Blue Mountains, Australia Part 2

Day 1 in Katoomba
We couldn't check in at the hour we arrived in Katoomba so we left our bags and went walking. Let me correct that. We went bushwalking. Trails are tracks and hiking/walking is called bushwalking. So we went bushwalking on some tracks in the Katoomba area.

On our very first walk, we heard and saw our first wild sulphur-crested cockatoo.

We could pass through a city park on our way to Echoes Point. We noticed an interesting sculpture on the way. This memorial commemorates the convict road builders that worked in the Blue Mountains in the early 1800s. These roads opened up the Australian continent.

On most of our walks in Katoomba we were greeted by the cockatoos. Sometimes single birds, sometimes in raucous groups.

Walking distance from our hotel to Echoes Point was an easy 5 minutes.

Brrr. I'm wearing a jacket! From here you can see Three Sisters, a rocky formation with three parts. There are lots of stories about the origin of the name. One version says there were three maiden sisters who were turned into stone for their protection while tribal war ensued. Unfortunately, no one could break the spell after the wars ended so they remained as stone.

From Echoes Point there are several tracks. We bushwalked from Echoes Point to Katoomba Falls.

There were quite a few metal animal sculptures in and around Echoes Point. Really interesting. There were even families of cidadas!

We then walked from the falls out towards Scenic World (more later), caught a bus and went back to Echoes Point and then did the track to the Three Sisters. We used our OPAL cards for this for the bus segment.:)

P got a foot massage later in the day! Yay! While P did that B went to a nearby chocolate store and got some goodies.

At sunset we walked back to Echoes Point to observe the light striking the Three Sisters. We went pretty early and were glad we did. The information said this happens at sunset. The really pretty part happens quite a bit earlier than actual sunset. We saw folks arriving at the technical sunset time and they'd missed it.