"A Blue Hue"

---

Day 81

We got up this morning and the mist and cloud from the mountain had truly rolled in and with light drizzle everything was absolutely soaked. Rain or not it was our plan to move on and it all had to be packed away, still the blessing was inside the trailer we were lovely and dry and warm.

Heads down *rse up we piled in and got on with it, everything packed away in the trailer, top protective cover zipped on and we were done.

Definitely done all right, we had lost the keys to the truck. High and low we looked, then we thought that we had possibly left them on top of the bed in the trailer that was now packed away. Sod it I am not getting it all out again in the rain, so out came the spare set and we set off.

We went to hand the keys back at the camp reception and when we explained to the lady that we had lost a set of Nissan Keys she said she didn’t think we would have lost them there, as we had only been there for one night. Hmm! How does she come to that conclusion is she clairvoyant or just stupid? Caroline had to explain that was the point we had lost them there. Anyway we leave our telephone number in the vain hope they find them.

We headed through the Blue Mountains, it was so foggy in patches it was difficult to see, we went past the very place where Gary Karen, Caroline and myself spent our very first night in our Maui Motorhome in Katoomba, Ahhh Happy memories.

We never appreciated how big and busy Katoomba was, we were going to park up, but when we couldn’t find a double spot we decided to keep moving. It was pointless trying to do some of the things we did last time we were here as we would not be able to admire the fabulous views.

From Katoomba we went on to Leura, and had a look around this pretty little town. Janet and Ted, people we got to know at the Warrumbungle National Park had come to Leura for 4 days to celebrate their anniversary and whilst we were both in town, would have been stupid not to catch up with each other. We met them at the Fairmont resort in Leura and only intended to have a coffee, chat and go.

We went in to town in Ted and Janet’s car and had some lunch, then Ted had said there was a great lolly (sweet) shop that we should visit which sold all kinds of lollies).

The afternoon was spent with Ted and Janet kindly driving us around the great things to see in Leura, by now the weather had cleared so seeing the views was an option. We walked up to the Wentworth falls, the area was beautiful and the view was quite spectacular, we did not walk right up to the falls (that was about an hours walk) but you could see the falls from a distance. There had not been a lot of rain so they were not as spectacular as they could have been but beautiful to see nonetheless.

Ted suggested that we drive round to the opposite side of the falls to the escarpment. We drove round and stopped where we saw a tourist bus pull in, following the crowd we went up to this amazing rocky ledge, that looked over the whole view from the opposite side.

Gosh it was high; in fact Andy walked up to look over the edge and said “I can see 4 cars down there”. I edged as close as I dared and that was not close, but I could see a couple of cars. Question is were they accidental or deliberate? There are now barriers to prevent vehicles from getting too close to the edge.

Ted mentioned that he was not comfortable with heights and kept as far away from the edge as possible. I cannot say that I blame him, I am more comfortable with 2 feet on solid ground with plenty of miles of ground around me.

Next we went to Sublime lookout, which looked from the opposite side of Katoomba to the Three Sisters. The Blue Mountains are beautiful and are named as such due to the blue haze, which comes from the fine droplets of oil constantly dispersed by the dense eucalyptus forest. These droplets cause blue light rays of the sun to be scattered more effectively and thus intensifying usual light refraction, which causes distant objects to appear blue.

One thing we found out, as you are looking over this fantastic Vista, you hear a tinkling from what we can only think of being a bird, Janet confirmed it a “Bell Bird”

These little birds are very territorial and tend to be found in large groups in any particular area. They live in temperate rainforest areas, woodland with shrubby undergrowth, in gullies, near rivers or creeks and also in well-treed suburbs. Their unique bell-like call is quite loud and resonates through the air wherever they are found. In fact we have taken a sound clip of them and will try and work that into some kind of video to add to the blog so watch this space.

I had asked Ted why petrol prices differ so much from Gas station to Gas Station, he said that 60% of fuel in New South Wales was controlled By Cole’s and Woolworth’s and it is cyclical on a weekly basis, Wednesday’s always being the highest price then creeping down towards the following Tuesday then up again and a lot of it is too do with Vouchers schemes I think.

We said our farewells at around 5.20 pm, and had had a great afternoon, we would possibly have driven through Leura without a reason to stop and we glad we did, we saw some great things.

Our next town on Route to Sydney was Blaxland, we pulled in to our favourite burger chain for a coffee and to upload the blog for “Australia Day”.

It was around 7.30 now and only about 50 K’s to Sydney, we hadn’t got a site to put the trailer tent and I had visions of sleeping in the patrol, sites were thin on the ground and one that we drove past did not look a nice place to stop.

We went around Sydney and ended up at a Big 4 camp site in Narrabeen where we pulled up at 8.45, I said to Caroline if they give you any stick about turning up this late, tell them to shove it, I had a bit of a sense of humour failure.

Her lady ship came out smiling and said we had pitch D20, we pulled around and positioned the trailers and opened it, we weren’t going to set the awning up just unfold the trailer have a sandwich and go to bed. Inside everything was damp, we had put everything away wet, it must have soaked through in the afternoon. The sleeping bags were damp but we still had to get some sleep, so we dived in hoping for a hot day tomorrow.

---

Photos

Stick Insect
Not sure what kind, but this one landed on Andy when we were out walking. I thought it was a leaf at first.

Blue Mountains
This is taken at Wentworth Falls.

Blue Mountains
from Wentworth Falls

Janet, Andy and Ted
Pose for the camera.

Wentworth Falls
A disappointing trickle for the falls, but a great view nonetheless

Escarpment
Wow, this was high and there was no fence! The drop below revealed four cars!

Another stunning view
of the Blue Mountains

Yes! Another view
They are all nice views

Green
There are so many shades of green

Three Sisters
and a view of Katoomba