Monday, April 28, 2008

Cold, Blue Mountains

Yesterday, we toured the Blue Mountains, so named because of the thousands and thousands of Eucalyptus trees found there. The oil they produce hangs in the air and makes them appear quite blue from a distance. Our tour guide also tried to convince us that the wind blows in and blows all the dust away. I’m not sure how much stock I put in that explanation, though. Regardless, it really is incredible. We looked across several valleys that were just so blue. And different shades of blue. Some darker and some lighter.

The very tall sandstone cliffs add to the beauty of the mountains. The cliffs, combined with the greens and blues of the trees, make a stunning contract in textures and colors. It would be really fun to come back here some time and be able to stay longer, hike, etc.

The top picture is the Three Sisters. It’s a classic image of the Blue Mountains. Aboriginal legend states that a medicine man was tasked with fighting an evil beast and in order to protect his three daughters while he was away, he changed them in to stone. He did kill the beast, but not before being changed in to an animal himself and losing his ability to turn the girls back into humans again. Thus, the Three Sisters are still visible today.
When planning what to pack for this trip, I contemplated the weather, expecting it to be in the 70s most of the time, with cooler days and evenings in the 60s. That’s what weather.com told me, anyway. So, we were a little unprepared for the SNOW that hit us in the Blue Mountains. The high temp was no more than 46, with probably a wind chill in the 30s (strong, biting wind) and snow/sleet flurries on a couple of occasions. I even purchased gloves at one of the gift stores to keep my hands warm. Chalk that up to another dumb traveling decision: I even brought gloves with me, thinking I might need them at the pool if I were cold and wet, but of course I left them in my suitcase at the hotel yesterday morning. Oh well!
You can sort of see the different shades of blue in this photo. Imagine a whole valley that blue.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.