Getting up early we caught a tour bus at the YHA towards the Blue Mountains.
After about an hour we stopped at the Featherdale Wildlife Park where we had the chance to pet a Koala and feed the Wallabies and Kangaroos. Oh my God, they are so cute!
The park is actually a sanctuary for animals where they help wounded animals. Our tour guide Tristan from “Colorful Trops” told us however that its very difficult to bring most animals back into nature. Those born in captivity will not stand a chance and only those who heal quickly can be brought back.
They also had a lot of birds, snakes and other reptiles at the park. We also saw dingos and a crocodile. The park was absolutely worth the trip.
About another hours drive through the beautiful city of Leura (one a summer retreat for Sydney’s rich) we reached the Blue Mountains, and yes, they really do look blue. Our tour guide explained to us that the blue shimmer in the air comes from the eucalyptus vapors which are also a reason why fires break out often in the area as eucalyptus is easily inflammable.
We hiked on a trail in the National Park right through the rainforest. We learned that there were different types of rainforests. The Blue Montains one is a cold rainforest whereas Daintree where we are heading to later on this trip is a tropical rainforest.
Right at the beginning of the hike Tristan also showed us the hole of a funnel spider, one of the deadliest spiders in the world. The poison of just one bite can kill up to 250 people! He warned us not to sit down anywhere without asking him whether it was okay to do so. Of course someone in this family (not to be specified further in this post) did not believe that such a tiny little spider could be this dangerous. Just minutes after Tristan had warned us she was indicating to us the dripping water on a rock- just centimeters from a spider web! Imagine our shocked faces.
On the hike we also heard an Aborigines “dream story”. Not sure it was accidental that the tour guide picked a story about the “Three Sisters”, a rock formation of three rocks. The story was about daughters who didn’t listen to their father and ended up being turned into stone…
