More Sydney: The Blue Mountains

To escape the heat wave that gripped Sydney over the weekend, which peaked at a suffocating 106 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday, we took a 2 hour train ride out to a small town called Katoomba on Tuesday. Katoomba is the main jumping off point for The Blue Mountains, a vast foothills area 65 kms outside of Sydney. The Blue Mountains encompass three national parks and is a great place for “bushwalking” (or hiking in Australian) and scenery. Think of the Grand Canyon but full of trees and blue haze. The bluish haze that gives the foothills their name comes from a fine mist of oil given off by eucalyptus trees.

Unfortunately, Tuesday brought a thick mist to The Blue Mountains, which is common, so we weren’t able to take in the epic views from Katoomba’s many platforms. We mostly just saw huge white walls of mist. However, with lots of bushwalking trails in the area that are good in any weather, we headed into the bush to check out the rainforest and Katooomba Falls.