Blue Mountains

Sadly, my days pictures of my trip to Sydney are numbered and I'm quickly coming to the end of them but I think, in an ordinary fashion, I've saved the best till last. But before that, I have to tell you a little bit more about Sydney. According to a tour guide, Sydney is the 7th largest city in the world by size (for which I couldn't find a direct quote on google) and the largest and most populous city in Australia with over 700 different suburbs. In the early 19th Century, the suburbs use to be plots of land used for farming but were later sold off and used to build houses for growing families. Undoubtedly Sydney's most iconic symbol, the Harbour Bridge was built from 1923 and finally completed in 1932 and about 80% of its steel was imported from Great Britain. Unfortunately, 16 workers lost their lives during construction. I had always seen the bridge on pictures in books but I was surprised and overwhelmed at how big it actually was! 

The Blue Mountains, a National Park spanning 1.63 million hectares across New South Wales, really were everything that I'd hoped for. The National Park is protected by the UNESCO World Heritage Fund since 2000 and its name is to do with the Eucalyptus oil, which gets extracted and spread by sunlight across the mountains & valleys. Over 76,000 people live in the mountains today even though the area is bigger than many countries.

This picture is probably my favourite. It just shows how big the area is and you can literally see for miles and miles! And it includes the most famous area of the mountains, the Three Sisters, whose names are Meehni, Wimlah & Gunnedoo. Many a Aboriginal tale was told about the Three Sisters, which you can read about here! 

It was such a beautiful day but if you're visiting, don't be fooled by the sunshine, you're high up in the mountains so it's pretty chilly! 

As part of the trip, I was lucky enough to enjoy 2 rides, one of which was the steepest scenic railway in the world, which used to be a railway for miners to bring coal up into the cities in the area. 

This is a reconstruction of what the Coal Mine may have looked like back in the day...

I also got the chance to walk through the Rainforest, which was so beautiful with all the different tree types.

& here's my cute complimentary lunch! 

Finally, I got a cable car back to the top of the mountains & to Scenic World, which had a standard huge souvenir shop & astonishing views into the valleys! Funnily enough, the cable car has also been brought here from Switzerland so you gotta love the Aussies faith in the tourist industry, steel from England, cable cars from Switzerland... people from all over the world.

We also visited a little town called Leura, which is an Aborigine word for volcanic rock or lava. The town is definitely worth a visit. I didn't take any pictures myself sadly but it has the most amazing candy store I have ever seen and a lot of cute boutiques, tea shops, cookware specialists and the best leather ware shop I have ever been to in my life... I may have bought something special for someone there! I absolutely loved it!