A Trip to the Blue Mountains
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Yesterday, we hiked in the Grand Canyon of the Blue Mountains about two hours from Sydney. This is one hardy crowd of students! It was cold and brutally windy at times but as we descended into the canyon,the high winds subsided, although we could hear the wind whistling above us in the higher altitudes of the rocks. Scrubby eucalyptus trees gave way to a rain forest environment, and we walked through several streams as we continued our descent. More singing and laughing ensued!
Our two guides pointed out botanical points of interest and gave us ecological lessons, as did Dr. Jessica Braswell, our own faculty Biologist. Dr. Frederick somehow managed to connect the material to Plato.
HIking in the Blue Mountains
What goes down must go up, when you are hiking, and all of that descent turned into a challenging ascent to climb out of the canyon. So much for being cold! We all made it to the top and piled back into the bus for the trip back to Sydney, arriving in the city just in time for dinner.
Today, we head to the Sydney Aquarium, known to be one of the finest aquariums in the world. Then, we’ll have the afternoon to explore the city as we wish. Tomorrow, we head to Uluru. There is no internet access there, so it will be another couple of days before we can post from Alice Springs, in the middle of the Australian outback. Stay tuned….
Dr. Lynn Morton
