I'm going to begin todays update with a bit of post-blog news from yesterday, and a lost temporary filling that was inserted during Covid. I had a Chinese meal last night, and on ending used a harp to clean between the teeth as they felt a bit odd. It got a bit stuck, so I wriggled it (just a little bit) and out popped a filling. Perhaps that's why it was feeling odd. Anyway, that means at some stage I'll need to find a dentist. It's a tooth my dentist told me was dead, so it's not causing any pain, but it does have a few sharp edges that feel odd against my cheek.
Anyway, onto today and something far more interesting than my dental inadequacies.
Awake with the alarm at 06:00, and totally ready to leave by 07:00 ... the problem was that I had a pickup at 08:00 only a 10 minute walk from my hotel, so I was ready far too early! I left at 07:30 and picked up a coffee next door before wandering down to Christ Church St Laurence on George Street where I was being picked up. Away at 08:00, and the first stop was Sydney Zoo; I booked this trip back in October, so had no recollection of what it involved!
Now, I'm not much of a zoo person. If I'm going to see animals, I'd much rather see them in their natural environment, and given that the hour we had here was based on the Australian animals I'm hoping to see in the wild (kangaroos, koalas, crocodiles and emus) I didn't find it that engaging. We were given cups of food for the kangaroos, but given the masses mad rush when in the Kangaroo area, I just stood back and handed my full cup back to a keeper. It should have been let the animals come to you, but too many people were barging in to get their few seconds hand feeding the Roos. And getting a photo taken with a Koala ... really? Not my cup of tea at all; I didn't even bother getting the cameras out!
Away from the zoo after an hour (that perhaps I'd have preferred spent elsewhere), and a stop off for an early lunch before heading for Echo Point where we got a chance to see the three sisters; well you did if your elbows were well sharpened and you didn't care about anyone else getting their perfect shots. After a couple of months of this BS I'm past caring, and I don't care whether you've not got your perfect shot after 5 minutes. If there is a space for me to do what I want to, then I'm going to do it! I'm really looking forward to getting into the middle of nowhere that the masses don't frequent!
The coach driver told us one of the stories about the three sisters rock formation. Apparently three sisters in a tribe fell for three fellas in another tribe. This was frowned upon as mingling between tribes was not allowed (NFN?), so the three sisters were turned into stone to stop them going off to the other tribe. The person who turned them to stone was then killed, so they remain stone to this day.
After a half hour at Echo Point, we loaded back on the bus before heading to Scenic World. As I boarded the coach I was handed a wristband for the rides I'd purchased. I had no recollection of any rides that I'd paid for, but as I said I remembered nothing about what today entailed.
We were to have two hours at Scenic World, and were given some handy hints by the driver/guide about avoiding the queues. There were three 'rides' here. The first was a cable car (the Scenic Skyway) across the valley that I'd seen in blogs, the second was another cable car (the Scenic Cableway) down into the forest, and the third was a funicular train (getting the idea yet ... the Scenic Railway) down into the forest. There was then a walk (yep, the Scenic Walkway) that had several routes from the cableway to the railway. The advice was to get the Scenic Skyway from the east station back to Scenic World, then to take the cableway down as the railway usually has long queues and walk to the railway and catch that back up as the queues for the railway at the top were usually longer than a half hour.
So across the valley and a great view of Katoomba Falls from the Scenic Skyway. It still feels wrong to get into a cable car without a pair of skis.
Once across to Scenic World, I made a line straight to the Scenic Cableway, and arrived as the only person there, quickly joined by the masses. A bit of a wait for the cable car to arrive, then a lovely ride down into the forest.
Once down into the forest, there were a number of options to walk to the bottom railway station. I took the longest option that suggested that it was 50 minutes to the railway. So, off I set along a series of boardwalks through the dense forest. I quickly left the people who had been on the cableway behind, and it was glorious to be alone in the forest with just the sounds of the birds for company. The path descended further and further, and I just knew that at some stage I was going to have to climb back. And that climb came with a suggested 20 minutes to go.
10 minutes later I was at the railway station and it was about to depart, so I nipped on quickly and enjoyed the ride back up. The railway here is apparently the steepest in the world, and having ridden it I can quite believe this claim. The journey started with me almost laying on my back, and at it's steepest I felt like I was going to be thrown forwards out of my seat.
Anyway, back to the top of the valley and with 40 minutes in hand before the bus departed, I thought I'd go and see if I could get another view of Katoomba Falls. I took the Prince Henry Rim Path (not named after the ginger prince, but the third son of King George V) and found the Katoomba Falls lookout which also gave me a great view of the Skyway as it crossed the void.
Just time for an Ice Cream in the cafe before it was time to return to the bus. Away, and a couple of hours on the road to get to the Olympic Park, and the ferry terminal there. We were to take a ferry back from the Olympic Park wharf to Circular Quay in the centre of Sydney, sailing under the Sydney Harbour Bridge as we did. The ferry was packed, so no video or photo evidence taken of this journey.
Back on the train from Circular Quay to Museum, and the short walk back to the hotel. Time for a couple of beers before updating the blog with the events of the day. It had been a good day, particularly this afternoon. I must admit to having an eye roll about Scenic World when I found out we were going there and there were rides, but it did rescue the day. They weren't so much rides; more methods of transport getting me to the interesting bits!
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