Blue Mountains Blitz

After our day at the races celebrating the Melbourne Cup we finally left the New England highway heading off to Mudgee and the wine growing country on the other side of the Hunter Valley towards the Blue Mountains .
We arrived in Lithgrow on Friday ready to meet up with our NZ friends Ray and Sheila in Katoomba on Sunday. We decided to camp at Lake Lyall Dam for the night to see at first hand how little water there is in the dams down here and why everyone is so concerned about it. There was certainly a lack of water in this dam, but we had a nice site overlooking it so we chilled out there and read up on the Blue Mountains area ready for our tourist attack. On Saturday morning the weather had turned chilly and it was drizzling but we headed on back into Lithgrow and take a ride on the zig zag railway on the old steam train.This line is one of the remarkable feats of engineering from 1850's providing a rail line in this rugged mountainous area. There always seem to be a lot of people ready to take a trip on a steam train whatever the weather.

As the day did not get any better we drove to Katoomba and booked in the camp for 3 nights.We were rather surprised to find this, the only camp in the area, a bit of a concrete jungle. A bit of a contradiction considering the World Heritage rating of the Blue Mountains.

On Sunday morning Ray and Shelia arrived from Sydney bringing some warmer weather and Ray immediately had us organised into tourist mode. We were on the steep incline railway before I got the chance to get cold feet. Next it was on the cable car then across the valley in the glass bottom capsule . It certainly is a great way to get to see the scenery and the place was full of tourists, mainly from overseas. We went down to the lookout to see the sun set on the Three Sisters and later headed off for an Asian meal. - just like old times. Monday morning saw us on the road again with Ray at the wheel so Allen could take a well earned rest from the driving.We drove around all the high spots listed for the tourists and visited the National Parks H/Q at Blackheath. It was a lovely day and we appreciated the company of someone to sightsee with. We can see where the name Blue Mountains comes from as there certainly is a blue haze all around especially when the sun is shining. We also went see the movie The Edge shown on the giant six story high screen. Its a magnificent film of the Blue Mountains and well worth a viewing. We visited the local RSL club and had a few drinks as no one had to drive. We managed to scramble into the last shuttle bus back to our camp, leaving Ray and Sheila to walk back to their accommodation. I had to put my last drink a (small) bottle of bubbly into my bag and did not get around to drinking it til the next weekend. Ray and Sheila left next morning on the road to Canberra whilst we drove across to Bathurst.
We later heard that Ray and Sheila finally arrived back in NZ one day late after four aborted flights from Sydney.