Koalas, Caves, and Blue Mountain Views

After spending some time exploring the city of Sydney, we decided to venture out to the Blue Mountains.

Our first stop was at the Featherdale Wildlife Park. The weather was cold and rainy, but we didn't let this dampen our spirits and we had a great time getting up close and personal with the koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, and many other animals. We did learn that it is against the law in Sydney to cuddle with Koalas, but we were able get close enough to pet them. The park employees were very protective of all of the animals and it was good to see they were treated well.

The view from our hotel room

Personally, I think the single most stressful part of planning a trip with a group of people is booking the accommodations. Lucky for all of us, Papa Touchdown was willing to share his hotel points with the rest of us during our time in Sydney, but selecting the hotel in the Blue Mountains was up to me. We followed GPS to the hotel and as we pulled into the parking lot, everyone politely pointed out the positives of this particular hotel. "Look! The Marquee says Free Wi-Fi." I dragged myself into the lobby and thought, "It's only for a couple of nights."  The man behind the check-in counter was surprised to hear me say we had 3 rooms reserved for a few nights. He took a look at my printed confirmation and told me that GPS often gets things wrong. He then gave me directions to the hotel I had actually booked. When I went back to the car and relayed the news, I swear there was a collective sigh of relief from everyone in the car. We drove a few blocks and pulled into the Mountain Heritage - What a relief! And one of the best parts was the amazing sitting areas with fire places. The rainy weather allowed all of us to spend some time sipping hot chocolate and playing cards by the fire. This was just one more small, unplanned part of our trip that added so much to making the trip wonderful!

After exploring the small town of Katoomba our first night, we ventured out to the Jenolan Caves. It was a bit of a drive, but well worth it (and you don't notice the rain while trekking through underground caves!). The tour through the caves was very cool. There were so many different caves to explore, we could have spent days there. We had fun using the time we had and maybe next time we will head back for the nighttime haunted cave tour!

On the way back from the Jenolan Caves, we made a pit stop to enjoy the views at Govett's Leap! The views weren't much on this particular day, but we did enjoy a short hike though the fog to a little waterfall.

On our last day in the Blue Mountains, we were rewarded for the past couple of rain soaked days with one of the most beautiful days we could have ever imagined. We even have friends from Sydney commenting on our photos after we were back in Jakarta. They had never seen such beautiful blue skies at the Blue Mountains in all of the times they had visited themselves. We spent the day at Scenic World. I had apologized to everyone in advance because this was supposed to be a very "touristy" type thing to do, but it was the top thing on Dustin's list so everyone agreed to tag along. It was definitely a tourist destination, but we managed to get there as soon as they opened and avoided most of the crowds.  

Dustin driving the Skyway!

The Blue Mountains were beyond amazing. The views were breathtaking and the hiking was beautiful. Being an Arizona native makes it hard for me to admit this, but the beauty of the Blue Mountains rivals that of the Grand Canyon.