The Legend of the Three Sisters.

The Aboriginal dream-time legend includes the story of the three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo'.  The sisters, now three magnificent pillars of rock,  lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe.  The sisters were turned to stone to protect them from a great danger.

The Three Sisters

One legend says that a bunyip was going to eat the sisters… now what is a bunyip, you ask? (I ask.)

The bunyip is a legendary evil or punishing spirit or creature from the Aboriginal Dreamtime.

Bunyips haunt rivers, swamps, creeks and billabongs and their main goal in life is to cause nocturnal terror by eating people or animals in their vicinity. They are renowned for their terrifying bellowing cries in the night and have been known to frighten Aborigines to the point where they would not approach any water source where a bunyip might be waiting to devour them.*

There are many reports from white settlers who have witnessed bunyips, similar to the reports in the US of ‘BigFoot’.  Many may still be searching for them.  Again, similar to the BigFoot legend, bunyip descriptions vary. Some Aboriginal tribes say the bunyip looks like a huge snake with a beard and a mane; others say it looks like a huge, furry half-human beast with a long neck and a head like a bird. Additional descriptions indicate this fierce amphibious creature is like a giant seal or even a hippopotamus.

 Some scientists actually believe the bunyip was a real animal, the diprotodon,  which terrified the earliest settlers of Australia but has long been extinct.

Today the bunyip mainly appears in children’s literature and makes an occasional appearance in television commercials.

Bertie the Bunyip (image from Wikipedia)

There is a more romantic version of the legend says that the three beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to intermarry.

The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters, causing a major tribal battle.

Whichever legend you like, the end is that a witch doctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the Three Sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell, the witchdoctor was killed before he could do so. Because only he could undo the spell, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle (or the bunyip) for generations to come.

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* Water is scarce in Australia's interior--that's why much of it is called the Red Desert.  Legends like that of the bunyip, who frightens people away from water,  help preserve water.  There were similar legends near Uluru-- people would only risk their lives to get water if their lives were already at risk for the lack of it.   

The Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains are just a few hours from Sydney, so I take a day-tour.

The mountains are covered with eucalyptus trees (that I’ve been seeing throughout this trip).  They ‘sweat’ an oil in the early morning that creates a blue haze—hence the name of the mountains.

Acacia are abundant: they are the golden flowers, also called wattle, that I've noticed in much of Australia.  These are  fire-friendly plants --their seeds open only in the heat of a fire--that means they immediately help burned areas begin regrowth.

Acacia

Factoids gathered on the tour:

- There were no glaciers in this part of the world… except maybe in Tasmania.

- Australia is drifting north 3 inches a year.  

- The city of Leura is a pretty mountain village developed when the railroad came through in 1890...and dropped off  TB patients coming to recover in the sanitarium. 

Jamison Valley, possibly older than the Grand Canyon, is the second largest “enclosed” valley in the world. (The Grand Canyon is the largest.) The Jamison formed in a similar way to the Grand Canyon.    In the latter, the Colorado River combined with weathering to erode the softer rock, leaving a huge gash in the earth's surface.  In Australia,  Coxs River canyon system in the Blue Mountains did the same.  The river carved the rock, exposing layers of planet history.  Water filled rock crevices, froze and expanded, fracturing the rock, which broke off.  Several million (billion?) years of this left this impressive valley.

For jaw dropping, goose bump-inducing vistas, we stop off at Pearsons Lookout on the road into the valley.  The sense of horizontal 'stripes' in the rock each represent a different era over the rock's (and the planet's) history.

We go from Pearsons Lookout to the town of  Katoombah, Echo Point and the Three Sisters.

Image from

  www.worldholidaydestinations.com)

Katoomba (above),  the biggest town in the Blue Mountains,  is built on several hills. On one side, these hills plummet 600 meters into the Jamison Valley.   Katoombah means ‘coming together of many streams’--a logical name for a place where the melting waters of the mountain would form springs that unite to create a river.

Echo Point is the most popular lookout with its view across to the legendary Three Sisters--majestic pillars of sandstone that tower over the valley and are one of Australia's spectacular sights.

The Three Sisters (to be discussed further in next post)

We break from our coach travel to see a little of Katoomba, and our plan is to meet the coach at the bottom of a cliff.  Wait a minute... we're high up in the mountains....Huh?

Oh.... there is a railway that drops 250 meters--that's about 750 feet--at a 52 degree incline,  down the cliff wall to the bottom.   The is supposedly the world's steepest railway.  There are warnings as we board the railroad car.  Hold children, leave NOTHING loose on the seats, and hang on tight-- a 750 foot drop at 52 degrees is wicked steep.
Just for reference, this is a 52 degree incline:

 In my initial journal notes, I had some unrepeatable language to describe the descent.  And no photos.

If you're planning a visit to the Blue Mountains, I recommend the Skyway cable car which hangs over the abys.  It looks like a great way to view the valley from a unique perspective.  I didn't have the chance to do it, and I'm not sure it's suitable for people who have a fear of heights, but it looked pretty impressive to me.

Skyway Cable Car   (image from  www.miniworld.com.au)

We begin our return to the city through the Megalong Valley, which is separated from the Jamison by a narrow ridge of rock.

Megalong Valley (image from  www.dryridge.com.au)

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 Next: The Legend of the Three Sisters

Sydney (I didn’t know that)

With mixed emotions, I leave Kate and her family behind.  I’ve been traveling a while, and I’m beginning to long for home.  With only a short time in Sydney, I begin with a day tour of the city.  Among the things I see….

A statue of Captain Bligh is the first stop.  

I forgot that Mutiny on the Bounty was  a true story.  Bligh was the fourth governor of Australia.  I didn’t know that.

Kangaroos and emus adorn the Sydney Court House because they symbolize  forward movement.: they are the only native animals (possibly the only animals in the world?) that cannot move backwards.  I didn’t know that. 

                                                    Sydney Harbour Bridge

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is the widest longspan bridge in the world. (The Leonard P. Zakim Bridge, over Boston’s Charles River, is the world's widest cable-stayed bridge: take pride, Boston Strong).  Organized bridge climbs allow visitors to ascend the inner arch for thrilling views.  I make a note to consider trying that next time….

And then there’s the Opera House, one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world.  The Sydney Opera sits in the Harbour, it’s roof fanning out like a set of orange segments.  In fact, the design is based on fanned out orange segments.  I didn’t know that.

                                                        Sydney Opera House

Bondi is a beautiful beach and popular area among surfers, who are protected from sharks by rectangular, 600-foot nets, suspended between buoys.  There are beaches with nets to protect surfers? I didn’t know that. Unfortunately,  in January, 2010, the nets failed to protect a surfer who became the beach’s first shark attack victim since 1929.

After an afternoon of touring, I linger in The Rocks, near the Bridge.  This is one of Sydney’s oldest areas, now filled with shops and cafes that offer a beautiful view of the Harbour and the Opera House yet keep the feel of history and heritage.  And it is here that I discover the film in my camera (remember film?) has not been advancing since I saw the Opera House.  I didn't know that either.  

No pictures of Sydney after the Opera House   

Next, the Blue Mountains.

Faerie Penguins

Faerie lights.  Faerie cakes.  Faerie penguins.

Faerie here means‘small’.  Tiny lights, cupcakes, and adorable little penguins.  

 



As we approach Phillip Island, I expect to see penguins in a zoo-like setting, and to ooh and ahh over their cuteness.  This is no zoo-like setting.

Guests to the park sit on designated areas on the sand or in stadium seating.  Lights illuminate the dark water as night falls.  And we wait.

Faerie penguins (also called “little blue penguins”) are barely eighteen inches tall.  They roost on land and feed in the sea—in fact, they spend as much as 80% of their lives in the water.  Before sunrise, the penguins waddle to the ocean where they gather into groups and depart.  They swim hundreds of miles looking for the tiny fish that are penguins' staple. After sunset, they return to their homes on Phillip Island. 

An announcer keeps an eye on the dark water and explains that the penguins will form groups in the water, and when they are good and ready --and only then-- they will come ashore.

He spots the distinctive blue/black-and-white in the surf and tells us where to look.  We see indistinct bobbing and bouncing and suddenly, a little troop of tiny penguins comes out of the waters to waddle to their homes.  They parade by us, seeming oblivious as they march to their burrows.  We oooh.  We ahhh.  I lie down on the sand, set the camera and repeatedly focus, adjust, click, wait. 

One cluster in the water seems intimidated.  Repeatedly, they start to mass but do not emerge.

I begin to imagine little penguin conversations, little penguin directors, little penguin prima donnas.  

  “You call this a LINE??  This is not a straight line!”   

  “I’m supposed to be first, not third!”

  “Wait, there’s an anchovy…  I want that….”

Just in case the penguins are intimidated by the lights, the park officials dim them and we begin to make our way out of the stands to leave the penguins in peace. Those who came before are still marching to their burrows and we’re still ooohing and aaaahing.

This video is from a short news report on the penguins,  and has some great footage and information. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhDHOxl5X2g

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Next: Sydney

The Great Ocean Road and the Black Spur

Time to leave the indigenous culture behind and catch up with Kate. After extended time in hotels (lovely as they were), it's nice to be with friends in a home.  Kate and her family provides energizing hospitality, and home comforts, and then she  and I leave the family behind so she can show me the remarkable southeast coast of Australia

Kate is driving a standard that is better suited to hill-climbs, which the car will be doing.  I am sitting on the wrong side of the car remembering why I don’t drive in foreign countries.  

And then there’s this:

I don’t know what I’d do if I were driving and a kangaroo ran across the road.  Another good reason for me not to drive in a foreign country.

As we cruise along the two-lane Great Ocean Road heading south, the view of the coast ranges from beautiful to spectacular.  Sometimes in clear view, sometimes glimpsed between trees, I see the blue waters of the Pacific and golden sands of the beach at the foot of some tremendous cliffs.

  

The turbulent Pacific waters have eroded areas of the coast over millions of years.  The stone that withstood the waters' force created caves that wore away to arches.  The tops of the arches wore away leaving limestone stacks along the shore.  Now even the stacks are collapsing. 
When Europeans first named this area, they called it The Twelve Apostles.  Now only nine remain; limestone pillars as high as 70 feet, studding the coast along the cliffs.  The most recent pillar collapse was in 2005.

The Twelve Apostles

That pillar collapse was probably nothing compared to The London Bridge collapse. The Bridge formed when the softer rock underneath eroded, leaving a rock bridge connecting the outcrop to the mainland. 

London Bridge

But in 1990, the connecting stone crashed into the sea, stranding two people atop the remaining rock, sixty feet above the roiling Pacific waters.  Ultimately they were rescued by helicopter.

The Grotto formed differently.  An ancient swamp percolated up from beneath the surface, and ate away the rock until it created a sinkhole at the ocean’s edge.  A window of rock separates the pool from the blue water beyond.

The Grotto

We leave the Great Ocean Road behind and head for the Black Spur, a gorgeous wooded mountain road with ash trees reaching two hundred feet to the sun. Sunlight  filters through the leaves to the ground below so that lush vegetation can grow below as well as above.  The wooded beauty evokes New England forest to me…old growth, majestic and lovely.   

And next, Kate tells me, we’ll see Faerie Penguins.     Faerie Penguins????

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Kuranda – Corroborrees and Didgeridoos

Kuranda is a plantation-turned-tourist village in the rainforest, where the Pamagirri tribe do some demos that bring together several elements of Aborigine culture. In addition to boomerang-throwing, they do a scaled-down version of a corroborree that includes the unique didgeridoo.

A ‘corroboree’ is like an American Indian pow-wow.  A real corroborree is normally a non-stop, song-and-dance gathering, often sacred. It might be part of an initiation rite, preparation for a hunt, celebration of a victory, or perhaps a Dreamtime (Aborigine creation story) ritual. Participants are in full body paint, often carrying weapons.

Corroborree participant from the Walpiri Tribe

Part of the ceremony is the music of the didgeridoo.  If you had your eyes closed and heard one, you would probably think, ‘Australia?’.  The thing that surprised me is that it was a wind instrument.  For some reason, the vibrating sound made me think of strings.   The didgeridoo is a termite-hollowed eucalyptus (or bamboo) trunk from three to ten feet long; not likely to be in any marching bands.

The musician blows down the didgeridoo, buzzing his lips against the mouthpiece to produce a unique kind of drone (that my tin ear assumed to be strings).  Sophisticated players are able to use ‘circular’ breathing:  inhaling while exhaling. I understand some other wind instruments also involve this, but it sounds almost like magic to me.

To get an idea of what a didgeridoo sounds like, visit http://tinyurl.com/didgeridooDemo .  And if you can figure out how the musician is making those other animal-like noises while he plays, please explain it to me, because, I admit, I still do not get it.  

Scaled-down corroboree demos are interesting but don’t make great photos.  For a better idea of what a corroborree *really* looks like visit.  http://wollombi.org/corroboree.html .  

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Next: The Great Ocean Road