Today we went on a busy all day tour to the Blue Mountains and the rainforest. Rain was predicted but what the heck. Our tour bus picked us up at 7:20 a.m. at our hotel and after picking up a few more folks we headed out. Stops along the way included the Featherdale Wildlife Park and the Katoomba Scenic World, including the Princes Walk which is an outlook in the mountains with a phenomenal scenic view. We all got to look like fools at boomerang throwing. We also took the Scenic Railway down a mountain which lives up to the name of the steepest track in the world, something like a 56 degree incline at one point! In the Blue Mountains our tour group opted to take an alternate route that allowed us a view of a rock formation called the three sisters. And then a cable car ride back up to the heights again. The views were spectacular, the day was very sunny with just a very brief drizzle early on in the day. For lunch we stopped at the Fairways Restaurant at the Fairways Country Club (for our gourmet lunch as promised in the tour literature); though tasty, we didn't think of fish and chips as being gourmet.
We did a drive through of the Olympic Park with our tour guide describing the details of it's construction for the 2000 Olympics. We left the tour bus after this and returned down the Parramatta River by Rivercat to the Circular Quay in Sydney.
We supped at a wonderful landmark restaurant just a short distance from the Circular Quay by the name of Phillip's Foote Restaurant where you got to go pick from an assortment of prime meats to cook for yourself, accompanied by a marvellous assortment of sides, all for $24.50 Australian.
We did however get the chance to use our umbrellas on the after dinner walk back to the hotel. Still it was pleasant walking.

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (47 KB) Featherdale Wildlife Park

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (75 KB) What's that on his head?

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (34 KB) Tom liked the Koalas

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (59 KB) A mallard

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (57 KB) What do they feed these guys? They're so tame

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (47 KB) This koala bearwould have posed with anyone that gave him his eucalyptus. He was so soft to pet

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (63 KB) Bird wants ice cream cone. NOW!

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (53 KB) Lazing lizard

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (60 KB) Birds

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (66 KB) Some lounging roos, a couple of albinos

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (58 KB) Sleepy tasmanian devil

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (41 KB) Bored dingos

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (23 KB) This is an ec...isomethingorother

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (61 KB) Lookee pretty birdy!

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (50 KB) That's a horn on his head!

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (41 KB) Tom enjoying the stop for morning tea

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (45 KB) Boomerang 101. That's David out tour guide who could actually get one of those things to come back. Consistently (smartypants!)

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (26 KB) A view from Princes Walk

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (26 KB) A view from Princes Walk. The blue haze comes from the eucalyptus releasing into the atmosphere in the heat of the sun

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (28 KB) A view from Princes Walk

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (14 KB) A panoramic view from Princes Walk

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (30 KB) Princes Walk - Tom and David the guide

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (18 KB) A view of the three sisters out of a cable car

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (23 KB) A cable car

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (46 KB) Stavros on the boardwalk surrounded by rainforest

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (41 KB) Tom forced to pose for Stavros on the boardwalk

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (29 KB) A map of the boardwalk

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (34 KB) A waterfall viewed through the rainforest canopy from the boardwalk

Thursday, 10 April 2003 - (17 KB) The Three Sisters. The aborigines have a tale that they had themselves temporarily turned into stone in some forbidden scheme to get themselves married outside their tribe, but then got stuck that way when the guy who did the change died