day 4 of my australia trip

Yesterday we went to the Blue Mountains. Claire called the park service and they said that visibility was good, so we packed up and left a little after nine. The reason they are called the Blue Mountains is because there is a bluish mist over the whole valley, from the oil of the Eucalyptus trees that fill the Jamison Valley.  The drive is a little over ninety minutes, and Norah was feeling pretty carsick, and there were repeated requests for spicy juice, but thankfully she didn't throw up.  The first thing we did was go look over Echo Point, where you can see the whole Jamison valley. We walked down to the Three Sisters, which is a very impressive sandstone rock formation that was formed by erosion. I didn't get any decent pictures of it, because I am a durf.  But Claire is going to send me hers.  There are places in the valley that are almost 3000 feet down, so that gave me a bellyache.

Then we went into Katoomba and ate lunch at a little cafe. I had some very good fish and chips. After that we got dessert at a patisserie where Claire got a caramel bar, Norah got a meringue penguin, and I got a meringue penguin, and a Lamington to share, which was superb.  The Lamington I got on Saturday in Sydney was from a sad little chain called Pieface, and it was no good.  This Lamington was moist and creamy and delicious, and I would like to have another someday.

After lunch we went to a place called Scenic World, where you can walk around down in the rainforest valley of the Blue Mountains. We rode a cable car down, then went on one of the boardwalks that meanders through the valley. 

It was really beautiful. The trees are enormous, and everything is covered with moss and lichen. They have a tree there that is 500 years old! Just think of that--it sprouted during the Middle Ages, like, during the second pandemic of the Black Death! Very exciting. We saw an old coal mine which looked pretty claustrophobic.  It's a good thing that people used to be shorter.  Then we rode a cable car that goes high above the valley, and you can look down onto Katoomba Falls. The cable car has a big section of glass in the floor that goes clear during the ride. I was very brave and stood on it. It was a cool place and I enjoyed it very much. Norah and Owen were very patient and good the whole day, so I bought Norah some lollies, which is what they call candy here.  They were little circles of hard candy with fizzy centers made to look and taste like different fruits.  Norah says "lollies" with a cute little accent, because she learned the word here, from Australians.  

NOTE:  I added my pictures of the wombat to my day 1 entry, if you want to go down and look.  He's powerful cute.