Today we ventured a bit outside of Sydney and saw the Blue Mountains, which are about 60 miles from Sydney's CBD. On the way to these mountains, named for the blue haze that they emit due to the eucalyptus and gum trees, we stopped at a wildlife park to check out some of the animals native to Australia. While there, we had the opportunity to pat a Koala, feed kangaroos and wallabies, and see wombats, dingoes, and even cassowaries! It was a really cool stop and there were tons of native Australian animals to see. After this, we went to learn how to throw a boomerang--which for the most part is like throwing a baseball, just with an arched wooden thing instead of a ball. I am very proud of us, by far the four of us threw it better than other folks! Then we headed to the Blue Mountains and Scenic World. Scenic World has several cableways and the steepest railroad in the world. We took a cable car to the valley floor and did a bit of a hike on the boardwalk through the temparate rainforest that exists there. Seeing the eucalyptus and gum trees up close was really cool and it was somewhat in contrast to the Daintree where we saw all sorts of wildlife, whereas there isn't much native wildlife in the Blue Mountains. Following this we took the steepest railroad in the world back up to the top, did some shopping and started our way back to Sydney. We stopped in a small town for some shopping. We also stopped at the grounds of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, which now host a wide variety of things...from sporting venues to a public park/playground! It was incredible to see how the city has kept of these venues and transformed them into something useful for the people. Catching a ferry back to Circular Quay, we sailed up the Parammatta River and saw some phenomenal homes along the river. We had dinner in The Rocks and headed home.
