Down Under Day 20 The Blue Mountains

It was now nearing the end of my trip, but I really wanted to visit the Blue Mountains before I left for home, so Barbara and I booked for a tour and invited another of my Aussie cousins, Lee to join us.
We were picked up in the city by minibus with  7 others and then headed off to the Olympic Park where we had arranged to pick up Lee.

Calm before the storm

The park was remarkably quiet, but it would be heaving the next night when the British & Irish Lions were playing the Wallabies in the final test match of the tour, as I would find out because I had a ticket for the game.
We picked up Lee and had a bizarre family reunion in the back of the bus as Lee and I had never met before. We hit it off straight away though and both have said since that it is if we've known each other all our lives.
We now headed off to the mountains about an hours drive west of Sydney. Our driver and guide, Greg was a mine of information about Australian history and environment. We made a stop on the highway to see some Eastern Grey Kangaroo's. I had seen these smaller cousins of the reds on my birding trip to Newcastle a couple of weeks before but not had the opportunity to take photo's.
These were living wild in the compound of a military establishment.

Eastern Grey Kangaroo

We now pressed on for our first stop, the bonus of being in a minibus is that we could get to view points that the larger tour buses couldn't, so it was pretty quiet when we parked up and walked up to see the view.

It was now time for some lunch so we were taken to Leura, a small town in the mountains and the three of us went off to get something to eat and have a chat

Leura

After lunch we were taken to Echo Point over to see the Three sisters, the iconic rock formation.

The Three Sisters

Whenever you see photos of this you imagine its in the middle of nowhere, not so ! and when you turn the photo around you can see this circus going on behind you.

Echo Point

We then made our way back home but were given the option of catching the ferry down the Parramatta River to Sydney which Barbara and I opted for. We said our goodbyes to Lee who we would see again on Sunday and caught the ferry. We had chosen this option because we wanted to eat in the city that night.

We arrived at circular quay at around 5pm and after making a booking for a waterfront restaurant went to the Lord Nelson for a drink.

It was filled to the brim with Lions fans who had invaded the city in the last two days from Melbourne. We had a quick drink and then went to the restaurant for our meal. This was my first taste of Sydney at night and I just had to take more pictures of the Bridge and Opera House.

After a lovely, if expensive meal Barbara and made our way home, tired but happy.