Travel With Rithu

It was around 6:00 in a winter morning in July when me and my parents woke up lazily from the hotel bed, then, we realized that we had to get ready for our day trip to the Blue Mountains in the outskirts of Sydney, Australia!

My mind was filled with questions that were waiting to be answered during the trip. Then we started to get ready, and after an average breakfast, we headed towards the lobby of the hotel. Our hotel, the Fullerton hotel, was a heritage building that used to be the Sydney general post office around 150 years ago. Within about 10 minutes, we were on our way towards the Blue Mountains in a van after picking up the last family that was also in our group tour. After a few minutes, I had a question that had been pestering me ever since my mind got filled up with questions. The question was, why is the Blue Mountains called the Blue Mountains? When I researched, I found out that the Blue Mountains get their name from the special, foggy blue tint that hangs over the landscape when viewed from a distance. This vision is caused by the vast forests of eucalyptus trees in the region. The Blue Mountains is about 90 minutes away from the city, but it didn’t seem that long for me as I fell asleep during the drive. But before I went to sleep, our tour guide gave us a short and interesting narration about the history of the parts of Australia that we were driving along, and when he could, he also told a bit about what it was like in his childhood, the time when he and his family had to migrate to Australia from his home country, China.

After one hour, we had reached the entrance to the lookout in the mountains. Before getting off the van, our guide told us that if we are lucky, we might be able to find some Cockatoo birds. When we did see the birds, I saw that Cockatoos are white birds with few yellow feathers sticking out of their head.

After the Cockatoos flew off, we went towards the lookout. It was quite cold on the high mountains. Anyway, after reading a few information boards around the lookout, we found out that the lookout platform we were standing on was actually for looking at the ‘Three Sisters’ which were three huge rocks standing together. In my opinion, they looked like nothing but rocks themselves. They didn’t look a bit like girls. Only one among them looked like a face just because there was a nose and lips.

After taking few selfies and pics of us with the Three Sisters, we went back to the van. We then had to wait a bit for the rest of our group to come back. After about 6 minutes, our group mates came back. Seeing that, our tour guide announced that we were going to go to a fun place called the Scenic World!. When he said that there will also be some rides, my heart jumped with joy! I imagined myself and my parents riding in roller coasters and screaming with joy along with a beautiful view of a billion trees in rows (at least that is what I saw on the way).

But my dreams were shattered when I looked at the map our tour guide had just given us. It showed that there are only 3 rides in the whole park! Along with that, two rides in the park are ones that I don’t quite like, which are, cable cars. The names of them were Scenic Skyway and Scenic Cableway. I don’t like cable cars because riding in it makes my ears close and then pop which hurts. But still, I know it’s fun to be mid air with a beautiful view of a billion trees lined up on valleys. But besides that, the 3rd ride immediately caught my attention. The name of the ride was Scenic Railway. The reason why that ride made me get high hopes again was because I saw a carriage going vertically (almost) up and down on a rail that goes straight down! At least, it looked like that with a 52° incline. Still, I knew it was the best ride I have ever seen! The Scenic Railway holds a record in the Guinness World Records for being the steepest passenger railway in the world! Along with the map, our tour guide also gave us a band to attach on our wrists.

The Scenic World wasn’t that far away from the lookout, just 2 or 3 minutes by car. When we reached the parking area, we saw 2 entrances to the rides. One was crowded with people, and the other one was not that crowded. Seeing that, our guide told us to wait for him in 2nd entrance. After taking our coats (it’s cold in Australia as it is winter now) and cameras, we all as a group headed towards the entrance. There were small chairs inside for us to sit on while we were waiting. When our guide came in, he told us to look at the maps he had given us. Each ride was represented by a color. Here are the colors which represents each ride.

Scenic Railway – Red

Scenic Skyway – Yellow

Scenic Cableway – Blue

He also informed us that we had to return at 1:00pm if we wanted to join him for lunch. Others who didn’t want, he would come and pick us up after lunch. By the time our guide left us there it was around 11:00 pm.

The first ride we decided to go to was the Scenic Railway, as I could barely wait to ride on that one and also because our guide gave us an itinerary for which rides would best to ride first to last. The itinerary is shown below.

1. Our guide recommended to first ride the Scenic Railway as we get the best experience going downwards.
2. Afterwards, we can walk through the Lillipilli Link and then board the Scenic Cableway to ride back up to the platform.
3. Then, we can board the Scenic Skyway to ride straight to the Three Sisters lookout that we went to just before we came to the Scenic World Park.
4. Finally, after spending some time there, we can board the Scenic Skyway again and ride towards the platform, and take a short walk to the parking lot.
   

Before joining the queue to the Scenic Railway, we had to scan a bar code on a scanner to get through the turnstiles. I thought that it might take a very long time to reach the front. But it took less than 5 minutes to get to the long carriage. There are 3 modes: laidback, original, and cliffhanger.

When we boarded the carriage, all three of us sat on a bench. Also, beside the huge window, there was a small switch. When I pressed it upwards, our bench began to tilt backwards! My mom let out a little cry as she got startled. After a bit of testing with that feature, the driver declared that he is going to start the ride and we better hold on tight on the rail in front of all of us. Hearing that, we began preparing for the ride when suddenly the carriage zoomed down on top speed! Every, single passenger began screaming, yelling, and shrieking, either out of excitement, or fear! My mom was doing all 3 of those, but she still held on to her phone, where she was taking a video of the whole experience! We also went through a dark cave, full of rocks, except where the rail was for the carriage to move on.

After hearing lots of screaming, yelling, and shrieking, the carriage slowly slowed down and the ride ended with a loud squeak. Then, the curved doors which looked like normal windows during the ride, opened and everyone immediately started to walk out. But me and my parents took a minute. I got the feeling that we usually get after or during a loop in a roller coaster. My ears also closed and popped, and I guess my parents also felt similar feelings too.

We then decided to go to the Scenic Cableway. To reach the Scenic Cableway Base Station from the Scenic Railway Base Station, we have to walk a bit through the Lillipilli Link. During the walk, we saw a big cave. On one of the information boards, it said that long time ago coal and gold miners used to mine in this cave. It even said that most of the rocks are even older than the Jurassic Period!

When we reached the Scenic Cableway Base Station, we then had to repeat the same steps to join the queue as we did for the Scenic Railway. It took a bit longer to reach the front, but that was okay for us. Normally, in cable cars, one single family or person would get a whole cable car for themselves. But this is different. When we were almost at the front, a person came to scan our wrist bands with a small, portable scanner. They did the same thing to the people in front of us. Afterwards, a group of people along with us boarded the Scenic Cableway. It is a much more bigger cable car than the normal ones. It has lots of seats and holds more than 20 people! Also, surprisingly, my ears didn’t hurt at all during the ride! I was pretty happy about that! We got an absolute amazing view of the mountains full of eucalyptus trees and we even spotted the Katoomba Falls, which is very thin if you ask me.The driver of the cable car shared a few facts about the Scenic Cableway for example, the Scenic Cableway is 656 feet above Jamison Valley.

After reaching the platform, we stepped out of the cable car and walked through the gift shop, to the queue. The queue to the ride was much more longer than expected. It took forever to board the ride, and when we did, the first thing we saw were the steps that led us on an opaque platform. Upon seeing this, I thought it was just a higher platform for shorter people to look over the taller people who were blocking them from seeing the view. But my assumption was wrong. When the ride started, what once was an opaque platform turned into a transparent platform! Suddenly, the people who were standing on the platform gave out little cries! I was excited and wanted to get on the platform, but it was too crowded. “Never mind.”, I thought to myself. “I can go on next time.”
For the Scenic Skyway, we were riding on a yellow cable car. The only differences between the cable cars for the Scenic Cableway and Scenic Skyway was in size and shape. There are also open windows in the Scenic Skyway cable car, from where we can get fresh air as well.

By the time reached the Three Sisters lookout, we realized that we had nothing to do there. Also, the time was almost 1:00, so we had to join the queue again or else we wouldn’t make it in time.

The queue we joined did not keep us waiting for that long. The queue was crowded, but when the Scenic Skyway cable car arrived, the driver allowed more than 3/4 of the queue to board! This time, I made sure that I got a spot on the transparent platform. It was amazing! It felt both scary and exciting to see trees under my own two feet!I also experienced the pleasure of watching the valley through the open window, the wind touching my face gently as we move slowly along the zip line. By the time we reached the platform, it was almost 1:00 and we were hungry as well. We took a short walk around the gift shop and went to the parking lot. I guess we were just in time, as we reached there just when my dad’s and mom’s phones said 1:00.

After eating a scrumptious lunch, we stopped at a park where I ate an ice cream from an ice cream shop which is famous in Instagram. At the same park, we saw some Cockatoos eating seeds which were scattered in the ground. Seeing that, I picked up a few seeds from the ground and lowered my hand down.

Then, a Cockatoo came next to me and started to eat the seeds from my hand. Suddenly, it got a bit more greedy and bit my finger! I let out a small cry and rubbed my poor finger. Luckily there was no wound to be seen, but it still hurt! After that incident, I gave up on feeding the birds. I hopped into the van with the rest of the group, and fell asleep during the ride to home.