Everyone we talked to about Australia and Sydney talked about Taronga Zoo and the Blue Mountains National Park, so we decided to fit in a 1 day road-trip to Australia's version of the Grand Canyon (USA). We were not disappointed because we had a great time even though we were finally scared away! (literally)
http://www.agent619.com/index.php/the-community/43-soap-box/88-blue-mountains-australia
We've been in Australia now for about 1 week and doing touristy things were new to us. So to get back on track we decided to engage in the tourist act of traveling to the Blue Mountains. But I have to proudly say that I've been also driving for a couple days on the Left-Hand side of the road, so we were locals in that respect as I drove the 2 hour commute to one of Australia's National treasures.
Getting there was pretty uneventful, untill we hit the base of the mountenous region. From that point on you do notice the "gum trees" density intensify and the residential housing diminish. We knew were were close. Surprisingly, close to the high mesa area of our ascent, it felt like a modern yet rural town in the USA. You'd see small boutique shops, but shockly on the other side of the street you'd see the commuter train zooming by. Also the houses started popping up everywhere they could along this major highway.
We hit our destination of Katoomba. From there we parked the car at Echo Point, which is definitely a toursit hot spot. It had a over-hang observatory, gift shops, and a perfect view of the Three Sisters rock formation. It reminded me of a stop my family had at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Just looking at the sheer vastness of vegitation, open sky, and wide valleys that separated the high country. Yet were definitely not in Arizona. All different types of "gum trees" made up the entire vegitation of this national park. They call it the Blue Mountains because all of the eucaliptys trees and their evaporating menthol sap/oil produce a bluish haze around the surrounding air. If you look closely at our pictures, you'll see that blue haze or blue mist, kind of like a very faint blue fog.
After buyer Joshua's most favorite teddy bear in the whole world (Koala Bear), we headed for the (Katoomba Mine) lookout and tourist trap. What a great experience for a very reasonable price. For an all day family pass you could pay $75 AUS or you could do a 1 big loop ticket that hit all 3 rides for about $35. We went for the latter as time was against us because it was about 2pm and the whole area shuts down at 5pm. We started out on the Sky Walk, which was scary experience 1 of 3. Basically it's a suspended cable care that move horizontally and overlooks a famous rock formation and a waterfall. To add to being suspended over a very large and deep valley, the middle of the cable car has a glass floor so that you can get your double dose of vertigo per round trip. Actually, being afraid of heights is not a problem for me, but the minute you get my kids in a high drop, then I start feeling squeamish. I get a little worried when my kids are just 3 feet off the ground. I also have to commend the marketing genius about the Skywalk. If you start your Skywalk trip from the main grounds, it's free to go 'out' from the grounds. But when you come back, you have to pay (or prepay) your return ticket to leave the cable car. Smart huh? You can go out and enjoys the sights and sounds, but the minute you want to come back, they head straight for the wallet. Then get this, if you try to outsmart the system and start at the remote location then try to Skywalk your way to the main grounds, you have to pay for your car park. Genius! Needless to say, it was well worth the ticket because the open window view of the valley below and the falls were beautiful. I just wished we weren't moving so fast. Now that we were done levitating above the canyon, it was time to be IN the canyon.
The next part of our experience ticket was riding a real cable car that descends down actual cable. We made up half of the tourists in the cable car, so we had lots of room to experience the descent. Too bad for my wife, nobody told her that her stomach would come up to her throat.
