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Today we drove into the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney. The whole Family went. The Blue Mountain chain, much like many coastal inland chains, acts as a moisture and wind block. The eastern coast of Australia up to the Blue Mountains is far wetter and cooler than the inland area to the west of the mountains. I’ve not been over the mountains completely, so I cannot testify as to the conditions.
Within the Blue Mountains, however, you find a lush, moist, green rainforest-like area. It’s quite lovely. It takes 1 ½ hours to drive there and around 2 hours if you take the train. George and I are looking forward to investigating it by ourselves at some point soon. What we saw today was a tease.
We stopped at a couple of lookouts to see the valley filled with mist and lush greenery. There is a rock feature called the Three Sisters there. They are nothing like our Three Sisters in Oregon. Where the Oregon Sisters are three huge snow topped mountains, these three sisters are outcroppings of rock that seem to have been formed by volcanic magma that cooled in three tubes close in proximity. The magma was a harder rock than the surrounding strata and, when erosion occurred, the magma rock eroded far more slowly. There is an Aboriginal legend about the Three Sisters. I’ll try to recount it. I only heard it the once and that was yesterday. (It’s currently Saturday night, I started writing this yesterday but ran out of time.) The story will have some holes in it.
There were three Aboriginal women who were set to marry three men of a different rival village. As the women were departing to meet them in the men’s village, the Shaman of the Sister’s tribe followed them and challenged them. The Shaman tried to convince them not to marry these men, then he tried to bribe them, then he resorted to threatening to cast a spell on them. They continued to resist him, so the Shaman began to cast his spell. The first sister raised her hands to the heavens to plead for intervention, the second sister did something that I can’t quite remember but her pose was half kneeling with one hand in the air, the third sister tried to stop the Shaman. The Shaman’s spell was too quick and they were frozen in rock in these positions. The Shaman’s idea was to keep them in rock until the men they were to marry, called it off, moved on, or lost interest in them, then he would remove the spell and they would be human again. The only problem was, the Shaman died before he removed the spell. So here the women are to this day, still frozen in their rock, waiting for the spell to be broken so they could marry their loves.
We drove to the other side of the canyon where there was a more touristy side. There were trains to the base and back again, sky cars that ran over the canyon and a rotating restaurant. Belinda said she had been on this trail down to the bottom before and told The Parents that we would be back in an hour. They decided to wait in the shade rather than take the hike.
The hike down was great. (Actually, it isn’t called hiking here, it’s called bush walking.) It was really lush and rainforesty. There was even a pretty decently sized waterfall, but they had a fence up so we couldn’t go under it. By the time we reached the bottom, an hour and a half had flown by. We had already left the Parents up there 30 minutes longer than we had said. It turned out that Belinda had not taken this hike before, it was another on in the area that was much shorter and had mis-estimated the time. So, when we reached the bottom, we climbed on the train and took a steep five minute ride to the top. Next time, it will just be George and I so we won’t have any time constraints.
We then stopped at a hotel that just had a huge makeover that came really close to being burned in the bushfires we had when George and I had arrived in Sydney. Standing on the patio, we could see the burnt tree line a mere 10 feet from the building in a couple of spots.
Then we drove home. I’m sure I could come up with lots more little interesting bits to this tale, but I’m really tired. I just want to write these adventures down soon before I forget what happens. I’m already two days behind in posting. I may not post this until tomorrow morning.
Sleepy!
Within the Blue Mountains, however, you find a lush, moist, green rainforest-like area. It’s quite lovely. It takes 1 ½ hours to drive there and around 2 hours if you take the train. George and I are looking forward to investigating it by ourselves at some point soon. What we saw today was a tease.
We stopped at a couple of lookouts to see the valley filled with mist and lush greenery. There is a rock feature called the Three Sisters there. They are nothing like our Three Sisters in Oregon. Where the Oregon Sisters are three huge snow topped mountains, these three sisters are outcroppings of rock that seem to have been formed by volcanic magma that cooled in three tubes close in proximity. The magma was a harder rock than the surrounding strata and, when erosion occurred, the magma rock eroded far more slowly. There is an Aboriginal legend about the Three Sisters. I’ll try to recount it. I only heard it the once and that was yesterday. (It’s currently Saturday night, I started writing this yesterday but ran out of time.) The story will have some holes in it.
There were three Aboriginal women who were set to marry three men of a different rival village. As the women were departing to meet them in the men’s village, the Shaman of the Sister’s tribe followed them and challenged them. The Shaman tried to convince them not to marry these men, then he tried to bribe them, then he resorted to threatening to cast a spell on them. They continued to resist him, so the Shaman began to cast his spell. The first sister raised her hands to the heavens to plead for intervention, the second sister did something that I can’t quite remember but her pose was half kneeling with one hand in the air, the third sister tried to stop the Shaman. The Shaman’s spell was too quick and they were frozen in rock in these positions. The Shaman’s idea was to keep them in rock until the men they were to marry, called it off, moved on, or lost interest in them, then he would remove the spell and they would be human again. The only problem was, the Shaman died before he removed the spell. So here the women are to this day, still frozen in their rock, waiting for the spell to be broken so they could marry their loves.
We drove to the other side of the canyon where there was a more touristy side. There were trains to the base and back again, sky cars that ran over the canyon and a rotating restaurant. Belinda said she had been on this trail down to the bottom before and told The Parents that we would be back in an hour. They decided to wait in the shade rather than take the hike.
The hike down was great. (Actually, it isn’t called hiking here, it’s called bush walking.) It was really lush and rainforesty. There was even a pretty decently sized waterfall, but they had a fence up so we couldn’t go under it. By the time we reached the bottom, an hour and a half had flown by. We had already left the Parents up there 30 minutes longer than we had said. It turned out that Belinda had not taken this hike before, it was another on in the area that was much shorter and had mis-estimated the time. So, when we reached the bottom, we climbed on the train and took a steep five minute ride to the top. Next time, it will just be George and I so we won’t have any time constraints.
We then stopped at a hotel that just had a huge makeover that came really close to being burned in the bushfires we had when George and I had arrived in Sydney. Standing on the patio, we could see the burnt tree line a mere 10 feet from the building in a couple of spots.
Then we drove home. I’m sure I could come up with lots more little interesting bits to this tale, but I’m really tired. I just want to write these adventures down soon before I forget what happens. I’m already two days behind in posting. I may not post this until tomorrow morning.
Sleepy!