The weather has been great all weekend in Sydney. There’s been consistent sunny weather, not like Melbourne where the weather changes drastically from cold to hot to rainy...all one day.
On Saturday, I hung out with Viv, her husband Andrew and their cute little daughter Natalie. They took me to Wentworth Falls and the Blue Mountains, which is about an hour drive from where they live. Wentworth Falls has a great view of the mountains and there’s a small fall there, though there’s not much there except for the view. It would be a great place to go hiking...too bad we didn’t have time and Viv is 8 months pregnant, so can’t really do too much! :) She was a trooper and walked down part of the path to the falls with us and then stopped to rest while we went to the first lookout point.
We drove to the Blue Mountains next to look at the Three Sisters. The Three Sisters are big rock formations from soft sandstone that eroded over time. You can actually walk out to the first rock and Andrew said that people also do some rock climbing there. After seeing the Three Sisters, I’d definitely be scared to do any rock climbing for fear that the rocks would fall...it looked kinda fragile with all the erosion. There is a legend about the Three Sisters and I'll steal this snippet from the Blue Mountain website.
The Legend
The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe.
These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry. The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle.
As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come.
We stopped by the village for lunch. The village was quiet (there wasn’t a lot of tourists) and was very laid back. It’s definitely the place to go if you want to relax and get away from the city. There were lots of little shops around and we stopped by the lolly store and got some goodies to eat. I got some more chocolate (as if the ones I got the weekend before wasn’t enough). I’ve found that I really like the chocolate covered macadamias and this lolly store had some that were a mix of dark, brown and white chocolate. I love white chocolate, so I had to get some to try and it was so good I couldn't stop eating it. I can feel the pounds start to pile on.....
After lunch, we went to the Katoomba Scenic World, which is also located in the Blue Mountains. The two famous attractions here are the Katoomba Scenic Railway and the Katoomba Scenic Skyway. We rode the railway down part of the mountain and the railway went down a pretty steep incline. It was a pretty cool ride because it was so steep!! The railway was originally built for coal-mining, but they eventually converted it for tourists. When we got down the mountain, we walked around and read up on the coal mining and then took the skyway back up. The skyway is basically a big cable car that can accommodate alot of people and it's just the one cablecar that goes up and down.
Since I flew out on Sunday, we went to the Featherworld Wildlife Park which was only 30 minutes away. I think this was the best part of my trip!!! I finally got to see the koalas up close and personal. They are sooooooooooo adorable and all they do is sleep. Some of the folks in Melbourne told me it's because the koalas get high on the gum leaves...but I don't know if that's really true or not! :) The park had a place where you can pet the koalas and it was so much fun to touch them...their fur is so soft!! I really wanted to pick one up to cuddle with since they were so cute!!! :) I need to find a way to pack a few into my suitcase...hehehe..
I also got to pet some kangaroos...they were just wandering all around certain areas of the park waiting for people to feed them and pet them. I had no idea they were so friendly!! And it was so cool that I saw a white roo!!! Didn't know albino roos existed! And another favorite part of the trip...one of the wombats rolled over on his belly when I went to pet him. Just like a doggie!!! It was so adorable!!
