SomewhereSouth.net

The Blue Mountains....

Well, from here it's up to me (Murf) again, to tell you something about those few days in the Blue Mountains. To begin with, weather forecast was horrible, to be more precize: extreme heat (30-40 degrees Celcius) and NO rain! Very good, sounds like a perfect stresstest for both us and our van, and it was :-) But hey, we're backpackers so we don't mind. First day we went off from Sydney to Katoomba where the famous "Three Sisters" rock-formation is. Halfway we got off the Great Western Hiway to visit the house Nicky's mom lived for 6 years, Carpenterroad 224 in St. Mary's. After the neccecairy proof we've been there (*CLICK!*) we went on to Katoomba. There we got out the car, had a few walks through the beatifull forest, took some pictures (DUH!) and after a couple of hours headed down to take the 45 degree "train" uphill. After that we where so tired that we headed off to the car which was parked 200m away from "Echo Point", from where you can see "The Three Sisters". Free from 17:00h-09:00h and with a perfect view straight over The Blue mountains. Had dinner, slept, had breakfast and before 9 we were on the road again. Had our morning 10 min away from Echo Point... The nature over there is really astonishing, found a small lake with a waterfall. Even got the chance to shoot a couple of Black Cockatoo's. (On photo that is...) Next up to the "Jenolan Caves". I really wanted to see those, Nicky had seen enough caves in her live but as we're doing this together we went there. It was somewhere around 2 hours of driving, straight to very steep and winding slopes. Well, driving winding roads might seem scary, the truth is that I really like it. You need 100% concentration not to make mistakes but it's fun, steering your 5 meter van around tight hairpins, up and down the hill. At evening we arrived, found a piece of tarmac used as a parking place and asked the local guides if it was ok and safe to spent the night there. It was, even better, it had a shower, bbq, toilet & even electricity! No other cars where there, we actually cooked on our (well, Anita's) mini-stove and had a great time. (and a *little* "fight" because we where both really tired) Next morning to the caves then. 9am after a 15 min walk downhill we found the entrance, payd $24,50 per person to get in (got discount on our VIP cards, normal price for this 2 hour, 1200 steps trip in the River Cave was $27,5) and at 10 we started our (guided off course) tour in the cave. In my opinion, it was absolutely GREAT. Beatifull reflections down there (at the underground river), lots of nice stalac*thingies* and a refreshing 15 degrees. Our guide was pretty ok, even told us about a nice mountain thing north of Melbourne where it's good to climb in the wild. (If I have the chance I will do that for sure, it would be my first nature-climb instead of the indoor walls I normally climb) At the local souvenir shop we got our Aussie-Hats, both at $55,- which is quite cheap for a good, suede hat.

Then up to Lithgow at around 13:00. With not really much gas in the tank we where a bit worried that we could make it to Oberon, the nearest town 30Km away from the caves. Off course you expect what's coming, there where some trouble getting there. Halfway an accident happened with a motor cycle, road blocked and at least 2 hrs before the road would be cleared. The other options was a detour of 10Km, partly over dirt roads. And off we went, not scared of dirt-roads we went back a few hundred mtrs and right on the dirt. Driving on dirt is strange, scary, but a great thing to do. You're driving on marbles and have to take extreme care not to get off the road, it really stresses your driving skills but that's exactly what makes the fun of it. Off course I was VERY carefull, but it was also a good test for our car (it was still 40 degrees celcius). Thanks we FOUND Oberon in time with still ~15 liters of gas left and headed off to Lithgow. As we wouldn't take the highway we took a small road, got a little bit lost on again more dirtroads but finally found Lithgow without too much hassle. (Ok, we had to stop the care once to refill the coolant-water, one of the few thins wrong with the car, leaking 2l every 100Km or so and liturally boiling over within 10 minutes.) Well, Lithgow was a bit depressing, so we went straight on. After an extra hour of driving we found Mount Wilson, still in the Blue Mountains, a few Km off The Great Bells Line of Road, ~15Km away from Bell. Up the hill was a parking spot (in the middle of the forest) where around 10-15 tents and campervans stood. Seemed like a perfect and safe place to spend the night and it was. Finally had some rain and thunder, really welcome after weeks of extreme heat. Next day (Sunday, day 4 of our little trip already) we went back to Sydney. The car had to be fixed on several points so we HAD to be back today to get it all done. And here we are now. Yesterday Anita was very happy to see us again, so was Rita (one of her neighbours) who was a bit worried, 2 kids on their own in the bush. :-) Had a good night sleep (it cooled down to 20 degrees here) and this morning we brought our car to the garage. They're now working on it (radio, cooling water, 3rd gear, etc) and with a bit of luck we don't have to take the train home. If that's the case we'll hit the road tomorrow morning to begin our trip around Australia. If not, hopefully wednesday. Well, that's it for now, I go to do my email and after that let Nicky write some more about our first 4 days on the road.

Bye,

Murf