The Blue Mountains, The Three Sisters, and Around

Yesterday, Steph and I headed up to do a little bush walking in the Blue Mountains.  We went to Leura to start hiking.  This is at the Gordon Falls Overlook.

Steph trying to scramble out of the picture.  The meager chain link fence and guard rails wouldn’t stop someone who was determined or clumsy from taking a nice 300 meter fall.

A pan of the Blue Mountains.

It is a very long way down until you hit jungle.

An interesting rock formation at an overlook.  The top layer of the escarpment appears to be sandstone.  At the bottom of the vertical drop there is a coal seam before the rock transitions into another, more crumbly material.

At the bridal overlook.

Water splashing down the sandstone getting ready to plunge over the cliff face.

There were a LOT of stairs on the pathway.

Heading for low places.

At another overlook.

There are tons of great rock outcroppings to climb and boulder.

A flock of cockatoos were hanging out in a tree over the trail eating seeds of some sort and dropping the casings on us.  This is one of the few times that I’ve seen these noisy birds be silent.

An Aussie family that happened by while I was taking this photo indicated that this cute little guy is a “bush mouse.”  He sure was a cute little guy but rather erratic in his behavior.

The first sister of The Three Sisters formation.

At the bottom of this photograph you can just make out some people standing on a catwalk.  A small bridge connects the main landmass to this broken bit of rim rock.

This is The Giant Stairway.  It leads down to the bridge to The Three Sisters and then continues on into the jungle.  A sign at the bottom indicated that there were 900 stairs.  Each stair is so close together that only the heels of my feet would fit on the rungs.  As you can see indicated by how Steph is standing, these stairs are rather steep.

The bridge to The Three Sisters.

No climbing 🙁

The stairs down.

More stairs, more stairs, and more stairs.  Our legs were wobbly by the time we got to the bottom.  We were really happy that we didn’t have to climb back up the stairs.

Looking up at The Three Sisters.

The path through the jungle.

Looking up at a water fall.

It was very dark under the canopy.  We saw a couple other groups of people but aside from that, it was pretty empty in the jungle.  Well, that is except for all the noisy animals.

I’ve got no clue why this tree is called a Turpentine Tree.  It didn’t smell like turpentine at all.  Maybe a natural turpentine can be refined from it?

An entrance to one of the extensive coal tunnels dug into the escarpment.  There is about a three foot thick coal seam that was worked for around 50 years.

You’d probably need SCUBA gear to go too far into that cramped mine shaft.

The Three Sisters as viewed from an opening in the jungle canopy.

An old mine car in Scenic World.  Yes, the place really is called Scenic World.  It seemed to Steph and me like an Australian heard about Disney World and decided to make a poor knockoff in the Blue Mountains.

Looking back at The Three Sisters.

The platform at the lower funicular station.  If something were to go wrong with the funicular cable, the cars would rapidly shoot out into the void and then come crashing down into the jungle canopy.

The cars descending to the platform.  The grade on the track is 52 percent.  Supposedly it’s the steepest set of rails anywhere in the world.  In earlier days the line was used to bring coal up from the base of the escarpment to waiting train cars at the top.  Now it’s used exclusively to ferry tourists up and down the cliff.

For all of those people who love facts.

One of the coal mine entrances done up for tourists.  One of the signs indicated that the mines hold over 100 km of tunnels.  Somehow miners, ponies, and all of their equipment made it into the mines even with the three foot tall ceilings.

Miner tools from 1898.

This bird was checking us out on the path.

In Scenic World the path was much improved compared to the national park.

From the lower funicular platform just before we boarded the train.

The train going up the hill with a bunch of people on board.

Yes, a 128% grade.

The funicular counterweight heading down into the canyon to pull the funicular up the hill.

They also have a gondola that goes down into the valley.

It is difficult to get a feel for just how steep this track is.

There is also a gondola that goes across part of the canyon.

The funicular descends to the lower platform.

The ride up the funicular track to the top.  It was quite the experience!

At the top of the plateau after riding the funicular up and escaping Scenic World.

The gondola heading across the chasm at sunset.  The Blue Mountains were starting to turn blue.