
On Tuesday, May 21, we experienced natural Australia.
We took buses two hours west of Sydney to the Blue Mountains, which are less mountains than rolling hills about 3,000 feet high. But the gorges cut throughout he sandstone make the hills more dramatic. Perhaps the most-photographed sight in the region is the Three Sisters formation, which we saw from an overlook near Katoomba.
Afterwards, we went a few miles to Scenic World, which claims to have the steepest railway on earth: up to a 52-degree incline. The railway was built to ferry out shale and coal. Now it's used to ferry tourists on what feels like a slow-moving roller coaster. Most returned to the top via a gondola, but my fear of heights prompted me to take the railway back up the hill.
Perhaps the best part of the trip came at the start of the day, when en route to the Blue Mountains we visited the Featherdale Wildlife Park, where students got to pose with koalas, feed wallabies and pet kangaroos.
See pictures for more.
We took buses two hours west of Sydney to the Blue Mountains, which are less mountains than rolling hills about 3,000 feet high. But the gorges cut throughout he sandstone make the hills more dramatic. Perhaps the most-photographed sight in the region is the Three Sisters formation, which we saw from an overlook near Katoomba.
Afterwards, we went a few miles to Scenic World, which claims to have the steepest railway on earth: up to a 52-degree incline. The railway was built to ferry out shale and coal. Now it's used to ferry tourists on what feels like a slow-moving roller coaster. Most returned to the top via a gondola, but my fear of heights prompted me to take the railway back up the hill.
Perhaps the best part of the trip came at the start of the day, when en route to the Blue Mountains we visited the Featherdale Wildlife Park, where students got to pose with koalas, feed wallabies and pet kangaroos.
See pictures for more.