Blue Mountains

Visited the Blue Mountains this weekend. The eucalyptus oil from all the trees is what makes the mountains appear so blue. Located about an hour west of Sydney, we stopped through the 2 towns of Leura and Katoomba. In Katoomba we popped in at The Micheal White Gallery. Micheal White is a landscape painter tht grew up in the Blue Mountain region. He is self taught and incredibly talented. I fell in love with his paintings and can't wait to go to his next opening in december. You can see his work at http://www.michaelwhiteart.com/

Pictured below are the famous three sisters. "The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe. These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry. 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.
As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor 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 when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come." (referenced from http://www.bluemts.com.au/tourist/thingsToDo/threeSisters.asp)
The Three Sisters are 922, 918 & 906 metres tall, respectively. That's over 3000 feet above sea level