Tuesday - August 26th, 2008 - Sydney to the Blue Mountains, Australia - blogged from the Sydney hotel room
Another day down under and another very good day-long tour under our belts. Our tour guide today was Johnny, our head-count was still small at 11 (still not a full bus which would have been 14) and our destination was The Blue Mountains which lie a couple hours west of Sydney. Johnny was an excellent guide full of great information about Sydney, The Blue Mountains and Australia in general. Our first stop about an hour out of town was the Featherdale Wildlife Park where we had breakfast with a beatiful young koala named "Maddie." Maddie's fur was very soft and she was a bit shy, but she was an amazing little thing. Featherdale is a wonderful little zoo/wild animal recovery station right in the middle of the suburban sprawl of Sydney. The park was there first, but now it sits amid a bustling neighborhood. This little santuary had an amazing array of native animals, birds and reptiles. Everything from colorful parrots, kangaroos you could hand feed and a big sleepy saltwater croc that I am sure would like to have been hand-fed...or fed a hand.
Moving on to The Blue Mountains was next on the agenda and the views were outstanding.
Rising 3,000 feet above sea level at their highest point, these sandstone beauties are where Sydneysiders (that's what the natives call themselves) "go for some mountain time." Quaint little villages, acres of orchards and pristine national park land surround you instantly. Despite being in drought conditions we were able to see two nice tall waterfalls. The highlight of The Blue Moutains (and the whole day) was a walk through and above a real rainforest via a boarded trail. This area is a World Heritage Site and we could have definitely spent a lot more time here. The day concluded with Johnny promising and (finally) delivering kangaroos in the wild (we had to hunt for them a bit). These young males are protected in the national park lands and tolerate humans pretty well.
Gentle natures with powerful potential strength in claws and strong muscles make these animals quite interesting to observe. Johnny did a good job of not doubling-back over areas we had already seen and gave us glimpses of Sydney's Olympic venues on the way back into town as well as great views of Darling Harbor and other areas on the far end of Sydney from where we were staying. What a magnificent city. We are gonna miss you, Sydney! We concluded the evening with a superb seafood dinner at "Fish at the Rocks" near our hotel (a Johnny suggestion - thanks, mate!). Ashlee had the Atlantic trout (similar to salmon in color and taste) and Rob had baked barramundi (first time ever) which is a meaty white fish with excellent flavor. It's off to the west early tomorrow morning to spend a couple of days in Adelaide.
Tuesday - August 26th, 2008 - Sydney to the Blue Mountains, Australia - blogged from the Sydney hotel room
Another day down under and another very good day-long tour under our belts. Our tour guide today was Johnny, our head-count was still small at 11 (still not a full bus which would have been 14) and our destination was The Blue Mountains which lie a couple hours west of Sydney. Johnny was an excellent guide full of great information about Sydney, The Blue Mountains and Australia in general. Our first stop about an hour out of town was the Featherdale Wildlife Park where we had breakfast with a beatiful young koala named "Maddie." Maddie's fur was very soft and she was a bit shy, but she was an amazing little thing. Featherdale is a wonderful little zoo/wild animal recovery station right in the middle of the suburban sprawl of Sydney. The park was there first, but now it sits amid a bustling neighborhood. This little santuary had an amazing array of native animals, birds and reptiles. Everything from colorful parrots, kangaroos you could hand feed and a big sleepy saltwater croc that I am sure would like to have been hand-fed...or fed a hand.
Moving on to The Blue Mountains was next on the agenda and the views were outstanding.
Rising 3,000 feet above sea level at their highest point, these sandstone beauties are where Sydneysiders (that's what the natives call themselves) "go for some mountain time." Quaint little villages, acres of orchards and pristine national park land surround you instantly. Despite being in drought conditions we were able to see two nice tall waterfalls. The highlight of The Blue Moutains (and the whole day) was a walk through and above a real rainforest via a boarded trail. This area is a World Heritage Site and we could have definitely spent a lot more time here. The day concluded with Johnny promising and (finally) delivering kangaroos in the wild (we had to hunt for them a bit). These young males are protected in the national park lands and tolerate humans pretty well.
Gentle natures with powerful potential strength in claws and strong muscles make these animals quite interesting to observe. Johnny did a good job of not doubling-back over areas we had already seen and gave us glimpses of Sydney's Olympic venues on the way back into town as well as great views of Darling Harbor and other areas on the far end of Sydney from where we were staying. What a magnificent city. We are gonna miss you, Sydney! We concluded the evening with a superb seafood dinner at "Fish at the Rocks" near our hotel (a Johnny suggestion - thanks, mate!). Ashlee had the Atlantic trout (similar to salmon in color and taste) and Rob had baked barramundi (first time ever) which is a meaty white fish with excellent flavor. It's off to the west early tomorrow morning to spend a couple of days in Adelaide.
2 comments:
Blue Mountains? Now you are in my element. Have you guys ever given thought to being on the show "The Amazing Race?"
Watching you pull Ashlee in a ric-shaw... That'd be cool. Even cooler the other way around, LOL.
Thanks for keeping us posted!
we're pretty slow, so racing probably isn't for us, but thanks for the support...pictures to come when the dnag internet starts to cooperate...stupid australia
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