The Blue Mountains


We ventured out of Sydney for the weekend and spent it up in the Blue Mountains. We stayed in an Airbnb in Leura. Brooke and her family came and we shared a house for the weekend. It was the perfect set up. The adults had their rooms, and the kids shared a room. The kid's room had a bunk bed and two single beds. Two kids had to double up, but I think one ended up in their parent's room anyway, so everyone had their own bed. 

I loved the house we stayed in. Not that it was super nice, but it worked for our needs. It was fully equipped, and the back yard was awesome. There was a fire pit where we roasted marshmallows for smores, told ghost stories, and played some night games. There was a crazy game of duck, duck, goose! that took place. It was a good time. 



We spent one day checking out the Jenolan Caves. It was the most stressful outing I think Lyndon and I have ever taken the kids one. First thing that made it bad was, Cosette did not get her shoes. She had her socks on and went out the door without her shoes. She's five and I figured that since she went and got into the car she had her shoes on. No sir-ee. So I ended up carrying her in the ergo on my back during the hike through the caves. All three of the kids were super cranky and whining and it was just really stressful outing. 



The cave that we explored was really cool. Tons of stalagmites and stalactites. The tour guide was very patient with the children and involved them a lot. I appreciated that. It was enjoyable, we just had to ignore the whines of our lovely, adorable children. 






Sweet William and Cosette shoe-less.

Rapha's smile in this gives me heart eyes.

 We had several things on our Blue Mountains bucket list, and we did two out of three. The next thing Lyndon, Cosette and Raphael did was to see the rock formation called The Three Sisters. Henry and I were in the car asleep, haha. I was so tired I feel asleep and for the life of me could not wake up. Lyndon was a rock star dad took Cosette and Raphael to see it. You did not have to hike up to it. We parked and then walked to the look out, well Lyndon, C, and R did at least. I am kicking myself now that I could not pull myself out of my sleep and go and see it, just because we will probably not make it back, but oh well. A girl has got to get her beauty sleep sometime. I also wanted to hike to Wentworth Falls, but our kids were not having it and Lyndon and I were too exhausted to do it. Brooke and her boys did it. Here is her post about the hike. After reading her post I wish we had done it. Guess we will just have to go back. 


Cosette was not impressed. 

My favorite part of that day was seeing all the wildlife. We saw Grey Kangaroos, Swamp Wallabies, an echidna, lots of dead wombats, cockatoos, and Crimson Rosellas. It was incredible. The first kangaroo we saw,  we found out later was a Swamp Wallaby, was hanging out on the side of the road. We could pull off, so we did and took pictures because we are tourists and were totally going to stop and check out this animal. It jumped right up to our car, and around it. Once it got a little distance from the car Lyndon got out to see it better, but then it started jumping back towards us and he jumped in the car. We have had a lot of encounters with wild animals that feel to comfortable with humans that we do not take our chances. It was so cool! Once we saw that one, there were a lot just hanging out close to the road. 

 On the way back from the caves we were driving, I was looking out the window and saw something that looked like a hedge hog. I told Lyndon to immediately stop. I got out of the car with the camera and ran back to check out the echinda! I was so excited to see one. It is one of two mammals that lays eggs in the world, the other one is a platypus. Lyndon reversed the car back to where I was, parked on the wrong side of the road, got out as well as, climbed up the hill and followed it back to its burrow taking pics. Lots of people honked at us, and some nice person told us to f off, haha. We were rude and could care less because we were observing an echinda in its natural habitat. Kangaroos are really common in Australia. They are like White Tailed Deer in Tennessee, they are every where! As we drove back to our house we saw hundreds of Grey Kangaroos in herds just hanging out . It was so a really incredible experience getting to witness that. 


It's hidey-hole. 
Two Crimson Rosellas that landed right in front of where we were sitting. The birds in Australia are so beautiful. 


This boy cannot wait till he can drive. I can though. I am not ready for Henry out on the road. 

The next morning we took the kids and check out Leura. It is a super charming town with fun shops. We got some local food at a bakery. Meat pies are pretty popular there. We tried a Kangaroo meat pie. It was really good. It was fun checking out the shops. Humans are so talented. There were a lot of pottery, and wood shops where everything was made by local artists or carpenters from the area. We are really talented creatures. 

The Blue Mountains made me think of my home in East Tennessee. We have the Blue Ridge Mountains, and it made me a little bit closer to my roots being in the Blue Mountains. 

Comments

  1. I still cannot believe that you spotted the echinda from your car. I love that you guys followed him to his burrow... soo cool. We missed that on the drive home. And I think it's cool that you got to really spend some time in Leura. It's such a fun town and we haven't been able to do that yet.

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    1. Brooke, I have a problem. I am always looking for animals where ever we go. I was on the watch. Wish you guys could have seen it too, and seen us being super ridiculous tourists, haha. You and Stan should go up by yourselves for a weekend, or take a babysitter with you so you can go out and do some things that the kids might not enjoy. It's a really charming place.

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