Sydney and the Blue Mountains

Above is a map showing the route of our flight. Total distance was 7,417 miles.

By a miracle of miracles, United Airlines was on time. Immigration was a happy breeze for us. Our Uber ride brought us to our central Sydney hotel before 10:30 am.

The second miracle was that there was a room for us at that early arrival time. Our hotel is adjacent to Hyde Park. After unpacking and cleaning up, we decided to walk for a bit under a mile in the direction of Circular Quay. We wandered around and checked out the ferry boats and a huge cruise ship. There were also wonderful views of the Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge. We had visited the inside of the Opera House back in 2005 (on our first trip to Sydney), so we did not go inside today.

Harbor (or Harbour) Bridge above (with climbers visible between the flags); Opera House and Circular Quay, below.

Here’s a local ferry leaving Circular Quay.

From there, we found an upscale food court where we had some tasty Chinese dumplings for lunch. We then walked about 15 minutes to the Hyde Park Barracks, one of the history museums in New South Wales (and one of 11 total World Heritage Convict Sites in the country). The visit was conducted by audio tour using a specially calibrated iPod that worked automatically as we moved from one section to another. The main building is shown below.

The narration traced the history of the site, built in the early 19th century, through three different eras. The first was a barracks for convicts brought to Australia from the United Kingdom. The treatment of the convicts was dreadful and the terrible conditions of the facility were horrifying. We learned that from 1787 to 1868 over 166,000 convicts (not just men, but also women and children) were transported to Australia as “forced migration” by the British Government. Even worse was the treatment of Aboriginal natives. Here is the text from a placard we saw in Tasmania later in the trip:

“The Aborigines were angered that the white invaders did not leave. Instead, thousands more came. They took the best Aboriginal hunting grounds to graze their sheep and killed their main food source, kangaroos and emus. Conflict erupted, with Aboriginal warriors and convict stock-keepers attacking each other, while the colony's officers and gentlemen became wealthy from selling meat to the Commissariat Store and wool to Manchester in England. As sheep and cattle overran the country and kangaroos were killed, Aboriginal life became increasingly difficult. They fought the invasion of their land. This war of survival and attrition became known as the Black War.”

In the mid-19th century, the purpose of the Hyde Park Barracks changed to house immigrant women, many of who came from Ireland. These women stayed at the Barracks for short periods of time, while seeking employment. Many eventually found work as servants or in other occupations. In its final period, the Barracks was used as a sanatorium. The tour was very well done. We were surprised we had missed this museum on two prior trips to Sydney.

When we left the Barracks site, we walked by St James Church, the construction of which had been described in the museum.  After a short rest at our hotel, we walked around the central business district for a while. When we returned we had drinks at the top of our hotel overlooking Hyde Park. 

View of Hyde Park from our hotel.

January 29, 2026

We walked about 15 minutes from the hotel to the car rental office to pick up a car we will have for one day. Once we got the car, we headed out of Sydney to the Blue Mountains, a national park that is a UNESCO site. The drive of 105 km (63 miles) took about 90 minutes and included travel through a six mile long tunnel to get out of Sydney. We climbed to an elevation of over one thousand meters to reach the park. Once we reached the Blue Mountain town of Katoomba, we visited Scenic World, which is a tourist site providing three modes of transportation to explore this area of the Blue Mountains.

First, we rode the Scenic Skyway, which is a horizontal cable car that travels 270 meters above the valley to the opposite cliff side. There is a glass panel in the floor allowing views of the valley below. During the trip, there were views of Katoomba Falls on one side and the rock formation called Three Sisters on the other side. Unfortunately, the Three Sisters were not well lit by sunlight at that time of day. However, Orphan Rock across the valley had bright sunshine and was beautiful.

Skyway and photo of Katoomba Falls taken on the Ride.

Above photos show one lookout and Orphan Rock.

The train in upper station and video from lower station.

Below, left, is a view looking up at the cable car.

Three views from the Echo Point viewing area. Below is close up of Three Sisters.

We then drove about ten minutes to the eastern side of Katoomba, where we parked and took a short stroll to see the Boar’s Head and Cahill’s lookouts. The views here were among the best we’ve had so far, and we were the only visitors. Here is a view of the Boar’s Head formation.

Our final stop was about a 25-minute drive back in the direction of Sydney. We parked the car at the Wentworth Falls picnic area which offers access to numerous hiking trails. We walked first along the top of the cliff to the Wentworth Falls “lookout.” However, it was not accurately named, because we couldn’t really see the falls, just the river above them. So we then climbed down to the Princes Rock, which promised a good view of the Falls, and it delivered. The waterfall has several different cascades, and we could see people swimming in one pool as well as the very steep staircase leading to the bottom of the falls (the trailhead was across the valley). It was a hot and sweaty 230 stairs down and 230 stairs back up, but well worth the effort as a cap off to our visit to the Blue Mountains.

Wentworth Falls seen from Princes Rock.

Here is a map of the areas we visited in Sydney and the Blue Mountains. Zoom in for more detail.

We then drove about back to our hotel in Sydney, where we had dinner with a friend. We will spend one more  night in Sydney before taking an early flight tomorrow to Hobart to start our two plus weeks in Tasmania.