Day 15 - Blue Mountains and Featherdale Wildlife Park

Today, we get to see the amazing views of the famous Blue Mountains of Australia, then see some wildlife up close and personal at the Wildlife Park followed by a night at the ballet...

Things did not start well, it was cold and wet once again...

Play 'Misty' for me...

Descending the steepest railway in the world, it was really pretty steep - more like a funfair ride really.

The Descent

 Looking out across Jurassic Park, I mean Middle Earth... no, the Blue Mountains National Park.

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You kind of expect a lost tribe or dinosaur to cross the tracks at any moment. 

To be honest, we were walking along densely enclosed walkways, so the rain and mist didn't really stop us seeing what was there - too much.

Well, ok - sometimes it meant we couldn't see as much as we were expecting...

Ummm... yes, this was the view from the famous point where you can see the wonderful mountains with their blue colour caused by the haze coming off the trees... except we could see nothing.

This disappointment was compounded by the lack of anything Karen could easily eat that she actually wanted to eat... even the soup was 'off'...

Hungry, cold and a little demoralised we headed off to the Wildlife Park. Here we made a beeline for the cafe, but not without pausing to snap some of the little cuties they had on show.

Red-necked pademelon

At the cafe we found sustenance in the form of Mrs Macs meat pies and some startlingly good chips. The chips were so good, the birdlife was mad for them & this one managed to get in and spear the biggest one!

Having feasted on pie and chips we were able to wander around and see, touch (and smell!) some of Australia's fauna.

Frog-mouthed Owls

A lot of things were roaming around 'free' (mostly kangaroo-type things) and others were in pens where you could reach in and touch them.

I stroked a Wombat, a Quokka and a couple of 'roos. Not the Koala - they stink.

Another thing that stinks - Little Penguins. They also do big 'poo-slicks'... which is why I used this photo, not the other one I took.

You do not touch these bad boys... Tasmanian Devil. Looks kinda cute here but I think they are the inspiration for the ROUS's in The Princess Bride (apart from the tail).

Let sleeping devils lie

 A rock wallaby - easy to spot... in captivity though.

Not a rock lobster

Looks cute and just like the family pet, just don't leave him alone with the kids! 

Babies, I probably COULD eat a whole one...

 More easily spotted examples of things we were hoping to see in the wild. 

Tick tock, tick tock

After a somewhat disappointing day, we got our glad-rags on and headed down to the SOH for a bit of mime-dancing by men in tights and extremely skinny women...

Ooh, glam!

Karen loved the ballet and I was very impressed by the skill, stamina and talent of the cast and the spectacular costumes and sets. 

After the show

On the way in, the area was rammed with people all dressed in white, carrying white tables and chairs. Turns out there was a 'Diner en blanc' event going on in at the bottom of the steps in front of the SOH. It was quite late by the time we got out of the ballet but the whole area was still jammed with people and there was a DJ pumping out some tunes.

A great end to an average day.