Glenn and Fiona drove us up to the Blue Mountains. From a distance, the mountains have a slightly bluish tint. Glenn says that the bluish hue is caused by a chemical released into the air by the many eucalyptus trees that grow upon the mountains. We stopped at several scenic viewpoints along the way. Australia is a truly beautiful country (and I’ve only seen a tiny part of it).

One particularly memorable stop were the Leura Cascades, a series of small waterfalls followed by much larger waterfall. We hiked the trail down along the stream, taking pictures along the way. Valerie was initially frightened that she would be bitten by mosquitos along the way, but later revised her fear to include some kind of Australian biting fly.

We were all hungry from the hiking, so we stopped at a favorite local eatery for lunch (or dinner or whatever Australians call the mid-day meal). Unfortunately, they were full, so we found a nearby French restaurant that was notable for its particularly non-descript dish names such as “piece de boeuf.”

Our drive continued into Katoomba where we saw the Three Sisters, a formation of three adjacent pillar-like rocks. Glenn, Valerie, and I hiked a bit to a better viewpoint of the Sisters and the top of something called the “Giant Staircase.” Perhaps earlier in the trip Valerie and I would have attempted to descend the staircase, but by this point in the trip neither of us was in good enough shape to do so. Thus, Valerie descended a couple flights of stairs for a picture and then we returned to the parking area. From the top, we could see Scenic World, which offers a touristic mine car ride down into the old mine shaft as well as a gondola to somewhere in the adjacent valley. We decided against taking the death-defying descent into the mine shaft.