On Thursday I went to the blue mountains on a day tour.  Had a brilliant day and was nice to get out fo the city and away from walking the streets for a day!  Was a packed day but brilliant.

We first stopped at Kings Lookout, a drop off cliff which overlooks the blue mountains, giving really spectacular views.  They are essentailly the same as the Grand Canyon but much older as the rock is apparantly the same but it has now vegetated over which takes thousands of years, a stage the greand canyon has yet to get to.

the three sisters,  which are 3 rocky outcrops in the blue mountains and are surrounded by Aboriginal Dreamtime stories about how they are created which are really interesting - there are lots of versions but basically there was a father who was a witchdoctor with 3 happy daughters and he turned them to stone and himself into a bird to either save them from a monster or to spite their fiances who he didnt like, but then lost his magic stick in the confusion and so couldnt turn them back, hence why they are still there today and why there are always birds swooping and squaking around them, supposedly the old witchdoctor still trying to find his magic stick.

We took the steepest railway in the world down to a boardwalk through the blue moutain trees - they are eculypts which give off an oily vapour which reflects blue in the sunlight, creating the blue haze that surrounds them and their name - which was interesting as they used to mine the area and there are still lots of interesting points where the miners used to live and work etc.  We got a cable car back up and also saw orphan rock, just like the 3 sisters but on its own.  TIs very fragile and you can see through the rock at some points.

We went to Wentworth falls, very pretty and you could really see the blue of the mountains from here which i really liked.  We only stayed a short time before going off to see Kangaroos in the wild.  There were lots of them although they were all resting in the shade as it was so hot, including one with a joey in her pouch - really cool!

We stopped off at the sydney olympic stadium on the way home and looked at all the names of the volunteers on the poles outside the stadium, including a drag queen!  We then caught a ferry back to circular quay which was the perfect way to end the day and avoid teh city traffic.  Had tea in china town with Celeste, a girl from the tour, after we had a look around the QVB (queen victoria building) shopping arcade in late night shopping!