Stadium, with a capacity of 110,000 during the Olympics (85,000 today) |
We ended our tour with a catamaran ferry ride in the Parramatta River where we went under the Harbour Bridge and ended at Harbour Quay next to the Opera House.
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| The Harbour Bridge as we passed underneath on the ferry. |
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| A passing ferry. |
From there, it was a decent walk home after a brief stop at a nearby grocery store. It was a long day, and we were pretty tired - and James fell asleep almost immediately after we arrived back at our University housing.
