Day 31, October 28

Tuesday, Oct 28: Today we booked an all day, all inclusive, small group trip to the Blue Mountains. An early morning schedule! Our pick up point was just a 5 minute walk from our hotel. It was the pickup point for multiple tours to the Blue Mountains. Our bus arrived and he called names to get on the bus, not in the order we were lined up in. Disappointingly, we ended up right behind the large driver's seat and over the wheel well, with an unfortunate amount of leg room. It would have been classified a child's seat I believe. Regardless, we had a decent drive out to the Blue Mountains. Our driver is also the tour guide, also a environmental activist and hater of large companies that are "ruining our world" - well, it would have been better if he kept his personal and political opinions to himself like he indicated he would (but didn't). Other than his detest for over population (mind you, he has two children) and hatred of Coke, Apple, and IBM, he was pretty knowledgeable and a decent guide. Upon arrival at the Blue Mountains we immediately embarked the Scenic World Tram to take us across the gully, viewing a small waterfall on one side and the Three Sisters mountain formation on the other side. After the short tram our guide had driven around and secured our wrist bands for the remainder of the visit on the other side. Next we got on a quite vertical, short, and steep cable car ride taking us through the forest to a walking path, also through the forest. Before we were quite through that area the tram to take us back up arrived and we hurriedly got onto that. Back up we went, with amazing views along the way. Through the ever-present gift shop, restroom stop and back on the bus. Our visit there was pretty brief, driver/tour guide Adam telling us how lucky we were getting away from there before the crowds. Perhaps that is true. We had two more viewing stops in the area and then on our lunch stop. We ate at the Pub at the Alexandra Hotel in the city or town of Leura. There was a nice selection. I had the fish and chips and John had a burger. We had the option to walk into town or relax at the pub until the bus meeting time. There was a pool table there and John found a mate to play so we did that until time for the bus.

Our next stop is Featherdale Wildlife Park. This is a small zoo, almost like a petting  zoo as far as the animals are concerned. The place started as a bird park and evolved. There are a lot of interesting birds and that means a lot of cages, which we are not really used to seeing. The Koala exhibits are very nice and we even got a photo done with the cute little things. They are not very active during the day and sleep about 16-18 hours, more active at night. They look so sweet but up close they have some pretty impressive claws and I am sure they could do some damage if they wanted to. The handler explained about the photos. They "encourage" the different bears to  come to the particular tree for photos. Usually they fall asleep when they get there (like ours did) but if they wake up and want to go back to their on stall, they can just go and they encourage another one of the 3-4 that are used for photos. Nice plan I think.

Now we are done with our tour and Adam is taking us to our boat for the ride back into Sydney. We will be dropped off right at The Rocks, Circular Quay, and we can just walk back to our hotel. This is the first day there has been no ship in port since we arrived. Lunch seemed like a long time ago but we weren't terribly hungry, we shared a plate of pasta. We really liked Caminetto so we chose to go back there. Such friendly staff and the pasta was outstanding.

The Blue Mountains

Featherdale Wildlife Park

Caminetto Restaurant