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 Derek, Jude, & Laurie near the 3 Sisters (taken by our friend John Paul) |
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The Blue Mountains are located about 60 miles west of Sydney. These pictures were taken at Wentworth Falls and Katoomba while on a day trip with our friend Jude, who was visiting for a weekend (a vacation from her vacation in New Zealand :-). We were lucky and had beautiful weather that day. Katoomba is where we met our friend John Paul, who offered to take our picture and struck up a conversation with us (we're glad he did!). We stayed to watch the sunset from the 3 Sisters lookout and then to watch the stars come out. It was a spectacular night for stargazing--clear, cold, and a sky like diamonds scattered over black velvet. The visibility was so good that we even saw a satellite orbit over us several times! We think it might have been Mir, but we don't know for sure.
We've returned to the Blue Mountains several times for bushwalking along the many trails in the area. It's well worth the hike, but be warned: Parts of the trails can be quite rough, and trails like the Undercliff Walk are not for the weak of knee! But if you can hack it, you'll be rewarded with great views of the valleys, wild birds (such as sulphur-crested and black cockatoos, magpies, currawongs, parrots, and lorikeets), marsupial mice, frogs, yabbies (native crayfish), waterfalls, and more gum trees than you can shake a stick at.
