Blue Mountains

After yesterday's disappointing fixtures against Cranbrook, this was another chance for the boys to be tourists for a day.  We arranged a brief tour of some points of interest in and around the Blue Mountains.

First fine of the day went to Steve Winter as he was unable to organise decent weather for the trip.  Consequently we set off in drizzle, which became proper rain as we approached our destination and meant that one of the trip highlights - the view from Echo Point overlooking the Three Sisters - had to be abandoned due to dense fog.

However he was not the only member of staff to receive a fine.  I was tasked with finding a suitable lunch venue with some very clear parameters - a log fire, large portions of food, wide selection of dishes, liquor coffees (for Mrs Le Chevalier).  Unfortunately I failed on all fronts, so we ended up in a pie shop that served no side dishes - chips, vegetables etc. leading us to fill up on cakes.  Personally I think it was one of the meals of the tour!

Chevs joined us in our 'Hall of Shame' during the evening as he took us to a restaurant that served everything we needed, except for beer.  Suffice to say that Steve's day was complete!

Anyway, back to the day.  Our first stop was Featherdale Wildlife Park where we were able - amongst other things - to pet Koalas, feed Kangaroos and scare the living daylights out of Will Brown by taking him through the reptile house.  I particularly enjoyed Will Hiett & Jack Stevens' attempts to communicate with the penguins (watch the video).

We then travelled to the world's steepest railway at Katoomba which takes you down several hundred metres through a natural tunnel in the cliff to the old Katoomba coal mines.  Once there we had several choices of route; those of us that took the 'lazy' route straight to the cable car or the medium-length journey through the miners' village were able to avoid the thnuderstorms and heavy showers.  However those that took the long route and saw everything managed to get caught in the downpours.  You have probably alreayd guessed that Steve was amongst those that were soaked to the skin!

Anyway, you can get a flavour of the Blue Mountains Tour by clicking here.