atching the Travel Chanel before I left for Australia and there was a special about Scenic World which is about an hour and a half outside of Sydney. Scenic World used to be the Katoomba Coal Mine site that is now part of the Blue Mountain heritage listed park. The park itself is bigger than the whole island of Ireland. We decided to drive over and take a look. Of course, absolutely beautiful!! Scenic World (you would think they could of come up with a better name) has four ways to get different views of the forest. The first way we went was over the valley via the Scenic Skyway complete with clear crystal floor. This wasn't as scary as I thought it would be since the floor was not absolutely clear, a little bit of cloudiness helped break the illusion of no floor. I was brave enough
to put one foot on the clear part just to give an idea of what it looked like. There was a walking path down to the bottom of the waterfall we had just flown over so Matt and I hiked down to see it. There was an absolute fantastic amount of vegetation. Eucalyptus, Tea Trees, and Tree Ferns were everywhere. The Sassafras Tree has commonly become known as the kissing tree bec
ause they grow together rubbing away bark only to regrow shared protective tissue. They grow in unison sharing sap and supporting each other.The second mode of transportation into the park w
as the Scenic Railway. The original track was used in the late 1800's for coal mining but was made into a tourist attraction as early as the 1940's. This railway nicknamed the "Mountain Devil" descends 415m through a cliff side tunnel into an ancient rainforest and is the steepest incline of any railway in the world. Lucky me got the very first car in the train. It actually feels like you are standing straight up as the train goes down the side of the cliff. This picture is the train that left before mine heading down into the tunnel.
as the Scenic Railway. The original track was used in the late 1800's for coal mining but was made into a tourist attraction as early as the 1940's. This railway nicknamed the "Mountain Devil" descends 415m through a cliff side tunnel into an ancient rainforest and is the steepest incline of any railway in the world. Lucky me got the very first car in the train. It actually feels like you are standing straight up as the train goes down the side of the cliff. This picture is the train that left before mine heading down into the tunnel. The train took us down to the Scenic Walkway. There were remnants of the minin
g village along with video screens built into the side of the cliff showing scenes of everyday mining life. There were even old mining carts that had been left in the forest for around 100 years. I coerced Matt into another tourist picture. There was a statue of a miner with his horse so....
g village along with video screens built into the side of the cliff showing scenes of everyday mining life. There were even old mining carts that had been left in the forest for around 100 years. I coerced Matt into another tourist picture. There was a statue of a miner with his horse so....We took the walk way deeper down into the forest all the way seeing signs leading to the "Rainforest Room". It sounds like if you walk down, down ,down into the forest there will actually be something in this rainforest room, however there is not. Just an open room and more fore
st. There was alot of interesting stuff along the way. There was a tree that had the inside struck out by lightening which you could crawl inside. There were also trees that had fallen over but continued to grow from the forest floor making their shape all crazy. Wild birds were everywhere. The Lyrebird inhabits the forest helping shape the mountain itself. Lyrebirds are constantly scratching in the soil and can move many tons of rock and soil in its lifetime. I unfortunately did not see one and may have heard one but since they are such incredible mimics could not differentiate a lyrebird from any other bird. If you have never heard a lyre bird listen here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YzlTB8fEsA
st. There was alot of interesting stuff along the way. There was a tree that had the inside struck out by lightening which you could crawl inside. There were also trees that had fallen over but continued to grow from the forest floor making their shape all crazy. Wild birds were everywhere. The Lyrebird inhabits the forest helping shape the mountain itself. Lyrebirds are constantly scratching in the soil and can move many tons of rock and soil in its lifetime. I unfortunately did not see one and may have heard one but since they are such incredible mimics could not differentiate a lyrebird from any other bird. If you have never heard a lyre bird listen here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YzlTB8fEsAThe Lyrebird is incorporated into an Aboriginal legend about the rock formation called The Th
ree Sisters which we passed on the Scenic Cableway out of the forest. According to legend there was a man who had a magic shinbone that would allow him to change shape. One day the man's three daughters accidentally woke the evil Bunyip. (I had never heard of a Bunyip either...http://home.iprimus.com.au/gunnado/bunyip.html) To protect his daughters the man turned them into these rocks. While the man was being chased by the Bunyip he turned himself into a lyrebird and dropped the magic shinbone changing his arms to wings forever. This is wh
y the lyrebird scratches in the earth. He is looking for the shinbone to change his daughters back into their human form. There is a sculpture representing this Aboriginal tale at the entrance to Scenic World.
ree Sisters which we passed on the Scenic Cableway out of the forest. According to legend there was a man who had a magic shinbone that would allow him to change shape. One day the man's three daughters accidentally woke the evil Bunyip. (I had never heard of a Bunyip either...http://home.iprimus.com.au/gunnado/bunyip.html) To protect his daughters the man turned them into these rocks. While the man was being chased by the Bunyip he turned himself into a lyrebird and dropped the magic shinbone changing his arms to wings forever. This is wh
y the lyrebird scratches in the earth. He is looking for the shinbone to change his daughters back into their human form. There is a sculpture representing this Aboriginal tale at the entrance to Scenic World. 