Scenic World Stage 3

This week has been busy to stay the least, including as it did a 'quick' trip to Katoomba for the opening. The opening was very pleasant, following a twilight (let's say dark) walk around the boardwalk where the sculptures were placed. There are some really great sculptures included and it would have been good to get another look at them in the daylight, but time didn't allow for that. This time we went down to the valley floor on the train, which basically travels vertically down and through the cliff face to the bottom of the board walk.

 

The opening was the usual pleasant and civilised wine and nibblies event. I was very impressed by Senator Doug (someone) who gave the opening speech (in a gorgeous Irish accent), during which he asserted that he became a politician to try to make life better, and that means focussing on things like art and the environment, not just economics. According to Senator Doug, economics is not what makes life better. I know of a certain Qld politician or two that could do with a bit of time in Senator Doug's presence.

 

The following morning I had a kids workshop where they made their own little worlds in jars and here are some of the results:

 

The down side of it all was the travel. In the space of 36 hours I spent 2 hours on a total of 4 trains, 3 hours on planes and a whopping six hours driving from Sydney to Katoomba and back. Silly me...I figured two hours would be sufficient to drive the 90kms from Katoomba to Sydney, but not being a Sydney person, I couldn't really predict the Sydney traffic. Turns out it takes 3 hours, on a good day, half of which is getting from Paramatta to Mascot. Ridiculous. Before you raise your eyebrows, I didn't get lost, not once. There is just a ridiculous volume of traffic on ridiculously inadequate roads.  So Sydneysiders, you can have that all to yourself. Nett result for me that I missed my flight and had to pay for another to get back to Vegas.

 

Anyway, will be driving back at the end of May to collect it all again, after which I will happily stay put for a while. By then, though, it is estimated that in excess of 55,000 people will visit Sculpture at Scenic World (it is apparently the 3rd most visited attraction in Australia) and if you live in Sydney, I do expect you to make the pleasant 6 hour round trip to see it!