The Geeky Brit

We got up very early to be picked up by Australia Pacific Touring to be taken into the famous Blue Mountains west of Sydney. We had been looking forward to this trip since we got here, being the nature lovers that we are.

Unfortunately, the weather was not promising as we looked outside our window first thing. However, we stayed optimistic and hoped for the best. APT picked us up and drove us around downtown Sydney for an hour whilst they picked up other guests, before we transferred to another coach and set off for the blue mountains.

We drove over the ANZAC bridge, and past Olympic park, both of which we managed to see clearly. As we rose towards the mountains, visibility dropped dramatically. When we reached the park, we were assured that the lookout point we parked out looked out over the 3 sisters (outcrops of sandstone), and a beautiful valley. But all we could see was an awful amount of fog. Our guide, Bruce (yes an Australian called Bruce – we did chuckle) was very apologetic. It was hardly his fault though. He regaled us with many stories to try and compensate whilst we were on our way to Scenic Park where we could take a mine train down below the cloud cover.

He informed us that Sydneysiders call anyone from south of the border “Mexicans”. The rivalry between Melbourne and Sydney is very historical and fueled today by rival sports teams – In Australia sport is religion.

At “Scenic Park” we got to travel down a mine train on a 30 degree to vertical track. It is an old mining track used for hauling gold up the from the mine shafts, and was actually pretty cool. It would have been even better if we could have seen any of the valley, but I enjoyed it all the same. On the way back up we took a cable car – which was essentially pointless as we saw nothing but the inside of a fogged up passenger container. Ahh well, you are always fighting the weather when you go on vacation, and we made the most of it!