The Blue Mountains

We spent two night in the Blue Mountains at the Glenella Guesthouse in Blackheath. The first day we just landed and decompressed from Sydney. We had a really hard time getting from the rental car place at the airport to out of town.  The signage is so unclear to a non native.
The Blue Mountains are very popular with people from Sydney for the scenery and the coolness.  We are up on a high sandstone plateau that has been cut down by streams through the ages. The deep valleys are filled with dense eucalyptus forest except for the cleared areas that are farms at the bottom of the valleys.  We stop at many overlooks and go to a native show at a cultural center in Katoomba.
I get stung by a bee in Katoomba, an imported bee. Native bees did not sting and did not produce much honey. It hurt, but I am not allergic.
Day one is very windy. We look over the edge at Govett's Leap.

Day two we first head to the Kumurri Aboriginal Culture Centre in Katoomba.  We listen to didgeridoo playing and native dances. Very nice.

Didgeridoo music 

Me with two of the dancers

 We do the scenic drive with many stops for photos.

The three sisters

A close-up

You can see people walking on a board walk between the sisters

This forest is really dense, filled with plants that have sharp serrated leaves and vicious thorns.

Steep down there too

We want to do a short walk. But it rained heavily here when it rained in Sydney and we are stymied.

We turned back

More overlooks

Unusual plants with odd cones

More strange cones

We drive down into Megalong Valley to see the valley bottom. It is a lovely drive although we see none of the hoped for wild life.

No kangaroos or wombats. No cowboys either. Just horses, cows and sheep.

 Halfway back up the Megalong Valley road is a nature trail. so we stop as it looks like a fairly short loop trail. Looks old, too.

We call this tree Curley.

It is all fun until the trail disappears into the creek. This isn't a recent washout either. The Rotary needs to work on their trail more often than once every 10 years.

Day three we head out to Bell and the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden at Mt Tomah.

Time to head for the beach. Terrigal here we come.