Back again mate,
I certainly had no problems getting up the next morning! Craig's house is not far from the airport and it is under the flight path for international planes so the noise soon had me awake.
When I saw Craig he told me we were going up to the Blue Mountains for the day. First we had a quick brekkie [breakfast] and I tried Vegemite on toast for the first time. It is a famous Australian spread, dark brown and salty. Most Aussies seem to like it but Pat said it is not very popular with people overseas. The taste is difficult to describe but it is very salty and slightly bitter and smooth like margarine. She said the best way to have it is on buttered toast or bread and to only spread it thinly. Apparently some people like to have cheese with it. Vegemite is usually advertised using groups of smiling, healthy children singing a catchy little song called "We're happy little Vegemites". Sometimes Aussies say 'Happy little Vegemite' to describe such children, Reagan certainly comes into that group.
Below are the words to the jingle and a photo of me being caught in the act of picking up my toast. The photo was taken just as I reached out but we didn't have time to take another one.
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We're hap-py lit-tle veg-e-mites
as bright as bright can be,
we all en-joy our Ve-ge-mite
for break-fast, lunch, and tea
our mum-mies say we're grow-ing stron-ger
eve-ry sin-gle week
be-cause we love our Ve-ge-mite
we all a-dore our Ve-ge-mite
it puts a rose in eve-ry cheek.
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Once we all were sorted and dressed we headed off on in the car. I tell you Casey it takes a while to get used to driving on the wrong side of the road. Was expecting a car to come hurtling at us at any moment. Quite strange.
The Blue Mountains, part of the Great Dividing Range, are about 100 kilometres west of Sydney and the City of the Blue Mountains is made up of 26 towns and villages. Although they are called mountains they are really sandstone structures, or cliffs, that can be over 1000 metres high, surrounding a plateau with very deep eroded gorges up to 760 metres deep and are World Heritage Listed. They were called Blue because that is the colour they look like when you can see them far in the distance. This is caused by the sunshine on the oils of the eucalyptus leaves which gives the mountains its hazy appearance. The weather up there is usually cooler than Sydney and in winter it can get very cold and it snows 2-3 times every year. In the last few years they have had some very bad bushfires through the area in the summer.
In the early settlement days people thought it would be impossible to cross over the mountains and it wasn't until 25 years after the First Fleet that 3 explorers finally managed to do so and a road was quickly built by the convicts. Once the mountains were crossed people started settling further west. Three towns were named after the explorers, Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth.
Here is a map of our trip with red dots for the places I talk about or visited.
It took us just under an hour to reach Penrith Valley, a fast growing area in the most western part of Sydney and on the pretty Nepean River, at the foot of the Blue Mountains. We then slowly climbed the lower mountains through the small towns until we arrived at Wentworth Falls. There are many spectacular lookouts here and we decided to get out and do a little walking. From one spot we had fantastic views of the Jamison Valley [left]. Those steep cliffs surrounding the valley are up to 1000 metres high and dinosaurs lived there 110 million years ago. The southerly views from the area are so vast that we could see far down the South Coast and it really made me realise the magnificence of the mountains. One area was an aboriginal site and we must be careful when visiting as tests show that people lived here 22,000 years ago. Isn't that mind boggling?
After another short drive we walked to Wentworth Falls Lake. This is an artificial lake made to provide water for the steam trains in the early 20th century but now it is a reserve. Enjoying the scenery I suddenedly spied a koala [ko-a-la] in a tree. He looked so cuddly. A koala is a marsupial and it is found along the eastern coast of Australia. It has a thick, soft coat,
large ears and long limbs with large, sharp claws to help it to climb. Koalas usually stay up in the trees and eat Eucalyptus leaves. It has a very small brain about the size of a walnut surrounded by fluid and is the only animal in the world with such a strangely reduced brain.
A baby koala is called a 'joey', just like a baby kangaroo, as a 'joey' is the name of any baby marsupial. When a 'joey' is born it is blind, furless and the size of a jelly bean. It crawls across the mother's fur to make its way into the pouch where it will stay for several months, only feeding on milk. The baby Koala will remain with the mother for another six months or so, riding on her back, and feeding on both milk and gum leaves until about 12 months of age. It will return to the pouch to sleep or for safety if danger threatens. Koalas do not have a lot of energy so they spend most of their time sleeping. They are one of the few mammals that has fingerprints. In fact, koala fingerprints are very similar to human fingerprints and it can be quite difficult to tell the difference.
Next was a walk to the falls themselves. Most waterfalls in the mountains are best seen after a rainfall. We decided to have a cuppa here and Shan surprised me with some lamingtons, a famous Aussie treat. They are delicious squares of sponge cake, coated in chocolate and then rolled in coconut. Often they are also filled with cream. Pat said that when Craig was young and belonged to a musical youth group they had a lamington drive and made over 100 dozen lamingtons. By the time they had finished, her house had chocolate and coconut from one end to the other but all the kids enjoyed themselves. You can find a link to a recipe for Lamingtons under Resources on the Top Menu Bar or view a lamington by hovering
here.
After spending some time enjoying the views and the tranquillity we climbed into the car and continued on. We passed through Leura, famous for its beautiful open English style gardens. They are always a sight in autumn with all the trees changing colours and in spring with beautiful flowering bulbs. Many people visit just to view them. Next came Katoomba, the main town in the mountains, famous for its mountain views and bush walks and of course the Three Sisters which tower above the Jamison Valley. To get a good look at these we needed to go to Echo Point.
The Three Sisters are a rock formation and one of the Blue Mountains most famous sights. Because the mountains are made of soft sandstone, over the years they have been worn away by wind, rain and rivers and the cliffs surrounding the valley slowly broke up. After many years the Three Sisters appeared but as time goes on they will disappear as they're eroded away as well. Where the rock looks orange is the areas of fresh erosion. The sisters are named Meehni, Wimlah and Gunnedoo and there is an interesting aboriginal legend about them. The story says that three sisters fell in love with three men from a neighbouring tribe, but marriage was forbidden by tribal law. Battle broke out and the sisters were turned to stone by a witch doctor to protect them but when he was killed in the fighting there was no one else that could turn them back.
From here we went onto Scenic World where they have the Scenic Skyway, which travels across the gorge at Katoomba Falls; the Scenic Cableway [the steepest in Australia]; the Scenic Railway [the steepest railway in the world]. The railway was built to pull ore up from the valley floor but after WWII it became a tourist spot. We chose to go down on the railway. After passing through a rock tunnel we went down so fast to the rainforest floor. Wow! What a blast! You would have loved it Casey. Then we went along the walkway to the Cableway where we went back up to the top and had our lunch. The photo on the far right is how the railway looked in 1900 and today on the right. Can you see how steep it is as it comes out of the rock tunnel?
One of the activities one can do in the mountains is abseiling [rappelling] the cliffs in the area. Abseiling is a method of descending a cliff etc. on a rope in a controlled and safe way. While we were here, Craig asked me would I like to give it a try as it is an awesome experience and fairly easy to do. I was up for it as they had a beginner's cliff nearby. We had to wear a hard hat and a harness for safety. After a quick lesson we were off. Here I am ready to descend. It was great fun.
Further on from this area is another popular tourist attraction called the Jenolan Caves, but as they take a full day on their own to explore, we didn't go there. They are the oldest open limestone caves that have been discovered in the world, more than 340 million years old. They were discovered when a man was looking for his missing cattle in 1838. The entrance to the caves is called the grand Arch and is so huge that cars can drive through this passageway to the Jenolan Valley. The most popular cave there is the Lucas Cave [photo below] which has many sections including one called The Cathedral, [photo right] over 50 metres high. Lights are placed to make it look like a cathedral window and people can get married in this cave.
Our next stop was the Zig Zag Railway, a heritage railway at Clarence, near Lithgow. It was built in 1869 so that the trains from Sydney could reach Bathurst. Clarence was the highest railway station on the mountains and they needed to find a way for the trains to go down into the valley. There was a choice of cutting a 2 mile long tunnel or to build a Zig Zag [switchback]. The Zig Zag was the easiest and cheapest. The Lithgow Zig Zag was the first full zig zag to be built in the world. Today it is a Steam and Diesel Tourist Railway and they have many old steam and diesel trains there. We were going so that Reagan could see Thomas the Tank Engine with Annie and Clarabel. Norma, Roger and Kingsley were there as well as The Fat Controller. There he is in the photo with us below right. It was fun riding and looking at the trains.
Move your cursor over the photos below and you will hear the sounds of the railway.
It was now time to head back to the city. We chose to go down the Bells Line of Road, named after the young explorer Bell, who at the age of 19 was the first person to walk it. The road makes its way through beautiful rich farmland as it descends down to the base of the mountains and along the way there is bushland scenery and sandstone cliffs. After a short while we passed Mount Tomah Botanic Gardens. It is here that they are growing a very rare tree called the Wollemi Pine also called the 'dinosaur tree' or 'living fossil' as it dates back to the dinosaur era. It was only discovered in 1994 in the nearby National Park and there have been less than 100 trees found. Where the exact spot is has been kept a secret so the trees will not be damaged. The Gardens started growing them from seed so that they would not become extinct and in 2005 one was sent to the USA and is at the United States Botanic Garden in Washington.
As we continued our descent we passed Bilpen and Berambing famous for their apples and stone fruits and we stopped at one of the roadside stalls and bought some apples to munch on. At Kurrajong Heights we had spectacular views across the Sydney region to the ocean. Kurrajong is the aboriginal word for 'shade tree'. In the early days, the Kurrajong tree seeds were roasted as a coffee substitute. It is a beautiful area with rolling green hills, panoramic views and you can hear the unique call of the bell birds. We descended to the base of the mountains and passed through Richmond and Windsor both on the Hawkesbury River [that large river we crossed on the train]. The area was settled very early in the colony as it had very fertile soil and was the perfect spot to grow the new colony's grain. The Royal Australian Air Force Base where the well known Air Shows are held, has been built at Richmond and there are still many old historic buildings in the area. Windsor was the third European settlement in Australia after Sydney Cove and Parramatta. Twenty two settlers went there in 1794 to start farming and so a road from Sydney Cove was built.
Finally we were back in the suburbs and coming to our journey's end. As we had to catch the train back to the Central Coast Craig dropped us off at the railway station at Strathfield. Pat and I then had the long train journey ahead of us. We reached 'Serendipity' late that night, very tired but happy after such an action packed weekend. By that time I was looking forward to having a good night's sleep and just relaxing around the pool for a few days.
Well that's it for the moment Casey. Catch you later mate, Stanley.
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