The main destination in New South Wales was Sydney, but the first stop was the Blue Mountains.

Feeling that the name was a bit familiar, we looked into it and found out there are at least ten mountain ranges in the world known as the Blue Mountains. This one was probably unique in that it had a city named Katoomba, which is where we spent the night. The town was quite pleasant, we even found several places serving high tea with all the traditional items. We were mostly there to see the mountains, not the sleepy little town. They were not terribly tall, but had steep canyons, interesting rock formations, and several waterfalls. Some of the views reminded us of the Grand Canyon, but a green version that was totally covered with trees. Luckily we had time to go on a few nature walks, nothing to complicated but it was good to walk around a bit after spending so much time in the car.

On the way down the hill, we stopped at a small zoo before getting into downtown Sydney. The advertised gimmick here was to feed kangaroos and snuggle with koalas. From kookaburras and koalas to wombats and wallabies, Featherdale Wildlife Park was stocked with all the exotic Australian animals. The only thing missing was a platypus. They even had a taipan on display, the most poisonous snake in the world. Luckily it was behind glass and not included in the petting zoo area, the children’s python was provided as a safer substitute. True to the brochure, we did get to feed the kangaroos, and wallabies and emus. They were quite friendly, and not shy about eating out of your hand.

Sydney was quite nice as well. We were lucky with the weather again. It was warm and sunny the whole time we were there, but they hadn’t been so fortunate a few days prior. Only having a few days, we spent our time on the main highlights. Circular Quay, the Harbor Bridge climb, Opera House, and a few gardens were on the itinerary. A last minute decision to see the mythical creature exhibit at the Maritime Museum also turned out to be fun. We got to see a mermaid mummy that P.T. Barnum had on display, and learned about a sea monster that lived in Lake Superior.

We also had to say goodbye to our first visitor, Beth headed back home from Sydney after over a week traveling with us. It was nice to have some company for a while. Finally, our third anniversary happened while we were here. We had a great evening sailing in the harbor on an old wooden ship. They served various Australian wines and hors devours, and we learned a bit more about the rigging on such vessels. Even got to help hoist the sails.