The Blue Mountains and Manly

We jumped on the train and travelled the 2 hour journey out to Katoomba in the blue mountains...and all for just over $8! If only the trains in England were this cheap. Instantly we noticed the drop in temperature and Poppy was glad she'd invested in a new pair of Uggs to keep her tootsies warm! We dumped our bags, put on an extra layer and headed out for a walk over to see the three sisters. 

The Three Sisters

The walk over to the three sisters was lovely and offered fantastic views of the Blue Mountains! We stopped off at scenic world along the way where we caught a gondala across the gap between two cliffs which had a glass floor giving a scary view of the height at which we were travelling! At the other side of the gondala crossing we walked for a short distance to get a close view of the three sisters. While they were impressive, we both thought they were significantly small than we expected! Still, the views below and beyond more than made up for their lack in size. Before walking back to our hostel we returned to scenic world via the gondala again to ride the steepest railway in the world! The railway was originally built to transport miners down to the mines below but has now been converted to a tourist attraction since the mines closed. The railway definitely lived up to expectations, at times it felt as though we were travelling almost vertically down the cliff face! At the bottom of the railway we walked over to the old entrance to the mines and read into the history behind them before returning back to the top of the cliff via train; which somehow felt even steeper on the way up! A relatively long uphill walk back to the hostel later we spent the evening relaxing in front of the warm fire. 

 

 



On board the worlds steepest railway!





View across the blue mountains



Worlds steepest railway





The next day we walked over to the nearby town of Leura with the main objective of going to a place famous for its afternoon tea as well as its large range of teapots! After a look round town we headed over to 'Bygon Beauty's' to indulge our craving for scones...suffice to say the afternoon tea was lovely and we were both satisfied! We then began our scenic walk back to Katoomba which followed a path offering fantastic views out across the blue mountains. 



Afternoon tea at Bygon Beautys...mmmm



Heading back into Sydney we had arranged to stay with a friend of mines parents who live in Manly. After the train ride back to Sydney Central station we headed over to Circular Quay to catch the ferry over to Manly. We were met by Ginnie and Patrick and taken back to their lovely home overlooking Little Manly Bay and cooked a fantastic homely dinner! We went for some lovely coastal walks and treated ourselves to the famous Manly fish and chips, however it was lovely to just relax and enjoy a few home comforts. We both had a great time in manly and headed back to Sydney for our last few day in Australia before moving on to the next part of our trip...New Zealand!

 

 

 

Hundreds of tiny crabs on the beach



Watch out for the Bandicoots!