A Year of Work and Exploration in Australia: The Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains are a national park mountain range situated 31 miles west of the city of Sydney. It is an extremely rugged and wild area very close to the heart of Australia, and is a beautiful place. Characterised by sheer cliff faces, some of which are over 250m high, and vast swathes of rainforest and eucalyptus forest within the valleys, caves, gorges, waterfalls, rivers and wildlife, the Blue Mountains also contain some small towns and are fairly well populated.

The Blue Mountains are names as such due to the blue haze that sits over the valleys as a result of UV rays being scattered by volatile terpenoids released by the eucalyptus trees in the valley rainforests. This haze hovers over the trees, making far-off objects appear blue-tinged.

We were initially taken to the Blue Mountains by Darrel and Margaret during a day trip away from Sydney at the weekend. They showed us around Leura and Katoomba, taking us around some of the shops and cafes, as well as places like Wentworth Falls and a few other lookout spots! It was a great and busy day spent seeing the major sights and eating good food, which made a nice change from our tinned travel lunches!

The 'Three Sisters' rock formation in the background

Mount Solitary and the famous Blue Mountain blue-haze

Orphan Rock

(Darrel somehow managed to take a selife and put it within the photo of us - no idea how!)

Wentworth Falls

My favourite drinks shop and Darrel!

On our second trip to the Blue Mountains, Darrel and Margaret very kindly let us stay in their mountain home in Leura! It was a lovely little house very close to the town centre and very close to all the major sights! We took the time this time to pop down into the valley floor via trains, cable cars and sky lifts!

This was the view through the mountainside from the world's steepest train - a 56 degree descent down sheer cliff face!

Charlotte on the sky train

View of Katoomba falls from above

Exploring the valley floor, amongst the trees and wildlife

Charlotte on a horse! The mountains have hundreds of kilometers of coal mine shafts throughout them, this was a scuplture of a miner and horse pulling coal.