This sandstone formation is called the Three Sisters, and the name traces back to an aboriginal story. It's also tourist central for the Blue Mountains area. Located in the town of Katoomba at a place called Echo Point, it's the main stop for every tour bus within about a 50 mile radius. Nice place to visit but we didn't linger.
There were lots of interesting, although challenging, hikes radiating out from the Echo Point area - most of which traced the cliff face along the valley. Some of the ups and downs were reminiscent of my walks in the Columbia River Gorge, where everything seems to be either steep uphill or steep downhill with not a lot of level ground in between. This one was called the Undercliff Walk for obvious reasons, and provided terrific views of the valley floor below from every turn in the trail.
We're at an altitude of about 3,000 ft. here - not mountainous by any means but high enough to provide cool, crisp temperatures in the evenings. The first day of Autumn was the 21st, and the leaves are already starting to change at this elevation. As some of the hikes worked their way back into bush the forest turned almost tropically lush, like this area featuring some large tree ferns. Reminded us a lot of New Zealand, where these things are called Ponga trees.
Came upon several little waterfalls with their inviting little pools, like this one near Wentworth Falls.
Lots of sweeping panoramas like this one. Guess the blue haze that these mountains take their name from is a result of billions of little droplets of eucalyptus oil that all of the trees expire into the atmosphere. Have read that in some seasons, and under some lighting conditions, the sky can turn almost cobalt blue. It wasn't quite that dramatic for us, but still pretty nonetheless.
One of the many waterfalls we encountered on our first day out and about. The falls range from these little wedding cake cascades to some rather major drops that rival anything I've seen in Oregon along the gorge for both height and beauty.
We usually manage to find inviting, off the beaten path places to have lunch, like this hole-in-the-wall peep hole near one of the lookouts. It took a bit of getting to, and required a bit of scrambling along the way, but the reward was to have it all to ourselves while the rest of the tourists fought it out down below.
This is called the Queen's Cascade, and it was fun to splash around in the shallows for a few minutes (helps to have waterproof boots).
On our second day out we did a cliffside walk near the neighboring town of Blackheath. We were out fairly early and apparently were some of the first people on the trail. At any rate, as we were heading down the path we kept hearing the nearby musical call of a Lyre Bird. They're not particularly rare or anything, but you hardly ever hear them except off in the distance. This one sounded like he was right next to us on the trail, and it turned out that he was ... literally. We stopped and looked for him in the brush, and he couldn't have been more than 15 feet away, scratching along the ground and singing non-stop. Must have been a female in the area because he was also "displaying", or fluffing his feathers and spreading that magnificent tail up and over his head like a peacock. It was quite a sight, and a rare one at that I guess. Not only is their song one of the most melodious of any bird-sound, but when they're trying to impress a potential mate they can mimic other sounds that they've heard - everything from other bird calls to human generated sounds like car alarms, camera shutters, and even chain saws - virtually anything they've ever heard they can mimic. Couldn't record his song with our camera, but did find this link to a BBC piece and it really is worth a listen:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y
We're here in the mountains until the 29th, when we head for the Hunter Valley.
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