Blue Mountains
We left the hunter valley and headed south towards Sydney, where we stayed a night in a rest area next to the freeway. We saw a few mice hanging around in the bushes nibbling on bits of noodles that Peter had dropped there... brilliant!
The next morning we were up early, driving through Sydney suburbs towards the blue mountains. Lucy did well map reading, navigating us through the suburbs and avoiding any toll roads. The first town in the blue mountains is Glenbrook, where we stopped at the information centre to grab some maps and 2 hot chocolates to take away.
After waiting ages in traffic jams due to roadworks we finally reached wentworth falls where we were greeted by great views overlooking the jamison valley and wentforth falls. Next it was onto the genteel town of Leura where we visited sublime point which was another lookout with great views. Then it was lunch time.... and what a lunch it was!! Picnic in the parkland next to gordon falls... chicken and ham wraps, crisps, yoghurts, pineapple.... mmm delicious :)
It was then a short drive to the neighbouring town of Katoomba which is one of the major tourist stop of points. Here we found some free parking, a short walk away from the expensive parking around the touristy Echo Point. From echo point you can see the spectacular rock formation called 'the three sister'... Lucy especially liked this site. We walked down to the three sisters, then down the giant staircase (very steep) and along the federal pass at the bottom of the cliffs then back up the other side. The walk taking us around 2 hours.
When we returned to Sherbet, we had a 30 minute drive into the megalong valley in the heart of the blue mountains. This is where we were camping for the night.... it wasn't easy to find though, as we had to get directions of some workmen, who indicated we wern't the first people to ask them that day. Once finally arriving at the camping area we were greeted by a couple more spaceships. Then we chilled out under the stars, drinking XXXX beer, and eating a lush chicken carbonara.
In the morning we visited the little town of Blackheath where we grabbed a sausage roll and a pie.... aussies just don't seem to be able to make good sausage rolls!! Then it was onto the amazing Govetts Leap... this is a 'wow' lookout. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very good, unlike our first day in the mountains which was gorgeous. After visiting evans lookout we had planned on going on a walk but we postponed as it started chucking it down... so we didn't bother with the other place we were going to visit and decided to get some driving done and get out of the mountains... as we left the mountains we found some free showers at a picnic area next to a lake... so good after a few days without a shower!
Let the long drive across to Adelaide begin....