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Blue Mountains
The blue mist is caused by oil released by the eucalyptus treesRussell - Since the hot weather has gone away we thought it was about time we headed for some real cold weather with a trip to the Blue Mountains National Park.
The park is about an hour and a half west of Sydney so another trip to the car hire place was in order. Sadly this time the fact that wedding is only 6 weeks away held no sway as the annoying woman behind the counter insisted that Lindsay had to be present to be included on the insurance. So after giving up the argument I drove Lins back to the shop. "Oh," said the woman, "it seems you details are already on the system." Yes, that's what I was trying to tell you - you crazy woman!!! ARGGHHHH - Never mind, we are on the road and that's what counts.
First job was to buy a map as we weren't going to get caught out like we did in Canberra. We stopped at a service station which had a pretty big shop attached. Of course it had to be the only service station in the world that didn't sell road maps. It sold DVDs but not road maps
Top of the Valley
My hair looks nice! AT THE MOMENT - EH?! Moving on, we found another petrol station that did sell maps and a Madonna CD, as the radio was threatening to turn Lins into a gibbering vegetable. The rest of the journey was stress free and we were soon checking out our options for the weekend at the tourist information office.
Unfortunately we were to early for the Yuletide Fest, which of course happens in June and July - it being the most likely time to have a white Christmas (and you thought Christmas was about the birth of the son of God!). We did want to check out the Wentworth Falls, and Echo Point to pay homege to the three sisters, but apart from that it was a matter of chilling out.
First stop was Wentworth Falls which we found after a fashion. Don't be fooled by the town of Wentworth Falls which isn't actually anywhere near the falls! We dumped the car in the National Park car park and nipped out to take in the view. There is no doubt about it that the Blue Mountains are breathtaking, and I was eager to see more - especially since I hadn't seen a waterfall yet.
Smaller Falls
High on Wentworth Falls We walked on a bit further and found a sign suggesting that the falls were a 20 minute walk, but to do the whole circuit would take about 4 and half hours. We quickly decided that 20 minutes sounded great. We climbed down the slope and around until we could see the top of the falls. The view was nice but you really can't see the falls so I encouraged Lins to go a bit further so we could see the falls themselves. Just a bit further, yes down these steps - I know they are more like a ladder but it will be worth it. Around each corner a bit more of the falls was visible but much more seemed to be around the corner. Eventually we were at the bottom looking up at the most amazing falls. They are not anywhere near as big as the biggest, but they are just so beautiful. After a few pictures we had to decide whether we were going back up the steps. Frankly they looked scary from down here so we decided to press on. There is bound to be a short cut back. As we walked vista after vista presented
Looking down the valley
Very high up here - and not trusting the rail! itself, black cockatoos were flying noisly overhead and it was spectacular. All this walking was thirsty work though and as we had only planned to go 20 minutes we had half a litre of water between us. It ran out fast! So we pressed on through the valley of water, seeing waterfall after waterfall - getting more and more thirsty. By the time we had got to about the tenth waterfall we were definitly considering have a drink - clean or not! Fortunately at this point I spotted a set of stairs going straight up the cliff face - the short cut we had been looking for. Well not quite. At the top there was more walking and Lins was starting to fade. Then teasing signs for a tea shop started to appear - just around the next corner - no, the next. Finally we found our little oasis and went straight in for some juice and a sarnie. We had been walking for over three hours but were at least on the short cut back to the car. The cafe has amazing views so despite the cold we insisted on sitting outside to enjoy our drinks.
Back at
Wentworth Falls
Definitely worth the THREE HOUR walk the car we decided it was time to go check-in to our home for the night. After a lot of research I had found a little guest house in Katoomba - the main town in the mountains which had four poster beds and spa baths. We needed a lie down! We arrived at Lurline House just after 4pm. It was about this time that I realised I hadn't brought the booking form with me. As I turned the car upside down in a panic Lins instisted they would know who I was - yeah like anything is that easy. I ventured in the door and was greated with a warm smile and a "you're Mr. Williams I presume?" in a Home Counties accent. Well yes, I am - see I knew they'd be expecting me. Seems we were the last to check in and as Lurline House only has seven rooms Peter, the proprietor, was pretty clued up. We were shown our room, the four poster - (we were in the room that was on the brochure how often does that happen?) - our spa bathroom and asked whether we would like afternoon tea. Moments later we were drinking our
Valley bottom
Yes, we trusted a stranger with our camera tea (or coffee in my case) and eating our jam-tops whilst listening to classical music. I could have been a member of Saga. It really was a lovely place and Peter and his wife looked after us well, so I heartly recommend it for a romantic weekend get-away.
After tea we decided to catch the sunset at Echo Point but managed to miss it by about two minutes! Disappointed we bought a bottle of sparkling wine from the bottle shop and headed back to the hotel room. As this was the first bath Lins had been able to use for some months she had come armed with her Lush bath bombs and I was intrigured to know what would happen when you put a Turbo bubble bomb in a spa bath. The answer is you fill pretty much the entire room with bubbles. Any one who has tried to mimic Kylie singing 'I should be so lucky' in a bubble bath should try this - you will achieve your goal!
After the bath it was time to hit the town - it's Saturday night baby - time to party. Katoomba isn't a party town - in fact I'm
Cliff path
At least the waterfall wasn't dripping on me here! not sure there were enough people out to call it a town at all! We wanted an Italian meal but the only place (which was actually a pizzeria) seemed to have lots of people sitting in it trying to pay while the waiters did their best to ignore them. A couple of minutes watching this convinced us that Thai was the way to go. We went to the new Thai restaurant that is underground on the high street. We were seated by a white Australian wearing traditional Thai dress. It was odd. We were asked what we wanted to drink - I asked for a wine list - I was told to go to the bar. So I can get a beer at my table but I have to go to the bar for wine? Odd. I asked the barman for a wine list. "All the wines are on the top shelf mate" Great - so how am I supposed to read the bottles from there. After much squinting and asking the barman to pass bottles down I found something that sounded nice. The food was lovely but the amounts were ludicrous. I genuinely believe they brought us the family-of-four-sized
View from Echo Point
The Three Sisters. Part of the Seven Sisters but we missed the other four somewhere. portion. I think there was more left when we finished than when we started - if that were possible. There was a live jazz band playing, a big log fire burning and it was kinda nice none the less. Feeling very full we asked for the bill. Yeah, that's right you have to go to the bar.
Next morning we were treated to a big English breakfast cooked by Peter in the kitchen-come-dining-room. He makes a mean poached egg! Feeling full again we set out to explore Katoomba by day. We paid our respects to the three sisters at Echo Point (in the daylight this time). Then we headed into Katoomba town. Well it's not that much busier than by night so having exhausted all the thrift shops (there is a lot of them) we headed for the neighbouring town of Leura. Leura is a proper tourist town with lots of antique shops and tea houses. Lins was especially keen to see a collection of 3000 teapots claimed by one leaflet we had found at the tourist info place. Approaching the shop we thought it was closed, but on pushing the door it opened into an Aladdin's Cave. There
was stuff everywhere in every direction. We spent ages walking round until we realised it was actually a working tea shop too. So we stopped for tea. 'What kind of tea would you like?' we were asked. 'What have you got?' - 'Oh, everything, you name it'. 'OK can we have Assam please?' - 'Er, I'm not sure... I know we have English Breakfast...' - 'OK we'll have that then'.
Fully refreshed we decided to head for the Zig Zag Railway. Lins was driving so I was navigating. Naturally I took us on the most scenic (read long) way possible so we didn't arrive until about 3:30. The last train all the way to the bottom had already gone so we opted to take the diesel train to the top points and then get the steam engine back up. The trains are manned by enthusiastic volunteers who want to tell you everything about the train. It stopped half way so you can watch the steam engine come up the mountain at full bore. It even started to sleet at this point so we were pretty pleased to get back on the train. The steam engine back was great with
Choo-choo Thomas
Where's the Fat Controller? that sooty smell and the clearly noxious fumes. Still we made it back.
Back in the car it was getting dark so time to head back towards Sydney. We decided to have dinner in a town on the way back. Unfortunately they all appeared to be shut. Richmond, Windsor all shut. We arrived in Penrith - quite a big city- at 5:30pm to find only the kebab house open. We decided we could still make it back to Sydney for a curry at the Tandoori Palace on Oxford Street so went for that option instead.
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Vicky
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I'm so proud!
Asking for Assam tea - yey! All those years of drinking it has worked! xxxx