Birds of a feather

Some times it really pays to use your feet. Muscles over motors. I may be one of the laziest humans known to man kind - why do you think I ride my bike? So I don't have to walk to transit! But I do know that when you want to see amazing stuff you have to leave the engines and the motors behind.

So, up in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney we walked. First a note on how fabulous it is to be able to get somewhere like the Blue Mountains by train from Sydney. Big City, two hours on a train that runs every few hours, and ah wilderness. Yeah for trains! And seeing the ten k of traffic jam caused by a sunday afternoon car crash just made us feel even more grateful that we hadn't rented a car and driven. Why drive when you can take the train?




And why take the cable car or "worlds steepest train" down into the canyon when you can walk down the incredibly steeps stairs....and wait a minute...back up again?



Up how many steps?



700 steps! Up? However, with the effort comes the reward. In this case in the form of a flock of sulpher crested cockatoos about 50 strong. We first saw them bathing in the falls and I was twitching with frustration at not being closer, or not having dragged a pair of binoculars around the world with me.



The noise they make. Like teenagers on cell phones they cannot move without communicating with one another. We wtched them play in the waterfall for a while and then something startled them and they took off in a loud cloud of white.



And landed right near us! The trail was very steep and the trees tops on which they landed were just about eye level with our sweaty selves.





Motto of the story? Muscles not motors. Take the stairs.

And then at the top of the stairs, bonus echidnea!