Day 3
Today we were up bright and early to pack our bags ready for a change in accommodation. We left Eleanora Heights, Sydney, behind and headed west toward the Blue Mountains.
After quite a long coach trip and watching Smurfs 2 we arrived at our morning tea pit stop, The Three Sisters, Echo Point, Katoomba. The view was magnificent and we took lots of photos of the rock formations. We also watched an Aboriginal cultural dance and learned about different language groups and the ceremonies they perform. A few of us enjoyed posing for photos with one of the performers after the show.
We then headed back to the bus for a short drive to Lithgow. This was our lunch stop and we were all starting to feel the temperature difference between Sydney and the mountains. We layered up and played some chasing games to keep warm before hopping back aboard the coach for our final stretch to Bathurst.
We drove into town and were treated to another awesome view of Mount Panorama. The bus also drove along a stretch of the Bathurst race track before heading up to the Bathurst Goldfields accommodation and function centre. Once we all piled off the bus we met Gary who gave us an informative tour of the Goldfields Museum. He showed us some mining equipment from the 1850s and then helped us have a go at panning for alluvial gold. Some of us found quite a few flakes of gold which we all got to keep and bring home in little vials.
After a delicious dinner at our accommodation we were then introduced to Peter who played lots of colonial music for us around a bonfire. We all had a ball dancing along around the bonfire and singing some historical songs.