Australia, cont.

(I've had this post sitting as a draft in my account for months. I figure it was time to hit publish and get back to blogging.)

On Monday we took a tour to the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney. It was a perfect and fun day. Neil had really been looking forward to this, as he likes the outside adventure stuff more than the touristy walk through the city stuff. We went to the Jamison Valley to walk through the rainforest at the site of an abandoned mine. We rode a cable car and the steepest railroad in the world to get down to the floor. The views were stunning with mountains, rainforest, and waterfalls. You can see the Three Sisters from this valley and another lookout that we went to later on.

The Three Sisters

Here's the cable car going back up the mountain. You can see the Three Sisters in the background.

 We went to an aboriginal cultural center and saw a brief performance of dance and music. The men all participated in the kangaroo dance. Neil was way better than anyone else up there.

The not-on-the-official-tour lookout that our guide took us to anyway. No guardrails equals way better views.

The tour guide took everyone's picture at this spot. He looked like he was going to fall off the mountain as he sandwiched himself between a few rocks and leaned out over the edge to get the good shots.

And we stopped at a nature center where there were fuzzy marsupials which is all Neil ever wanted anyway.

A wallaby with her joey

And me with a koala!

If you ever go to Australia, I'd highly recommend this tour. It's the only one we took because we're not really tour group kind of people but it was really great. Thanks Melissa for recommending!