After a two-hour train trip from Sydney to the west, one reaches Katoomba in the heart of the Blue Mountains, a relatively young sandstone mountain range famous for the blue mist gathering over endless miles of eucalyptus trees. These trees are the only diet koalas can sustain on. It is just an old wives tale that because of the continuous exposure to the evaporating etheric oils of the trees, the koalas spend their lives in a blissful stoned state...
The relatively soft sandstone is easily eroded away by rain water, creeks and streams giving rise to beautiful chasms, gorges and waterfalls. The mountain range is just about one million years old and consists of sandstone pushed-up by the eastward movement of the Australian continent.
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