Australia Journey - Day #10

06.05.2014 - Sydney

Today I had to get up early for my day trip to the Blue Mountains. At 6:55am I got picked up by the bus and
we started collecting the rest of the 14 people strong group. Not too many people, just the right size I think.
Alex our driver started telling us basically everything about every tree we drove by. Very informative and
interesting, only thing I noticed in Australia is that whole Aboriginal thing is a kind of a no go area. It's been
mentioned but in a way so that you can't really think about it.
There were two other Germans with me on the trip, father and daughter, with whom I got in to contact and
had a nice chat.
After 45min or so we reached the Blue Mountains, we made a small break for breakfast with coffee, tea and
THE down under thing Scones. Kinda like a german Streuselkuchen in taste, slightly different and without
the Streusel but cream and jam. Not my thing really ...
We then made another stop on top of a cliff from where we had a stunning view of the Blue Mountains. Really
beautiful! It's kinda like a smaller, greener and way older version of the Grand Canyon.
When we reached our destination in the Blue Mountains we hopped onto the gondola and crossed a canyon
from where we then had a good view of the three sisters. The three sisters is the iconic rock formation of the
Blue Mountains. Well to be honest, not that impressive but the wast valley itself was. We then made a short
ride on the steepest train in the world and yes this time the 'in the world' phrase was true. It was almost like
an elevator ride. The little walking track the train brought us to was ridiculous at best and plastered with art
from local artists. Why? I don't know! Made no sense to me what so ever. I don’t have a problem with art but
this was totally out of place.
After everyone was back on the bus we went to viewing point to catch another view of the valley and then
headed for our lunch break in a small hotel/restaurant. Funny enough there was another Weta guy on the
tour, an Animator from Seattle. Small world.
Our next destination was Featherdale, a small wildlife sanctuary with Koalas, Kangaroos and the like.
Another chance to have Kangaroos eating out of my hand and have a picture taken of me cuddling a Koala.
Fluffy little fellas!
The last stop was at the river where we said goodbye to Alex and got onto a city cat and got a ride back into
Sydney going underneath the harbour bridge into Sydney Harbour. Really nice day all in all.