Blue Mountains

We've spent the past few days in Blue Mountains and it's been exhausting. I mean, it's been gorgeous. stunning. Beautiful. Amazing. AND we got lucky with the weather again. When DM went to Blue Mountains it was foggy but we got the perfect blue haze over the mountains.

We got to the village of Katoomba and walked down to Echo Point, where you view the Three Sisters rock formations. We'd purchased a hop-on-hop-off trolley tour but the bastard arrived 15 minutes early and there's only one every hour... so we decided to walk to Katoomba falls via the Giant Staircase.

Make no mistake. The Giant Staircase is aptly named. It's Giant. We descended roughly 100 stories on steep steps hewn into the rock in some spaces and rickety see-through metal stairs nailed to the side of the cliff in others, passing one of the sisters. We then hiked along the Federal Pass up and down, around and around, and went up the Prince Henry Cliff Walk to Katoomba Falls.

By this time, it was too late to turn back, so we just kept hiking. Three very sore hours later, we walked up the crazy steep main road to get back to our hotel to eat Australian cheese and fruit for dinner.

Yesterday, we went to the Jenolan Caves, as recommended by AH when she went to Australia. We toured the Lucas Caves which are 430 million years old and got harassed by a bat! Only one though, thank goodness. And it was tiny. And it was The Boy who got harassed. LOL. The caves are filled with stunning sparkly calcium carbonate deposits that make huge stalactites and stalagmites. There were enormous caverns and gorgeous formations... it was unreal and even all of the professional photos I've seen online don't do this place justice.

After a quiet lunch next to the river (still no platypi sightings, but did get attacked by a swarm of gentle butterflies), we toured the Orient Caves. My favourite formations were the multicoloured ribbony-looking curtain-like pieces. I just couldn't put my finger on why until the tour guide pointed out the "bacon-like formations" and called them shoals. MmmMmm.. Bacon.

We had dinner at the City Bank, which is a restaurant, not a bank, and everyone was dressed up fifties style. If you go to Katoomba at the end of January, be sure to pack your fifties gear and swing-dance knowhow. If only we knew! We left our swing dance at home.

Today we came back to Sydney and went to the George Street Lululemon. Another Canadian was working there. Love! Then we went to Manly Beach and explored Ocean World. To be fair, I'm not sure we'd have gone if we hadn't gotten the Explore 4 Pass (Wildlife World, Sydney Aquarium, Sydney Tower, and Ocean World) but we did, and it was still worth it. Lousy with kids, the place also hosted massive sharks and two at-least-a-metre-wide sting rays that could have eaten me in a bite and then some. YIKES. Super fun!

We popped back into the ocean for our last go in the Pacific and got knocked around by some waves and reliably got burned again. Oh well. It's the one souvenir that didn't cost us a thing. We're going back to Canada tomorrow and I'm depressed beyond words. I dont' want to go back. I don't want a 60-degree swing. I want go stay here where it's nice and soothing and warm and foreign. Sigh.