Blue Mountains and Aussie Rules

This morning I again woke up early and got on a train, this time to the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are about 2 hours outside of Sydney (by train). They get their bluish color from all the eucalyptus trees that grow there. I was going primarily to see a geological formation called the Three Sisters.

The first part I saw was this lovely little waterfall.



I hiked through the foliage for about half an hour. Then I went and did the few touristy things that are out there - a skyway, a cable car, and a very steep railroad (used to be a cable transport system). This picture on the ralroad struck me as very funny - and then Indiana Jones music started playing as we plunged almost straight down!



A few minutes walk away were the Three Sisters. Here's a few pictures of them and the surrounding landscape:







It was really beautiful out there. Before I caught the train back, I saw an IMAX movie about the area, and it turns out they found a prehistoric species of tree there not long ago - there are only about 40 of them, but the species dates back to the dinosaurs!

Then I caught the train back into the city to go to an Australian Rules Football game, or Aussie Rules or Footy, as they call it here. It was awesome! It's very fast paced - no pausing, no timeouts - and really exciting. I had the rules mostly figured out by the end, but even not knowing what was going on I was really into the game. It was almost like extreme soccer if you could use your hands. I can't describe it. I bought my tickets early, so I was only three rows back!




In any case, the game was between the Sydney Swans (Swannies!!!) and the West Coast Eagles. The Eagles played a lot better than the Swans for most of the game, but in the end they won by only one point. It was thrilling!

I have some other cool pictures of the game, but my computer died last night before I could upload them. I'll try to upload them later, if only for the sake of my dear old Dad, who loves Aussie Rules!