The Blue Mountains World Heritage Park is an amazing tourist destination. It is home to the famous Three Sisters rock formation, the Dragon Rock, Jamison Valley rain-forest, beautiful waterfalls and much more.
Blue Mountains, Katoomba, is only a short distance away from Sydney, New South Wales and an ideal weekend getaway.
Katoomba
I visited these beautiful mountains and the surrounding villages of Katoomba and Leura, as part of a tour group that I registered with in Sydney.
Our tour guide explained the history of the mountains and the rich aboriginal culture in the area on our journey. There are also trains from the Wynyard station in the city which take you to Katoomba station in about 3 hours.
‘Blue’ Mountains
The mountains are called blue, not because the mountains are blue (yeah, they are not blue at all!).
The eucalyptus trees populating the mountains, give out a bluish tinge to the general atmosphere of the place. So, from a distance, the mountains seem to be blue.
My trip to Blue Mountains
We started from Sydney YHA at around 8 AM, traveled out of the city and made our first stop at Featherdale Wildlife Park.
There we spent some time getting close to wildlife, cuddling Koalas and watching Kangaroos eat. As I am not a big fan of wildlife parks, I eagerly awaited the rest of the journey.
Also read: Top things to do in Sydney
Dragon Rock
Soon enough, we took off to visit the Dragon Rock, also called Boars head rock at Cahill’s lookout point in the Blue Mountains area. The rock actually looks like a sleeping dragon.
Echo Point
Later, we moved on to visit the famous legend-rich three sisters rock formation at the Echo Point.
According to an aboriginal legend, the three sisters were actually three inseparable sisters of the Katoomba tribe, who were turned to stone by their father who intended to protect them from harm. But after the danger passed, could not turn them back to humans.
Actually, the three sister rock formation consists of sandstone cliffs. I thought the tallest one makes a good human face 🙂
Scenic world cable car and train rides
We took the Scenic World cable car ride over the three sisters and were wowed by the beauty and majesty of the area. We also spotted a gorgeous waterfalls cascading beautifully down the mountains at a distance.
For the return trip we walked down through the rain-forest, which in itself was a great experience. Later, we visited the old Katoomba mines and finally took the train with steepest incline back to the top. It was a very thrilling goosebumps-inducing ride, which I will surely do again when I visit the area.
It was a fantastic trip all in all.
Grand Canyon
Then we spent sometime at various amazing lookout points in the area savoring in the beauty of what is called Australia’s Grand Canyon.
Later we had lunch in Katoomba village and started our return trip. There was a stopping at Leura village to admire its pristine beauty and to visit its famous candy store.
River cruise
We took a lovely river cruise from Sydney Olympic Park on the Parammatta river to reach Circular Quay at 6 PM. On the way we were fortunate enough to watch the moon rise beautifully over the harbor bridge.
If you have more time on your Sydney trip, Blue Mountains is a must visit place. If you are running on a tight schedule, check out my post, top 5 things to do in Sydney for the places you simply have to visit in your trip.
Also read: Kiama coastal walk near Sydney
For more Blue Mountains and Katoomba pictures, check out My Flickr Albums.
Have a great trip 🙂
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