The Beautiful Blue Mountains

Aren't the Blue Mountains beautiful! You can see why they are called what they are... they are literally blue! The mountains get their name from the release of oil from the eucalyptus trees which create a blue haze. These mountains are Australia's equivalent to our Grand Canyon.

Last weekend we took a fantastic trip up through the Blue Mountains to a little town called Mudgee. On our way there, Richard and Cathy Mason (President and First Lady of Caringbah Rotary) took us through the mountains showing us many of the highlights along the way. Our first stop was a little town called Leura. It was very charming! We stopped here for lunch where Bill and I both enjoyed a HUGE bowl of pumpkin soup! It was very good!! Bill also made a huge discovery - we have a new favorite drink! It is called an Iced Chocolate and is very much like a chocolate shake, although they serve it to you as ice cream, milk, and chocolate syrup. You can stir it up if you want, or just eat it like that! If you come see us we'll take you to get one!! Trust me, it is worth the plane ride over here!! :)

Below is a picture of the "Three Sisters." This rock formation is the most popular landmark of the Blue Mountains and gets its name from an Aboriginal legend where a dad turned his 3 beautiful daughters into stone to protect them from enemies but died before he could reverse the spell.

We later took a train down the mountain (see below). Now... this might sound kind of typical, but this train when STRAIGHT DOWN! We literally were going straight down the side of the mountain. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take any good pictures to show you! They all turned out blurry! Anyway, that was very cool - and a fun way to get to the bottom! Once at the bottom we walked around the base of the mountain - it was very cool and damp! To go back up we took a cable car and enjoyed great views of the Three Sisters and the beautiful mountains!

Here is another picture of us with the Three Sisters. We are posing with Barbara, a Rotary Exchange student from Austria. We enjoyed getting to know her better on this fun trip!
Ok, and here is the classic picture - me and Bill wearing the typical Aussie hat! Very Crocodile Dundee!! (we are going to hear it from Rotary for that comment!) :)

After our time at the Three Sisters we went to a place in the National Park called Govett's Leap. This lookout is arguably one of the best views of the Blue Mountains. They are just fantastic! From there we started the last leg of our journey to Mudgee, arriving there just in time for dinner! We met a group from Rotary that was already there and enjoyed a VERY Aussie barbeque - steaks and sausages (tons of them!) and lots of veggies and salads. It was def. a feast by the campfire! We had a great night and officially decided that we liked Mudgee so far!

We have a lot more to post, we just thought we would break it up a little! This was only Friday! We still have Saturday through Monday to go!!