We took a tour of the wilderness in the area surrounding Sydney. Sydney is basically surrounded by water and protected land. (This makes buying a house very expensive.)

Anyway, the Blue Mountains are nearby and they are quite pretty. The first picture is of "The Three Sisters" rock formation. Legend has it, there were three sisters in a local tribe who were not allowed to meet with the neighboring tribe. The sisters went to meet the young men from across the hill anyway. The local chief cast a spell turning them into stone while he went to talk to the young men from the neighbor tribe. The young men attacked and killed him and he never got the chance to undo the spell before he died. So here the sisters remain.

Part of our tour included a visit to a zoo where we got to see and touch the slow moving, cuddly koala. Koala's sleep 20 hours per day so they don't let you hold them but you can pet their back. Their fur was very soft.

We also did some short hiking in this canyon area of the Blue Mountains. We rode an old coal train with extreamly steep track (52 degree incline) into the canyon.