Australia Trip: Blue Mountains

My parents live in a very beautiful part of Australia, the Blue Mountains. Their town is called Springwood, a small town at the base of the Blue Mountains. It reminded me of the small towns and villages you drive through in the more rural parts of England, like the Cotswolds...small little buildings, people bustling about in the morning on the main street, going in and out of little shops for their morning errands. As you wind your way up the Blue Mountains, you find one of these small towns every10 to 15 kilometres or so. It was so green and lush, and the most amazing birds were flying around.

The day after we got there, Mom and Dad wanted to show us around their area. It was a very drizzly, foggy morning, and I was glad we had our jackets with us! (It is spring there right now, so the weather was sort of hit or miss.)

We drove up the main highway into Leura, a cute town where one of the branches of the church meet. They showed us their very unique church building:
It has a sort of open courtyard around it. The people are very proud of it because a prominent Australian architect designed it. It definitely stands out in the town!

We drove to Echo Point, which is a popular scenic spot because you can see the Blue Mountain valley, and the famous "Three Sisters," a rocky outcropping with 3 big rocks. Unfortunately, the fog had not lifted yet, and the view was completely hidden.

(Before)

That's Trevor demonstrating the lack of view. We hit the gift shop, then headed to nearby Katoomba to do a little shopping until the fog cleared. Mom and I went to a neat rock shop that specialized in opals and other native Australian rocks. The owner was originally from France (that's a strange combination of accent for you: French and Australian!) He hand cut and polished all of the stones himself. The opal jewelry was a little pricey, but Mom and I both found these amazing zebra stones there. He had amazing things! Robert and boys hit the local "discount stores" to see what they had. They ended up buying me "Tiffany" cookies (they weren't very good.)

The fog hadn't lifted and we were all hungry, so Mom and Dad took us to their favorite meat pie place, "Mountain High Pies." They were very good! They served them with a side of "mash" (mashed potatoes), peas (mashed peas), or pumpkin (mashed pumpkin). I chose the pumpkin...very tasty!
After lunch, we decided to try Echo Point again...this time the fog had cleared and the view was very different!

(After)

It reminded me of the Grand Canyon, with the reddish rock and the flat peaks jutting out, only it was covered with trees and the bottom was all rain forest. Of course, it also wasn't nearly as big as the Grand Canyon, but still very impressive! Here's a shot of the "Three Sisters":

At the base of the first "Sister" on the left, there is a little bridge. We decided we needed to go on the little bridge. The sign said it was a 1o minute walk, so Mom decided to accompany us (Dad stayed behind.) The trail started out nice, but then it got steeper and steeper, and muddier and muddier. Then we got to some "stairs" that led down to the bridge. I use the term "stairs" loosely because they were extremely steep, extremely large, and extremely uneven from all of the feet that had climbed them. Mom opted out for the crazy steep stair trip, so the rest of us ventured down them. Did I mention they were also extremely slippery because of the rain and drizzle earlier?Anyway, we made it down in one piece (thank goodness for hand rails, which were there every now and then.) The bridge ended up not being that exciting, but the view was beautiful. It was also very crowded with teenagers on a school field trip, so my pictures don't do it justice.

There was also an Aboriginal didgeridoo player at Echo Point. Mom and Dad actually knew him from someone in the branch...sort of a friend of a friend. His name was "Goombalah," although I'm not sure I'm spelling it right. The boys were a bit intimidated by him to sit for a picture, so I got to be in it all by myself!

Another shot with the "Three Sisters" in the background:
After snapping a million shots at Echo Point, we headed down to "Scenic World," home of the world's steepest funicular railway. It takes you down...straight down to the bottom of the Blue Mountain canyon into the rainforest. The ride was pretty exciting...no seatbelts. They played the theme from "Indiana Jones" as we went down, at a 56 degree incline! They had all sorts of protective bars and things on the cars, so we didn't get a good picture. But they had an older, less safe looking railway car set up at the bottom for pictures.

I didn't put a lot of pictures in from our walk through the rainforest because they just didn't do it justice. I've never been in a rainforest-type environment before...cool, dark, and the most beautiful greens and crazy plants, like 15 foot ferns and vines growing everywhere. It was so amazing just to stroll through and looks at all of the plants and trees...the boys loved it, too! After our stroll through the rainforest, we took a huge cable car back up to the top...a fun ride with great views!

Dad then told us he wanted to show us another great lookout point they discovered while visiting a less active lady one day. The clouds had started to roll back in, but it was still amazing! There was even an amazing waterfall...a huge drop down to the valley floor. There was hardly anyone at the that lookout point...a well-kept secret!

Dad then took us on his favorite scenic drive...down to "Megalong Valley." The road was very twisty and turny...Dad said he reminded him of the road to Hanna in Hawaii. At the end of the winding road, we got to the valley where there the trees cleared and there was beautiful farm land. With the Blue Mountains on either side of the valley, it reminded me of a scene from "The Man From Snowy River." Anyway, it was just beautiful. I had Robert pull of the road several times for pictures...we almost got stuck in a mud puddle at one point.

It was a great day...so beautiful. My parents get to drive through these places every day as they teach the gospel and serve the people of this area.

And they even get to see crazy signs like this:

(By the way, that's a wombat in the bottom left-hand corner...but we didn't get to see any one our drive!)