The Blue Mountains of Australia

Blue Mountains-Katoomba, Australia 

Tourism - whisking them from the valley floor to the mountaintop

Blue Mountains Three Sisters

This is my favorite picture of this region.  It was taken from a cable car going across the valley which the mountains surround.  This would be the USA equivalent of going to the Great Smokey Mountains in Tennessee or the Blue Ridge Parkway running along the Appalacian Mountains.  However, the ‘blue’ in the US parks are a result of weather.  In Australia, the ‘blue’ is eucalyptus dust/pollen which rises in the air.  

Someone asked me if we could smell the eucalyptus in the air, and I didn’t smell it.  That was surprising considering there are 900 varieties of the eucalyptus tree in the Blue Mountains.

There are lots of wild koala bears who live in small communities and settle close to a variety of eucalyptus from which they can gain the most nitrogen which helps digest those tough leaves.

To get to the mountains we took a one hour commuter train to Katoomba, a gateway to this UNESCO hertitage area.  There are no cars in the park.  Instead, you take the shuttle bus which stops at over 15 entry points for various attractions/hikes/water falls/scenic viewpoints.  We bought the package which gave us the highlights including a short boardwalk hike in the tropical rain forest.  

Coal Miner

Two new industries developed in the Blue Mountains:  First, was tourism, and the second was coal mining.  The picture above is a bronze casting of a coal miner and a load of coal which would have been taken out of the mine and down the mountains by horse/mule.  These sculptures were on the boardwalk through the temperate rainforest.  

Boardwalk trail 

Finally, having difficulty loading the picture album, so check back in about 4 days.