The Blue Mountains

Waiting to go on the train down the cliff.

The Three Sisters

On the train down to the bottom

Train tracks running at a 52 degree angle down hill

Kids in the old train carriage

Replica showing how the coal was brought out of the mine

In the cable car on the way back up

After leaving Sydney, we travelled around 120km west to the Blue Mountains. We camped at Katoomba Falls Caravan Park, which is just a short walk from The Three Sisters and the lookouts over the beautiful mountains. The Three Sisters (rocks) are shown in one of the photos above. The Aboriginal Dreamtime story of the Three Sisters says that they were actually 3 sisters from one of the local tribes who wanted to marry a man from another enemy tribe. The witchdoctor of their tribe stopped them marrying that man by turning the sisters into stone temporarily. Unfortunately the witchdoctor died soon after doing this and the spell couldn't be undone - so the sisters are still large rocks now.
We travelled form the top of the cliffs down into the valley on the world's steepest railway (52 deg). We had to hold on really tight to stop ourselves falling out (Justin held Pia). After a rainforest walk, we caught the cable car back up to the top. After all that walking, we had lunch and spent the afternoon relaxing, playing soccer and exploring Katoomba. Katoomba is a beautiful town full of art deco buildings that were erected when it was a very popular resort town for people for Sydney-siders. It's really hot here during the day, but quite cool at night when we are sleeping.