Destination: Blue Mountains

Today, a few of my friends and I went to the Blue Mountains, a famous mountain range about three hours away from Wollongong.  We took a cab to uni at 7:00 a.m. and boarded the bus to the mountains at 7:30 a.m.  First, we first stopped at Nepean River, which borders the Blue Mountains.  We eventually arrived at the Blue Mountains around 11:00 a.m.  Fun fact:  The highest point of the mountain region is 1,190 meters and is dissected by gorges which are up to 700 meters deep.  We took a railway car down to the forest, deep in to a gorge.  After arriving on the forest floor, we walked along several boardwalks to see different parts of the forest.  We took a cable car back up to the top of the mountain, where our buses were parked.  Following this, we drove to Katoomba, where we could see the "Three Sisters," one of the most well-known areas of the Blue Mountain region.  According to Indigenous Australian legend, "There sisters fell in love with three men from a neighbouring tribe, but marriage was forbidden by tribal law. Battle ensued, and the sisters were turned to stone by an elder to protect them, but he was killed in the fighting and no one else could turn them back."  This story is part of Aboriginal Australians' spiritual beliefs regarding the "Dreamtime."  The Dreaming is a collection of traditions, comprised of songs, ceremonies, and stories, that describe the creation of the world and correct human behavior in relation to each other and nature. Because it was raining all day, a fog covered our entire view of the Three Sisters rock formation.

This is a picture of the Three Sisters.  Too bad the fog prevented me from seeing such a beautiful site!

These birds, cockatoos, are everywhere in Australia!  In the U.S., I've only seen them in pet stores.  When we were waiting for the railway car, we saw these birds feeding on a nearby post.

This is the ride in the railway car down through the gorge, to the forest floor.  The first half of the video is pretty dark because we were going through a rock tunnel.  The railway car was probably driving down at a 70 degree angle--felt like I was on a roller coaster in the middle of the forest.

In this video, we are walking through the rain forest.  We accidentally went off the main trail; nothing like walking on the less-traveled path!