Beautiful Blue Mountains

First adventure planned for my parents trip was the infamous Blue Mountains, located in katoomba New South Wales.  I've been hearing about this place ever since i first arrived in Sydney (I passed up a trip in the begining because i was sick).  Everyone who has been has said how beautiful they are and i figured this was the perfect opportunity to make the trip out there.  We got up early (way to earl for my liking) and met up with the group at a nerby youth hostel.  We drove baout an hour before making our first stop to some park grounds (not impressive enough to remember its' name though) where we had tea and biscuits and also the opportunity to use the most disgusting bathroom I have ever seen in my life.  After this brief stop we had another hour and a half trip to Katoomba.  I took advantage of the down time and got more much needed sleep.  When we got into town it was already time for lunch so we went to a deli for sandwiches (I ended up just getting some bread if you could believe that - I' really getting sick of the food here!).  We got back on the bus again, this time very eager to get our day started and see the spectacular sights.  We arrived at a popular viewing spot only to find fog filling the entire valley, reminding of San Francisco.  

We were all really bummed, but our driver assured us that the fog would clear up and the views would be worth the wait.  We listened to him ramble on about this plant and that rock, this species and that twig.  While he was extremely knowledgeable about almost everything in sight, I wasn't that concerned.  Dad took advantage of the situation though and asked heaps of questions  concerning the lay of the land.  After a while, I did begin to find him quite useful I suppose.  We then hit up a few more awesome view spots where we saw that the fog was soon disappearing.  I cannot remember exactly why they are called the Blue Mountains, but they sure did look impressive and actually blue! We also got to see this awesome rain forest spot, something I wasn't really expecting to see on this trip.  We wandered around admiring various species that our guide was able to explain.  It was cool to have such a knowledgeable/experienced guide because we actually we able to learn a lot and see some things we wouldn't have otherwise.  He took us to some very secluded, private spots within the Blue Mountains.  

Last but not least on the tour was the famous Three Sisters Rock Formation.  The place was much more tourist in comparison to the other places we had been earlier, but it's something you must see if you make the trip.  The Three Sisters are a beautiful rock formation with an interesting folk story behind them (I cannot remember though so ask my dad if you're interested).  We spent a bit here taking pictures and admiring the scenery before getting back on the bus and heading home.  i was relieved to arrive back in Sydney safely, considering the tour guides driving skills weren't as sharp as his knowledge of biology.  He drove like a maniac - fast and reckless.  Those of you who know dad could imagine how he felt about this situation.  Clearly his driving library was only filled with science books (probably only Brendan or Allison would get this so I they better be reading this).