On the 3rd day in Sydney, we had a planned tour group to the Blue Mountains. We woke up early went down the stairs of our hotel and were greeted by the person running the tour. We then went to the tour bus and had an hour trip to the Blue Mountains. During the long ride, we were told some of the stories about it.

The Blue Mountains are a big attraction of Sydney as it was where, when explorers and settlers arrived by sea, they used mountains as a natural barrier to prevent the prisoners escaping.

The mountain range includes three smaller mountains on the edge of the ridge which are special in aboriginal dream-time legend. There are two legends about the three sisters and we were told about these on our trip.

The legends consist of the three sisters named Meenhi, Wimlah and Gunnedoo. In one version of the tale they were young maidens that lived in Jasmin valley as part of the Katoomba tribe. They had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, however, marriage between the tribes was forbidden. The brothers were warriors and decided to take them by force. Which then caused a tribal battle. As the sisters were in danger, a witch doctor from the Katoomba tribe turned them to stone to protect them. The witch doctor's plan was to free them after the battle, but he got killed and nobody has been able to break the spell since. So the sisters sit on the mountainside and look over the valley.

The alternative legend is of the three sisters who had a witch doctor as their father named Tywan. There was a Bunyip that lived in its hole and was very dangerous. Passing its den was very risky so whenever Tywan needed to pass it he would leave his daughters behind safely on the cliffside. He needed to go by the hole in order to gather food so he waved goodbye to his daughters and went off. Meanwhile, at the top of the cliff, Meenhi was frightened by a large centipede so Meenhi took a stone and threw it at the centipede. The stone then bounced off and went down the cliff below towards the Bunyip. It woke the Bunyip up and the angered Bunyip headed up the cliffside to the sisters, Tywan noticed it going towards them and to protect them using his magic bone he turned them to stone. This angered the bunyip more and it trapped him. In order to flee Tywan turned himself into the magnificent Lyrebird and fled, but in the process, he dropped the bone. Once the Bunyip had left, Tywan returned to look for his bone to restore him and his daughters, but it was never found and to this day he still looks for it.

Once story time was over we arrived at Echo Point where we had an hour to look around. Here, I found out the mountains were not actually blue, which was a bit disappointing, but they have a blueish glow to them due to the eucalyptus trees and their oil. I got to see the three sisters and if you were quick you could walk down and even touch the sisters in the short time we were there. However, I missed this opportunity as I did not head down and took photos from the top.

From Echo Point, we headed to the main Scenic World area for the Blue Mountains. We first went over the skywalk then down to the nearby waterfall, seeing some amazing views. From the waterfall, we headed back across the skywalk then down a train line leading to the bottom of the mountain. This is the steepest railway line and quite thrilling to ride on.

I didn't get many photos down at the bottom of the railway as the tree cover made it quite dark and we were in a bit of a hurry. We walked around a bit then headed back up using the railway once more, this time travelling backwards, which was very interesting. Suddenly we were out of time and heading back with the tour group to our next destination, which was a nearby zoo.

From the zoo, we headed to a nearby ferry, took it back to the main city and walked back to the hotel. When we on the ferry the view was amazing. We got to see the sunset as we were going under the harbour bridge and by the opera house.

It was a whirlwind tour and would have been nicer to take at a slower pace, but I'm glad we got to see something.