To Bed, Perchance to Sleep?

After spending a couple of hours in Broken Hill, it was back to the train for a late dinner.  The staff had to wait until we all returned back before Dinner Service could get underway – they certainly work hard, on their feet all day, are always pleasant and greet us with a smile.  The room was converted into two bunks while we were dining, with a little choccie each!  Our last night aboard was the roughest of the trip, talk about “shake, rattle and roll” as the train continued eastwards.  Robin drew the short straw and had to clamber up the ladder each night, lucky him.

Our cabin is now a bunk room

The last day aboard was another reasonably early morning start as we had to be in the Queen Adelaide Restaurant Car by 7.00.  We couldn’t go past the Big Breakfast on the menu.  All the guests commented how it had been such a rough night of travel, except Robin, who said he slept the night through.  Then it was back to the cabin to organise our bags.

Just finished our breakfast

A coach was waiting for us at when we left the train at Mt Victoria Station to drive to the Blue Mountains.  The train continued on the Sydney, carrying our bags away, and hopefully we would all be reconciled later in the day.  We arrived at the pretty little town of Katoomba, stopping several times along the way for photo opportunities.

The greater Blue Mountains Area, an area of 1 million hectares of ancient and spectacular national park and wilderness,  is now part of the globally-recognised UNESCO World Heritage List.  Our bus load of passengers were visiting Scenic World and the guides were ready and waiting for us.  Scenic World run their operation in the National Park and offer three exciting rides for visitors.  We stepped onto the glass bottomed Scenic Skyway which glided 270m above the Jamison Valley – don’t look down if you have a nervous disposition!.

Scenic Skyway

Next we waited our turn to climb aboard the Scenic Railway, (actually a cable car).  At a 52 degree incline, the Scenic Railway is the steepest passenger train in the world.  Each seat had it’s own entrance, so we filed down the steps and settled down for the ride.  It was up and over the edge, and whoosh - straight down, hanging on for dear life!

Steepest in the world when it goes over the edge!

Down on the forest floor we walked along the boardwalk, hoping to get a glimpse of the elusive Lyre bird, but no luck with that.  What we did discover was that coal mining was done in this beautiful area in earlier years, and there is a statue based on one of the miners and his pit pony.

Paying homage to the miners and their ponies

Our last ride of the morning was the Scenic Cableway, Australia’s biggest cable car which can carry up to 84 people.  This took us 545m from the valley floor to the top of the escarpment.

Scenic Cableway

We got a great view of the iconic Three Sisters from here.  According to the Aboriginal legend the three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and 'Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe.  These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry.  The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle.  As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come.

The three sisters

With our Scenic World adventures over, it was off to Echo Point.  Our lunch companions were fellow train passengers from Christchurch, whom we hadn't met before. 

Lunch at Echo Point

The bus then dropped us off at Katoomba Station where we sat in the sunshine as we waited for the arrival of our charter train to take us into Sydney.  Two hours later we arrived in the Big Smoke to find our bags on the platform, well guarded and arranged in carriage numbers, ready to uplift.

So our four day, three night Indian Pacific adventure had come to an end, and we had really enjoyed the trip.  The off train excursions were great, and we got to see and experience so much.  As for the onboard meals, just delicious.  Every meal, even breakfast, came with several choices on the menu.  And we got to try foods we had not previously encountered, Jew fish, beef cheeks, camel curry and kangaroo!  Would we do it all again sometime – you bet!