Saturday 3rd of January we went on a coach tour to see the Blue Mountains.

We set off at 7:15am, it was a cloudy day, so we wore our warmer clothing, as we knew it would be colder there. Our drivers name was Scott, he was in his 30's and had only been doing his job for 5 weeks. He informed us that because of New Year etc tourist trips were at there peak week for the year in Sydney, so we expected it to be very busy.

On route we passed Anzac bridge also known as Madonna's bra becuase of it's shape. Anzac stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, it is thought that Australian and New Zealand women made Anzac buscuits for the (ANZAC) soldiers of World War one and were first called Soldiers' Biscuits.

We also went through the Olympic Park again learning something new regarding the area. Scott told us that the location it has all been built on was originally a waste ground, so it used to be a little smelly :)

Also we passed a building called Acer arena, which will be holding the UK version of Top Gear World Tour. Yes! Believe it or not Australia have their own version called Australia Top Gear!

These tour guides are always filled with interesting facts. The common birds we have seen all over Australia with longs beaks are called Ibis. Apparently they used to live in the deserts! But because of the current droughts the cities have been having, they have moved home to the streets. However they are causing damage with their beaks and have become a bit of a plague. I always thought they looked out of place!

Anyway, now some details on when we arrived at the Blue Mountains!

The Blue Mountains are in fact not mountains, but known as a raised sandstone plateau! It is however part of the Great Dividing mountain range, the 3rd largest moutain range in the world! Holding 8 major ski resorts in early June- early October.

Our first stop was called Kings Tableland where we sat at the edge of the flat sandstone at 12 0c, viewing the Blue Mountains. Japenese tourists from another coach trip, dared to stand at the very edge of the cliff, so that they could get the best photographs! whilst everyone else watched in horror!

There was a small aboriginal tool making hole, hollowed out of the sandstone we were standing on. On the left of it was an iron rock, Scott the driver explained that the aboriginal people used to make tools out of iron stone e.g arrow heads and to carve the shapes out of the stone they used the sandstone. The sandstone holes created, left a rich red/orange earthy chalk and when wet they used this as body paint.

Our second stop was a scenic lookout of the 'Three Sisters', three rock formations standing together that to me didn't look very interesting, until I heard from another tour guide, it's story.

The aboriginal people believe that three sisters, members of the Katoomba tribe fell in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, but tribal law did not allow them to marry. The three brothers were not happy about this and decided to capture the sisters, which caused a major tribal battle. Because the three sisters were in such great danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe changed the three of them into stone to protect them. After the battle was over, he intended to change them back, but he was killed before he could! He was the only person who knew how to reverse the spell, so they have remained in that state, now left as a reminder of the battle.

Back on the coach, we drove to 'Scenic World', at the entrance there were 4 statues of nude life size aboriginal people. Three of them were women in a dancing pose and the 4th was an enderly man. I had an idea this was something to do with the 'three sisters', however Ian hadn't heard the story previously and was a little confused when people took photos of each other with them.

We got inside a cable car and moved down a steep slope with stunning views, to the ground where we began a rainforest walk. Ian and I thought it would take a while to reach our coach at the top and because we had already done a couple of other rainforest walks on previous trips, we weren't enjoying it as much as we should. To our suprise though we had another form of transport to get on, it was a ride on the steepest railway track in the world! We sat in rows of 4, some Indiana Jones music theme music played and we quickly shot up the sill backwards!

It was a good thing we went on the ride before lunch, as our food wasn't very appetizing. Ian had a lasagne that we believe made him ill for a week!

Afterwards we viewed Wentworth Falls from a scenic point. Other tour groups had the option of walking up close to them, but we had to get back on the coach, so we were a little disappointed.

Our next point of interest was an aboriginal piece of work. It was a kangaroo outline carved from iron stone into flat sandstone. It was thought to have been a map of the Blue Mountains for other aboriginal tribes new to the area around 400-500 years ago. Only those familiar with the technique could/can read it.

Afterwards we were taken to a spot to see wild kangaroos and cockatoos, we were lucky enough to see four kangaroos, many white cockatoos flying about us in a crazy manner and two kookaburra birds!!!! They all seemed quite used to humans being about.

Apparently kangaroos got their name when europeans first saw them, they asked some aboriginal people what they were called and they replied with something that sounded like KAN-GA-ROO but, it actually meant "I don't understand".

Our final part to the trip was meant to be a relaxed river cruise, however this was not the case. It turned out we were all queuing around 20 mins for a public transport ferry!! To make matters worse it was very windy and cold! Plus we ended up having no option but to pass our stop and to get off with everyone else at the next, making our trip home take even longer!

Despite some dissapointment, I did enjoy learning some more about the aboriginal people and we are able to tick the Blue Mountains off our list.