Before we actually went to Sydney proper, we skirted around the north side of Sydney and headed about an hour and half west to the Blue Mountain National Park area for a couple of days. Again, we had read it was a nice area to do some hiking but we were pleasantly surprised by the beauty to be found in this area.
Three Sisters
One of the more famous and accessible places to visit is the Three Sisters which are three rock pillar formations in this large canyon which the girls dubbed the Green Grand Canyon. You used to be able to take a short little bridge onto one of the pillars, but there was some damage to the structure and that was closed.
Grand Canyon Hike
Our favourite hike though was the Grand Canyon loop hike. It was about 6km long and about 1000 steps but pretty magical. You ended up hiking down into this deep canyon with lots of little waterfalls and a completely different ecosystem. The path was really well kept up and it ended at Evans Lookout with a great view of the valley the narrower canyon empties into.
The top is definitely dryer and has more eucalyptus trees and scraggy bushes. There was also evidence of bush fires in the area.
As you got deeper, it changed into this lush rainforest type of environment with lots of ferns and moss and moisture everywhere.
The path meandered along the bottom and up along the edge of the canyon walls. They used carved rocks as stepping stones vs bridges and even carved steps into big boulders.
What goes down must come back up!
And back to the top with the completely different ecosystem. Quite the contrast.
Evans Lookout. The canyon we came out of is down and to the right.
Sydney Harbour Bridge
From the Blue Mountains we headed into Sydney and stayed down close to the harbour for two nights. We enjoyed walking around in the botanical garden by the Sydney Opera House and took a walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Manley Beach
Before we had our surprise visit of the Australian YA in the Gold Coast, we had already set up a lunch time with her and her family at Manley Beach which we took a ferry through the harbour to reach. It gave great views of the Sydney Opera House.
Lovely lunch with this family!
Sydney Opera House
It had been a while since we had been to an orchestra concert and we were thrilled to attend an amazing concert at the Sydney Opera House. There was a really good composition premiered by a young Australian composer, and then Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Bernstein’s West Side Story which are such fun pieces with loads of interesting percussion. The outside architecture is pretty unique but so is the concert hall itself in that it completely wrapped around the orchestra. We ended up sitting on the side, pretty close to the orchestra which was a fun experience (especially with that much percussion and a piano soloist!).
