Blue Mountains, Australia Part 1

We liked our time in Sydney, but we really enjoyed our time in the Blue Mountains. That included the 1.5-2 hour drive to get there.

We rented a car and off we went. Notice the steering wheel is on the right side of the car! B can drive anywhere!

With speeds like this it felt like we were flying. We seldom travel at anything but slow city traffic speeds.

We left pretty early in the morning so on our arrival at our hotel is was still quite chilly. That morning the  low was 6 or 7 C (42.8 - 44.6 F). Brrrrrrrr!

The rhododendrons were in bloom in the mountains. Ah, pretty. There are several rhododendron festivals in November each year.

Our hotel was the Echoes Boutique Hotel in Katoomba. It is a really small place but really pretty. Note: you can see there isn't much parking. Since we arrived early the parking lot was "empty" so we left the car and walked every where we went. This included into town for dinner etc. Also, the OPAL card worked here too so we took advantage of the bus system one time.

 Our view? From our room we could see cliff edges, mountains, and the rain forest of Jamison Valley.

A pano shot off the balcony.

The Blue Mountains National Park is a World Heritage site.

According to the literature, the Blue Mountains appear to be shrouded in an extremely blue haze. We agree.

Why? Experts were brought in to figure this out in 1955. The Department of Physics at the University of Sydney explained that "the haze which appears to surround any distinct object is due to an optical phenomenon called Rayleigh Scattering." This causes light rays hitting small particles to scatter in various directions. The atmosphere always contains particles like dust, water droplets and even air molecules. The many eucalyptus trees release oil droplets into the atmosphere as well. Our eyes receive the blue scattered rays of sunlight to reflect the object itself. For this reason, things appear blue.

The plateau was created 170 million years ago when the rocky earth was pushed upward. Over time, weather and rivers carved out the valley and gorges. Sandstone is relatively resistant to erosion but shale and coals under the sandstone were much softer. Eventually, sandstone pieces broke off leaving sheer cliffs.

There were interesting trees at Echoes Point: mountain blue gum.  Famous for their white tree trunks and being a member of the eucalyptus. As the sunshine hits them the bark looks like sterling silver. I couldn't quite capture this with a camera. Very pretty!

It was very windy most of the time we were in the mountains. Here's a short video of the wind. Reminder, if you are viewing this on a small hand held device you may not be able to see the video.