Blue Mountains

Blue Mountains: King’s Tableland lookout Blue Elaine An obsessive’s graffiti Wentworth Falls Coal mine entrance: a day after the Chilean miners were rescued from their entombment Dave points out aspects of the kangaroo outline Two kangaroos

Rather than drive, we opted to take an Oz Trails mini-coach out to the Blue Mountains, as recommended by Lonely Planet – and indeed it proved to be the best option. The perennial blue haze – which was particularly intense today – results from sunlight refracting through eucalyptus oil particles in the air. Took in the Olympics complex en route, at Homebush Bay, but the main purpose was to see things like Wentworth Falls. Lunch in Leura, in a light drizzle – and with pink cherry blossom falling from the trees and drifting fairly deep in the gutters.

Then visits to Katoomba and the so-called Three Sisters, a giant rock formation, involving a descent into a rainforest in a cable-car and ascent in another, running almost vertical through living rock, and an Aboriginal carving of a kangaroo – which I was told I was the first to see what was wrong with the beast when the group was asked (clue: its neck and head are thrown back at an unnatural angle, suggesting it has been hunted, killed and laid out for carving). Saw a couple of kangaroos on the way back to catch the Rivercat back into Sydney.