Saturday 23rd June
The Blue Mountains (or the Great Dividing Range) is a series of hills, shaped by dramatic gorges and sandstone plateaus. The slate coloured haze is from the fine mist of oil exuded by the eucalyptus trees, hence the name 'the Blue Mountains'.
We set off from our 'free' camp, (a carpark next to the beach) at Shoalhaven, to head inland to Tim and Debbie's in Springwood in the Blue Mountains. The scenery is breath-taking. We travel the scenic route and they are not joking! We stop at a look out point, as we often do, called Camberra. As far as the eye can see is bushland (or hinterland as it is also known), with the sea (Tasmin/South Pacific not sure where the one starts and the other finishes?) is in the far distance.
From here we take the steep and very windy road to Fitzroy Falls, a series of water falls, with various walks. Although the day is sunny, it's a bitter wind. We jog our way around to keep warm (and fit, of course, we are both putting on a little weight since our travels began!!).
From here we make our way through really pretty villages called Kangaroo Valley with a population of 320 and Glenbrook on the way to Springwood.
Spring wood is a really nice town with everything you could need, (everyone needs a Subway don't they, they are everywhere!!), it's got a really old fashioned, but servicable train station and a very funky 'hippy' shop, which Deb was quite insistant that I would like! We find Tim and Debbies house with a roaring log fire burning, the nights are very chilly here. I get to feed their resident possom some fruit, he comes every evening and sits on their table on the decking, asking for his supper!
Sunday we spend the day with Tim, Deb, Ellie and Abbey.
Firstly, we go to the three sisters, three large columns of rock surrounded by bushland. Legand has it, that a father was trying to save his 3 daughters from harm, so he turned them into stone pillars using a 'magic' stick, he then turned himself into a lyair bird to watch over them, but in doing so, he dropped the stick. So if you see a lyair bird flying over the 3 sisters, it's the father looking for the magic stick! (or somehting like that!). They then take us to Wentworth Falls which are only about a 20 drive from them. Views from here look out south over the Jasmin Valley, it's stunning scenery, with a good walk down to the fall, slightly off the beaten track, thanks to Tim's adventure tour! On the way back we call in at Leura (pop 4385), I think I could probably live here, it reminded me ever so slightly of Much Wenlock. A lot of tourists, but the locals and shop keepers were really friendly. When we get back to the carpark with make a cup of tea in the camper ('cause we can!) and have some of Debbies homemade mince pies!
We say our goodbyes to the girls on Monday morning, as they are off to school. We pack up our things and get under way, (this is not before I give Matt and Tim a haircut!).
We head to the Hunter Valley - wine country, not sure how we are going to manage this stage of our travels! Apparently, there are 140 wineries in this area! Ya-hoo! We drive for about 4 hours and see one! We drive through another very scenic mountainous national park, we drive through the biggest quarry we have ever seen just this side south of a town called Singleton, Tim has said it's not the prettiest town, so we bypass it. It's getting late in the afternoon now, so need to find a camp for the night. We seem to drive for ages, before finding Lake St Clair. It is such a beautiful spot and we see our first kangaroo's too! It's not the 'free' camp we had hoped for (we try to do 1 (or 2) free ones, then a paid one), but it is only $18 dollars and is well worth it for the lakeside views and beautiful sunset.
To be continued.
