Last time I did a blog we were about to go to the Blue Mountains. Well here it is.... (a shorter version, internet time is scarce here)

We were a little bit worried about heading to the Blue Mountains at first, as there had been Bush Fires raging in the area for the past week. We were told that the fires were at least 30k away, so we were safe.

We were picked up early in the morning by a big fat guy resembling Homer Simpson when he was wearing the pregnancy dress (with a ginger beard on too!). He tried his best to be funny, but it didn't wash with me.

First thing we did was go to the Sydney 2000 Olympics site. We saw the torch and the main stadium. Give the fat guy his credit, he played Chariots of fire on the radio and bolted down the main road. That was quite funny!

We then headed through the mountains and had a stop to view the kangaroos. We've seen so many of them now and the novelty has worn off. All the others were well impressed though.

After lunch we headed to the Three Sisters site. The story goes that an ancient Aboriginal mage tried to protect his 3 daughters from war/other men, so he turned them into rocks, but he himself got killed in the war and turned into a Lyre Bird, and is still searching for his bone wand to turn them back to people. It's a really beautiful area. You can see so far across the horizon, and the mountains are quite imposing.

The lyre bird i told you about before is a really curious animal. It can mimick the sounds of about 20 other birds, but also other sounds it hears too. We heard recordings of Lyre Birds imitating a chain saw, a camera lens, and a camera taking a photo! It was hard to believe it was actually a bird making the noises!

Well time is about over now for my internet stint, but stay tuned for Melbourne, including the Neghbours Tour, the great ocean road, and our arrival in New Zealand.