SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

To see the Blue Mountains up close, we did a three-hour hike today into the “Grand Canyon,” which, although much smaller than its American namesake, was spectacular nonetheless. The trail led from a forest of tall gum trees down into a narrow canyon with terraced rock walls, with a riverbed of rainforest and tree ferns at its base. Much of the track followed rock ledges along the canyon walls, with overhangs above our heads. There were caves along the way, and at times the canyon floor dropped so low we couldn’t even see the stream below. At the bottom, the wind blowing through the narrow canyon walls made a constant whistling sound, which was kind of eerie. All along the trail, the rainforest combined with the rock outcroppings made for some exceptional scenery.

The hike back up to the top of the canyon was pretty steep, but the view at Evans Lookout, at the top, was great—very much like looking over the “real” Grand Canyon, only with more trees. We didn’t see much wildlife on the trail, with the exception of a lyrebird, which is a ground-dwelling chickenlike beast with a long tail like a peacock. (Supposedly it can imitate the sounds of other birds, and even man-made sounds like sirens and chain saws. It would have been great to hear that, but unfortunately this one was silent, and mostly focused on running away from us.)

After our trek, we were pretty tired (and I think Tom had enough of country life for awhile), so we headed back to Sydney.