TRAVEL IMPRESSIONS – Sydney – Day 3 – Blue Mountains Tour

Wednesday, September 24th – Sydney – Day 3 – Featherdale Wildlife Park, Three Sisters, and Scenic World

Activity Tours picked us up same place, same time on Wednesday. Our first stop—the Featherdale Wildlife ParkFeatherdale Wildlife Park. There, we took pictures of koalas, wombats (not a bat), kangaroos, emus, an Australian crocodile (his name was Dundee!), scads of birds/owls/flying predators, wallabys, Tasmanian devils, spiny echidnas (pronounce ih-KID-nuh), and on and on and on. Great time there!

Koala and Pal Betty

Koala - 2

Bird - Colorful

 

 

 

 

Dingo (Wild Dog)

Dundee the Croc

Tasmanian Devil Wombat - 2 Wallabys and Pal Betty Goannas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we broke the ride up with a stop a small park for a quick 15-minute “bush walk” down to Leuraa local falls. After that, we stopped in the little town of Leura for lunch and shopping. Very nice.

Our next stop was at Scenic World. You take a cable car ride to the top of the mountain Gordon Fallsplateau, take one of the many raised walkways through the canopy, and descend again on a 52-degree incline railroad. Of course, you have the mandatory exit through the gift shop. The Three Sisters and Usviews are spectacular, overlooking a mini-Grand Canyon with their famous Three Sisters pedestal. The legend has it there were originally 7 “sisters,” but time and weather eroded four of them away. Today, the three monoliths stand side by side with a nub at the end. Locals affectionately call this their puppy.

We also made friends with a family from Malaysia — even exchanged emails. Our Tour Mates

The experience was marred (only slightly) by the influx of the “green jackets.” Good for Sydney, not so good for the smaller tours. Some 6,000 healthcare professionals from China descended on the city for a week-long conference. Of course this day, their final day in town, was dedicated to tourism. We managed to avoid them until Scenic World. In some eastern countries, there is no sense of what we call personal space. Contention for space, taxis, entrance – you name it – is based on who can get their toe in the door first. Even though that’s not the culture of Australia, it’s hard to overcome the onslaught of thousands of these green jackets letting their fellow green jackets break into the queues. Annoying. We never did get to take the cable car across the valley because of this.

Harbor bridge at sunsetRiver FerryThe tour was capped off with a quick visit to the site of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, and then a relaxing ferry taxi back to Sydney. Amazing views of the Sydney Harbor Bridge at sunset.

After our return to the city, we ate at another Thai restaurant (Siam House) the Meriton recommended. Can I say YUM?!