Sydney, Australia — In our familiarization itinerary, it says about a trip to the Blue Mountains. As we have never been familiar with Australia, I was not expecting anything spectacular. So for the whole day of Sunday we took that hour and a half drive to the Blue Mountains stopping midway at the Featherdale Wildlife Park. Now visiting the wildlife of Australia was something many of us really wanted to see, although it felt like visiting a zoo or something.
The weather cooperated and did not rain and indeed it was the first time for me to see a Wallaby. It is a type of Kangaroo, only smaller and we got to see a Kangaroo up close. I also got a photo with a Koala Bear and it was the cutest thing in the world. It did not feel like a real animal at all. There were also a lot of birds of various sizes. It was also the first time for me to see a Tasmanian Devil, a nearly extinct species found only in certain parts of Australia and Tasmania. Seeing those different kinds of wildlife indigenous only in Australia was worth the trip! When you do, ask Travelways Tours for this.
Then off we went to the Blue Mountains taking a stop for lunch at the Leura Golf and Country Club. It was beginning to get colder because we were thousands of feet above sea level. I expected that the Blue Mountains would be some kind of an adventure for the group and yes the view was spectacular. This is what I would call Australia's version of the Grand Canyon, except that this natural rock formation was in the middle of a rain forest.
From the ledge, the sheer drop is thousands of feet to the bottom of the Jamison Valley and you could see the Katoomba Falls from a distance. From our vantage point, you can see a strange rock formation that the Australians call "The Three Sisters." There's a big story how this came about, but it is too long to put in this column.
What was totally unexpected for us was that, we took three different rides in this one single visit. First was the Scenic Skyway, a cable car that connects you from gorge to gorge. From there, we took the Scenic Railway, dubbed "The Steepest passenger train in the world" at a 52-degree angle. It was akin to riding a roller coaster, except that it just goes straight down the side of a cliff! They had to put a glass roof so that the passengers could see how steep this drop is and how fast it is when it goes down.
This ride came out of an old coal mine that is now part of the tour. When we got into the bottom of the valley, we had to walk a distance from there to take the next ride, a Scenic Cableway. But this was no ordinary walk as we were in the midst of a rain forest and it began drizzling while walking on the wooden planks.
Finally we got in the huge Scenic Cableway that lifted us all the way up to the gorge where we originally started. In my book, the Blue Mountain was an adventure worth taking a trip to Australia because there is nowhere in the world that one can get to take three rides in one adventure. Yes, PAL flies to Sydney every day.
Monday for us was our visit to the National Maritime Museum, which is just a short walk from the Ibis Sydney Darling Harbour Hotel. Unfortunately, the HMAS Vampire was not opened because of its annual maintenance. Anyway the HMAS Vampire (a Daring Class vessel) served the Australian Royal Navy from 1959 to 1986. Nope, she never fired her main Naval guns (4.5 pounders) in anger, but in those days, this warship joined many Naval Exercises with the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization. She now serves as an active museum in the National Maritime Museum.
On the same dock at the HMAS Vampire, was the HMAS Onslow, an Oberon Class submarine that served the Australian Navy from 1969 to 1999. It seems that the Australian Defence Ministry sets a 30-year service record for its Naval ships and they replace them after 30-years. This warship was opened to the public and it was the second time for me to get inside a submarine. The last time was a World War II Submarine in Pearl Harbor.
The HMAS Onslow is a diesel electric submarine or what is known as a conventional submarine as compared to a nuclear submarine. But as in most modern subs, it could stay underwater for more than six weeks using its snorkel technology that allows it to stay in periscope depth so it could run its diesel engines and charge its batteries. Yes things are still super tight and claustrophobic inside a submarine.
Our last was inside the full-scale replica vessel of the HMB Endeavor of Captain Cook, that British Naval explorer who found Botany Bay in Sydney Harbor. This was quite an interesting sailing ship as the deck below is so low, only midgets could stand straight. But then that is how the old sailing ships were made in those days. After four days in Sydney, we could have flown to the Gold Coast or elsewhere, but we just could not afford the time. But our visit was a memorable one for us. From henceforth, Australia should be in your bucket list, especially because everyone in that country speaks English with a slang.