The Blue Mountains

Late start from Port Macquaire as we do some phone calls home first, this 11 hour time difference is a bit tricky to work out a suitable time to call. Start down the Pacific Highway again towards Taree and then drive into Newcastle to visit the tourist information office as we are out of useful maps. They give us some directions to the Blue Mountains and away we go after a quick lunch. The van is parked on a strange slopy bit of road and I manage to trip and smack my head on the edge of the door - bah - some harsh words were said as well as some tears - no blood though which was a tad lucky.

Drive down the Newcastle - Sydney Freeway and suddenly all the roads are big with lots of lanes and joining, leaving randomly...we manage to navigate the the M2 and pay our toll at the booth...then we find ourselves on the M7 where there are no toll booths but we are supposed to pay - small flap while we get a pen to write down the phone number and sort out how to pay...must remember to ring and do it or they will fine us - how stupid. Eventually join the M4 to the Blue Mountains - we hadn't intended to drive all the way here but since we couldn't get off the motorways easily we've had to - 5 hours of driving today - not good but finally we reach the mountains and stop at the tourist information office. A helpful lady on her first day in the job is more than great and gives us leaflets and calls a caravan park to ensure we have a spot. By drives up to Katoomba where we check in with Ken and decide to stay 3 nights as it is a blissfully quiet site. (No pool is the only drawback). However, a 5 minute walk from our parked van is teh clifftop of the mountains and a view straight to the 'Three Sisters' - awesome. The place is also full of cockatoo's - sulphur crested ones, yellow tailed black ones and red tailed black ones plus a few crimson rosellas for good measure.

Early and leisurely morning before setting out for our exercise. Take the Scenic Walkway - cable car like thing across the mountains over the valley....from here we walk the clifftop to the 'Three Sisters'. Then we climb down the Giant Staircase - all 800 odd steps carved into the climb face - nice and narrow and uneven with a temperature of about 30 degrees - all seemed such a good idea when we set out. Arrive at the bottom with jelly legs and sit to recover - bounce back fine and on again to complete the 4km's up and down more steps (about 1200 in total today I think)....then take the Scenic Railway up the mountain - travels at 52 degree angle - the most acute in the world or something. Collapse in the van and do little else all day !

Drive to Jenolan Caves today - some of the world's finest - there are 9 show caves so we get a recommendation for 3 and take the one without the 900 steps ! Orient Cave is awesome - in three sections - the Persia cavern, the Egypt cavern and the India cavern. Plenty of steps but we survive the 1.5 hour tour which is very interesting and then take the self guided tour with a free handset around another two caves which are very different to the Orient. A total of about 900 steps today and I am overjoyed that By's legs are aching as much as mine as he is normally fine ! (I'm so mean). Walk by the blue lake and just miss seeing a platypus according to the people in front of us - pity.

Back in the van we drive to Govett's Leap where we can see very little as the trails are shut due to a big bush fire here just two weeks ago - remember hearing about it when we were up north but didn't pay much attention - can see the extent of the damage across the valley - not good. Evan's Lookout is the same story so we drive into Katoomba for an early tea.

Back at base - laundry and the boring stuff before trying to pack everything up - got to drop the baby off tomorrow so tis all go sorting everything out - seem to have accumulated a load of stuff !

Up early and potter around before driving into Sydney - the map we have been given by the motorhome people is more than useless - it shows selective road names but not all and no scale - I mean for god's sake - argh !

After some debate we find ourselves in the centre of Sydney - really not where we should be at all and then just as quickly seem to be in the right place - dunno how - By is struggling with the map but more by luck we are on the right road - the motorhome depot is 500m away and the road is shut - completely blocked due to a spillage of some sort - fire men and police everywhere - according to the map there are no roads to go around it...but we employ commonsense and find a way. Dump 'Big Sheila' unceramoniously outside the main door and go inside. They bearly check her over before calling us a cab to the city.