Blue Mountains Getaway

After welcoming home Ken and Thelma, we set out Sunday morning for the Blue Mountains. It was about a 2-hour train ride out west through the mountains. We rented a cute cottage called Victoria's Secret, located in the small town of Mount Victoria. Our street is at the highest elevation in the Blue Mountains - 1111 meters (3645 feet). The town has one general store, one pub and one empty hotel. We're thinking most places close down during the winter, because there is hardly any activity going on.

The first night we arrived, we cooked Karen & John a classic Aussie-style BBQ. It was complete with white bread, sausages, grilled onions, tomato sauce and BBQ sauce. I know John loved it, but Karen wasn't so sure. I think she'll stick with the regular American BBQ. It got pretty cold that night and even started to snow a bit, but it wasn't sticking to the ground. It was very strange to have such cold and snowy weather in August.

Monday was a beautiful day, so we hiked some local trails in Mount Victoria. We checked out Ferris Cave and Boronia Point, which had pretty incredible views of the mountains and valleys. We learned that, "the atmosphere is filled with finely dispersed droplets of oil, which, in combination with dust particles and water vapour, scatter short-wave length rays of light which are predominantly blue in color." Guess that explains the name!

Tuesday was another nice day, so we headed down 3 train stops to Katoomba, which is a much larger town with many trails, waterfalls and tourist things to do. On our way there, we met a local Aussie who shared his life story with pictures and commentary. We didn't catch his name, so we decided to call him Ferris. This man was very interesting and kept us entertained on the train ride down. Lucky for us, we saw him again on the train heading back up to Mount Victoria.

In Katoomba, we saw the Three Sisters and hiked through the Katoomba Falls region. It was quite a rainforest hike with more great views of the mountains. This was definitely the perfect activity for Karen & John since they both love the outdoors.

We put together a great video of our time in the Blue Mountains - check it out!

Zach and I decided to stay in the Blue Mountains an extra night because we just aren't ready to head back to Sydney yet. We got Karen & John sent off on the train today to fly out to New Zealand tonight. They will spend 3 days there, then we'll meet back up and drive to Gloucester together on Saturday.

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes - it was a great day!!