Indian Pacific Railway Journey V Blue Mountains (8/27/2025)

Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with Hot Smoked Trout
on toasted rye sourdough with grilled tomato and spinach

Another Breakfast: Fresh Berries and Seasonal Fruit
with native blossom honey syrup and mascarpone
on toasted crumpets

We traveled into the Blue Mountains, so called because of
the fine blue mist of oil from the eucalyptus trees

Disembarked the Indian Pacific train at Mount Victoria Station for a short motor coach ride to Scenic World in Katoomba.

Scenic World features three means of transportation

We started with the Scenic Skyway (1958 as Australia's
first cable car), the largest aerial cable car in the
Southern Hemisphere providing 360-degree views of the
escarpment, Three Sisters, Katoomba Falls & Mount Solitary

Heading toward the Jamison Valley escarpment

Um, pouring rain...

Looking down through the glass floor
of the gondola

Katoomba Falls drops in segments
230 m/755'

The Blue Mountains behind Orphan Rock, a sandstone
pillar that stands alone in front of the escarpment

Jamison Valley has pockets of semi-rainforest
as indicated by the tree ferns

From the top of the escarpment, we took
the Scenic Railway, the steepest
passenger railway in the world

It's hard to see that the railway takes
a sudden dive over the edge at
a 52-degree angle 

This is what the railway cars were 73 years ago

The railway was originally built to
carry miners down into the valley

View of the Three Sisters, the iconic trio of sandstone
pillars that symbolize three sisters from an Indigenous myth
who were turned to stone by their father to protect them

Solitary Mountain

Tamiko with coal mining cars along
the Scenic Walkway in the rainforest (KSS)

Sculpture (2001, by Terrance Plowright) of a Welsh
miner and his pit pony

Katoomba Coal Mine (1878) entrance,
which is now pretty well reinforced;
yet no entry allowed

Looking up the escarpment

We were lucky to see the Menura novaehollandiae/
Superb Lyrebird

Scenic Walkway

Oops, site of a rockslide in 2024

In the bottom third of the photo are
metallic railings of the destroyed walkway

Next we took the Scenic Cableway back up the
escarpment, passing Orphan Rock

Umm, raining again...

Another view of the Three Sisters

Another view of Solitary Mountain

The Scenic Cableway gondola

After lunch, I went out in driving rain to a closer
viewpoint for the Three Sisters, resulting in my
being completely drenched and having my umbrella
break when it was whipped inside out

So we explored the gift shop with cute plush
animals that we would not see in real life!

Oh, here are some we would see!

They eat the propolis here,
not just the honey

We had a charter train to take us from Katoomba
to the Sydney Central Station, and the end of our journey

Our room at Youth Hostel Association/YHA Sydney Central

Adequate facilities

Our ensuite bathroom

Kent went to do laundry, and when it was time for drying, he tried every dryer in the building and none worked! We laid clothes out on the bed and turned up the air conditioning.

Next: Cairns.