All too quickly my last morning on the Indian Pacific had arrived. The day began with an excellent full breakfast individually cooked to order as the train slowly wound its way towards Katoomba. This was the one part of the journey where, as I posted a while ago now, it was possible to get a photo of our two powerful locomotives as they rounded many curves. I left the train at Katoomba, or actually the station before, the name of which I have forgotten, to take "A Journey Through the Blue Mountains". The Train and my cabin baggage continued to Sydney to arrive at 12.30pm local time and I after a wonderful Off-Train Experience in the Blue Mountains took a private charter train, a local commuter train with carriages reserved for our use, into Sydney Central Station to arrive around 3.30pm.
Everybody but everybody had said you must visit the Blue Mountains so,rather than arrange a separate tour out from Sydney I took advantage of this off train excursion that was included in the fare.
The following edited description of this experience is taken from the Journey Beyond website: https://www.journeybeyondrail.com.au/indian-pacific/indian-pacific-experience/off-train-experiences-indian-pacific/blue-mountains/
The Blue Mountains is a World Heritage-listed area ……with….rugged cliffs, forests and rock formations.
After disembarking the train our destination was Scenic World for four mountain experiences. The Scenic Skyway took us above ancient ravines, visible 270 metres below through the glass cabin floor. The vista was 360 degrees and featured the Three Sisters, the Jamison Valley and Katoomba Falls about which I will say more in later posts. Next, we boarded the Katoomba Scenic Railway, the steepest passenger railway in the world, to descend more than 500 metres to the valley floor before taking a guided walk through the forest and joining the Scenic Cableway to ascend back the Scenic World café. Finally, made the short drive to the Echo Point Lookout, perched on the edge of the escarpment in Katoomba for lunch before taking the train into Sydney.
Each of these experiences were unique so I'm going to post on each one in turn.
It was impossible to take a photo of the Scenic Skyway Gondola so, to act as a 'trailer', I have taken a shot of the Indian Pacific brochure describing the Off Train Experiences.
