Tag 42 - Sydney - Blue Mountains

Yesterday we completed a bus tour with our guide Tony to the Blue Mountains. Tony is a bit older, a really nice guy, knows the area and the history of his city of Sydney/his country like the back of his hand. We've already come to the right place! The meeting point was 6:35 a.m. 😅. We had to get up earlier than before the trip. What did we do again 😂?

After the engine was started and we had roughed it for the first few kilometers, we unfortunately ran into slow traffic. There was a bang somewhere in the street. Hopefully everything went well. However, we lost about 30-40 minutes of time. Since we had a tight schedule, we had to make up the time over the course of the morning. Since this is difficult to do on the road by bus, the time spent at the stops was of course saved, which was of course a great shame. Nothing to change, let's move on!

The first stop was “Lincoln’s Rock”. This is a lookout. There we caught our first glimpse of the Blue Mountains. One participant asked what we should do when we see a snake. Tony said very dryly: “Stay calm” 😅.

Afterwards we drove to Echo Point. A wide view of the valley is also possible here. There is also a rock formation called the “Three Sisters”. I ordered a snack and an espresso in the café. When the lady gave me my breakfast, she said “Enjoy your meal”. Of course I said “thank you” quite naturally😅.

The next stop on our program was: Scenic World. We rode 200m downhill on the steepest railway in the world. When we got on the train, Elisa asked why the seats, handles and cushions were aligned so strangely. I seem to have forgotten to mention in advance that this is a very special railway. Surprise. Well, there was a lot of joy there😆. The theme music from Jurassic Park played at the start. That was cool and it made the trip even more fun. Aaaabut: When the journey ended, the doors initially couldn't be opened and we had to wait 10 minutes until the problem was at least temporarily solved mechanically. Only then could we get out. Luckily we had the journey behind us. Didn't exactly build trust 😅. Afterwards Tony led us along a promenade in the rainforest. He told us about the history of the forest and was able to assign every sound to an animal: wow! We heard a lot of sounds from a wide variety of animals that seemed very strange to us. At the end of the promenade we got on a cable car and headed north again.

The entire system is apparently based on the films. As a welcome you are first greeted by raptors and later a T-Rex follows - of course with background noise. One or two tourists have already looked around questioningly. In the middle of the forest a dinosaur suddenly stands out 😂. I really liked that. Unfortunately there wasn't that much time, otherwise I would have liked to see other areas of the park.

As if that wasn't enough until lunchtime, we made another short stop. Tony wanted to take everything with him. We went to the Megalong Valley with a view of the Jamison Valley (if we understood that correctly). He told us some stories with snakes and spiders. These are very popular to find up there 😅. The hospital probably has anti-venom in case of a bite. We were lucky and didn't see anything like that. It's a bit of a shame, but it's probably better that way. The spiders are supposed to be quite big 😁.

Hard to believe, but true, after that there was lunch, it wasn't that clear😅. We sat at the table with two Portuguese and an American. They can tell you a lot, we actually just wanted to eat! But we got through that at some point.

Now we slowly made our way back. We stopped at Featherdale Wildlife Park. There are many native animals to observe here when they are awake. There are endless koalas there. And everyone is asleep except Lawson! The poor guy had to sacrifice himself and take pictures with us. But that was really, really funny. You can do just about anything with it. We were able to pet him very tenderly. He doesn't care about that at all. His eyes only follow the eucalyptus leaves and the nurses gave him plenty of them 😂.

Elisa was also able to feed kangaroos. One even held the cup and pulled on it. He just wanted to have everything for himself 😅. Elisa petted the animals and I think she was very happy.

The next milestone on the tour was the 2000 Olympic Games Stadium in Sydney. We drove around once and Tony told us everything we needed to know about it. I was very pleased.

The final act of the story was the ferry ride. We got tickets and said goodbye to our guide. He came with us to the dock. Then it was over. After Sydney we drove up the river to Darling Harbor, where we got out.

We have seen and experienced a lot. The tour was very nice - especially with Tony. But once you've seen the Grand Canyon first, you're no longer as impressed by other gorges 😅.

Best regards