The Blue Mountains is a huge area of National Park to the West of Sydney. It is possible to get into the Blue Mountains on your own either by bus or train but from there on it can be quite difficult to navigate around because the area is so vast. Rachel, James and I all decided to spend that little bit more and take the 'Oz Experience' tour up into the Blue Mountains and I am so glad we did, we had the most amazing time!

The bus was to pick us up just down the road from the hostel at 7.20am. We jumped on the bus to be greeted by the oddest looking bloke who told us he was our guide for the day. He introduced himself as 'Knackers' and said it was his first day back to work after being on paternity leave. I recon the same though was running through everybodies' heads on the bus - "How on Earth did he manage to get anyone into bed looking like that, she either must be blind or very ugly too". It was a cruel though but we couldn't help it. We all then shortly burst into fits of laughter when he removed his wig and false teeth and jumped into the drivers teeth. He had everyone fooled. We could all tell it was going to be a great trip before it started!

Our first stop wasn't the Mountains, but a small parkland on the outskirts of Sydney where we found kangaroos grazing. The most amazing thing though was the fact that in the pouch of one of the female Kangaroos was a Joey! He was a big Joey and was poking his head out of the pouch to eat as well. All of us stood paralysed, we couldn't believe what we were seeing! Kangaroos are rely fascinating animals, Knackers was able to tell us so many fascinating fact about their existence, mating rituals and the pregnancies of female kangaroos. Their worth reading up on.

The next part of our trip involved walking. We walked for about three hours along the most beautiful plateau and cliff edges. The sights were stunning. There was an eerie mist hanging over the floor of the plateau that gave the whole place an enchanting feel. It was a beautiful day and I was so happy just being able to escape the hustle and bustle of the city for a day. The walk took us along the sandstone cliff edges, up and down, past huge waterfalls and an enormous amount of wildlife including the infamous lyre bird. The Lyar bird is a fascinating creature; it doesn't have its own song, it just replicates the songs of other birds and sound it hears in the forestry. It can even replicate the sound of a camera shutter or a chainsaw to absolute perfection!

After having lunch we jumped back in the bus and headed off to another walk where we would see the signature sight of the Blue Mountains - the Three Sisters. The three sisters are three sandstone peaks that stand above the plateau floor. On our walk, Knackers stopped us to tell us the story behind the Three Sisters. Simply telling us though would be far too easy so he decided to get a few of the group to act it out. He even had props! We were all in fits of laughter again! There story goes along the lines of: there were three sisters whose father warned them that they should never head down to the floor of the plateau because that's where the 'yeti' of the Blue Mountains lived. Of course the three sisters paid no attention whatsoever and went down anyway. The were confronted by the monster (predictably) but the medicine man came to save them. With his magic he tried to turn the monster to stone using his magic wand/bone. The monster was too strong and as a result he was forced to turn the three sisters to stone. He himself then had to flee the monster but couldn't. He was forced to use the magic wand/bone on himself with the idea that once the monster had gone he could transform himself back. The only problem was that he turned himself into the Lyar bird and with having to digets he dropped the magic wand/bone. The story goes that the reason you see a Lyar bird scratching at the ground it not because he is looking for food but he is looking for him magic wand/bone. I bet you didn't know that. Hehe.

The trip ended with a ride on the steepest railway in the world. It took us back up to the where the bus was parked at break-neck speed and at a seriously steep angle and the thing is - none of us were strapped in! We all screamed but it was gret fun. The view was incredible too. The only problem was that one of the girls jumped off the train at the last moment befoe it left because she was too scared. Nackers couldn't do anything about it and by the time we had all gone up and he had gone back down again she was gone. His first day back on the job and he managed to lose someone! half an hour later she turned up with a bunch of other tourists who had walked up the way we had walked down. Everything was fine.

The day was amazing - I had a fantastic time and talked to so many great people about their travel experiences in Oz and the rest of the world. It was lovely to bee able too see a bit of the country, although it didn't look anything like home, it did make me miss it.