Australia day 22

July 18

We awoke to a cold but clear morning in Katoomba. So now we've added another place name to our list of overnight stops in Australia that have a humorous ring to them. Coober Pedy, Wagga Wagga and now Katoomba. I chatted with my cousin in California while online this morning. She asked where I was today. I replied in one word, "Katoomba." She asked if I was in Africa now. I can't blame her. I wouldn't have guessed right either if someone asked me where Katoomba is – until yesterday.

The great draw to Katoomba is Scenic World. It is a tourist concession at the edge of an escarpment. The valley below is a rain forest. The rim above often experiences snow in winter. Whole busloads of tourists arrive here around the clock; lots of Asian tourists.

To get to the valley below you can take a "scenic rail" ride or you can descend in a cable car. Both are extremely steep rides. Or you can take a sky tram across the abyss and pass in front of a waterfall without descending. Razelle chose the third option while I descended into the rainforest by cable car and walked its boardwalk trails and read its explanatory plaques for two hours before ascending by scenic rail. 

It truly was a different world down there. There are many kinds of ferns in the valley and there are tree ferns in profusion. Eucalyptus trees down there tower to great heights. The "water vines" that climb the tallest trees down there bring water in the process to heights the trees themselves can't bring it to on their own. Parts of that valley were very dense and dark while other parts received a little sunlight at the right part of the day.

The two hours Razelle and I agreed on in advance passed quickly. I would have been able to stay longer, but two hours was sufficient enough for me to become absorbed in this unique environment. After all the other unique environments we'd visited during our stay in Australia, this one gave me a sense of completion. I know there are many more unique environments in the north of the country that we did not experience, but this one was on my bucket list. We also drove along the escarpment rim west of Katoomba and saw the kind of panoramic views I had on my bucket list as must-see for this area. We posed our stuffed toy monkey against this background. I'm glad we had the chance to do this and not struggle to explore Sydney.

Razelle and I drove back toward Sydney in the middle of the afternoon. We were in no hurry. Part way back we came to a 7-Eleven store next to a McDonald's. I bought my first slurpy in Australia at the 7-Eleven. Razelle tried to buy a blueberry muffin at McDonald's but the line was too long. Between these two fast-food establishments was a bin for recycling paper. A whole stack of Sunday's newspapers was in there. I lifted out one copy and presented it to Razelle. It was a day old, but Razelle was thrilled to receive it. Among its pages were the weekend comics in color, a TV guide section and an entertainment section. Joy of joys. Razelle read it while I finished my slurpy and noted that this 7-Eleven catered particularly to high-school-aged kids. She continued reading the paper and commenting on the articles to me all the way back to our caravan park in Sydney. This was the same caravan we'd spent two nights in before Katoomba. The creepy guy was still there, just where we'd left him.

The entertainment section advertised a performance by a Cuban dance troupe. We went on line and ordered a pair of tickets. These were among the last tickets available for the Tuesday night performance. The following morning we would be at the airport, saying goodbye to Australia. This event would be our way to give Sydney the chance to shine for us as it hadn't until now. When we signed in for this last night in a caravan park, the proprietor asked if we'd enjoyed our stay in Sydney. I told her about all the detours our GPS took us on. She thought it was a shame her partner George (he and I have the same birthday) hadn't properly informed us when we first arrived on the 15^th about the wonderful public transportation package Sydney has to offer. All the buses, trains and ferries are covered, like in Singapore, by this package. If we had only known this when we first arrived in Sydney, our impression of this city would have been more upbeat. Oh, well! Next time we'll know.