Richmond and into the Blue Mountains
Wednesday 17th October Off today heading for Richmond, passing over the River Lidell near Muswellbrook. This provides a source of power for the surrounding area. There is vast mining of coal and sand in the area. Where on earth is Muswellbrook?: Well, it is a town in the Upper Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, about 243 km north of Sydney and 127 km north-west of Newcastle. Geologically, Muswellbrook is situated in the northern parts of the Sydney basin, bordering the New England region.
Ever onward and over the very old Bulga bridge and eventually a stop at the halfway house. I'd forgotten about the road houses as this is the first one we have been to on this visit. They are much more a thing on the western side where there are such great distances between places.
We are then dropped down in to the lower Hunter valley and some of the serious wine regions of the area. There is also a lot of fruit and veggies grown around here.
The scenery on the way was beautiful. Some of the colours of the trees were great. We are now in Richmond and have booked into a Great Western for the night as there is no camp site here. We are now ready for our journey along the Bells Line of road.
Thursday 18th October Along the Bells Line Road today, through the Blue Mountain N.P. We were away by 8.00 as we thought there would be plenty to see.
The heat from these bushfires assisted these seed pods to burst open, shooting their seed widely.
We stopped at Mount Banks picnic spot but were unable to drive into the park due to structural damage caused by a massive forest fire in December/January. However we did walk in so we could get some pictures. The fire had gutted places, but new growth was appearing.
We then drove onto Pierces Pass where we walked a few kilometers so we could see the view of Grose Gorge. It was a bit rough going but well worth it. The view was awe inspiring. This was a place you could have sat all day and never tired of the view.
Waterfall in Mount Tomah Botanic Garden
One small lizard sunning himself on a rock
From here we went back to Mount Tomah Botanic Garden which had been closed when we went by at 8.30. We had lunch and a stroll round some of the gardens, really just to pass the time.
We continued our drive towards Lithgow taking a detour to Mt Wilson the way. We went to see the cathedral of ferns and the giant eucalyptus tree. It was all a bit overrated we thought. From here to Lithgow where we found a camp site and stopped for the night.
Friday 19th October Today we traveled from Lithgow to Oberon We shopped first at Lithgow. We were quite prompt as we wanted to get washing done before Graham and Jane arrived.
Once gathered we spent the day catching up and making arrangements for the next two days. It really was good to catch up with the family as they are all such fun to be with.
On the Saturday, we all went to Katoomba to visit the scenic world. This included a ride on the scenic railway, scenic cable car and the scenic skyway.
This was the cable car which looks a long way up even at the start!
... But when you are on the cable car and look down to the shadow of it on the canyon floor!! That's a long way!
Cockatoo (a parrot) posing near the car entrance
The Scenic Railway is an incline railway now used for tourism. The steepest section of track is on an incline of 52 degrees contained within a total distance of 310 metres (1,020 ft). It was originally constructed for a coal and oil shale mining operation in the Jamison Valley in the 1880s, in order to haul the coal and shale from the valley floor up to the escarpment above. From 1928 to 1945 it carried coal during the week and passengers at weekends. The coal mine was closed in 1945 after which it remained as a tourist attraction.
We walked from the scenic skyway for half hour and saw several views and then returned and took the railway to the railway bottom and took the Lilly Pilly walkway which took us through the old mine. From here we caught the cable car which took us back to the top. We jumped back onto the replica trolley tour which took us round all the interesting sights around Katoomba and Laura village. Having done this we drove back to Echo Point and took pictures of the Three Sisters as the sun was dipping. Tez and John did part of the Giant Stairway which took them across to the first of the Three Sister.
The famous `must see` as a tourist - The Three Sisters with some local information about this famous site:
The Three Sisters is the Blue Mountains’ most spectacular landmark. Located at Echo Point Katoomba, around 2.5 kilometres from the Great Western Highway, this iconic visitor attraction is experienced by millions of people each year.
The Three Sisters is essentially an unusual rock formation representing three sisters who according to Aboriginal legend were turned to stone.
The character of the Three Sisters changes throughout the day and throughout the seasons as the sunlight brings out the magnificent colours. The Three Sisters is also floodlit until around 11pm each evening looking simply spectacular set against the black background of the night sky. Not that we saw that, as we were there just before sunset and it looked pretty good then.
The Legend
The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe.
These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry.
The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle.
As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come.
On our return to the camp site we stopped for a meal to celebrate John's 40th Birthday, ending our third full week in Australia.
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