Crystal Lodge Katoomba

... seen this on Sky TV Great Railway Journeys programme and were interested in the technicalities of getting the train down the mountain, involving stopping at 3 points, changing the engine from back to front and "zigzagging" downhill. Possibly it was better on the TV than in real life, but it was OK.

From there we went to Mount Tomah Botanic Gardens which were beautiful on a warm sunny ...

... scenic world (a cheap made, expensive tourist attraction). Arrived at the top we took a cab back to our lodge again, lazy as we are. Mary and Mary-Ellen had gone back to Sydney already after a ride out somewhere near Katoomba.

I, ignoring my bad concience for not going to hospital another day, decided to stay in the wonderful Blueys and took a loooong hot bath before going to sleep. Posted by Lorenz at 10:50 AM 0 comments

Day one I walk down to Echo point whereby I gaze upon the three sisters.

There are many variation of a sorry tale of how the sisters came to be, but here is one:



These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law wouldn't allow them to marry.
The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to ...

... back to the top of the valley. After killing a bit more time in the gift shop I then went onto the Scenic Skyway (I am using the word scenic a lot, but these were what these actual rides were called...) which is a cable car that's suspended several hundred metres above the valley below. It was a pleasant journey and I snapped away a lot. I then decided to walk back to Echo Point (the viewpoint for the Three Sisters lookout) and took the bus to the small village of Leura ...

... in the water and swam out then watched the others come down, everybody was overwhelmed with excitement. We finished off the day by rock jumping off the edge of some rocks into the pool below. Excitement over, we changed out our wetsuits at the bottom of the fall and back into our dryish gear. Bags on backs we carried our stuff back up the way we came. The wetsuits started to drain out the bottom of our yellow bags so we were all soaked pretty quick just carrying the bag ...

... back to Melbourne later that day, with a stop at half-moon bay for some fish and chips as the sun set.

We enjoyed the next few days in Melbourne, finding some grea coffee stops along Brunswick Street and in St Kilda and joining Noelene for some 7pm Eastenders viewing!! We also took a trip along the Great Ocean Road, stopping off at Bells Beach, seeing the Round the Twist Lighthouse and also going Koala spotting in some Eucalyptus trees. The scenery was ...

... lovely daydream while it lasts. And besides, why stand there looking glazed over when you can go out and LIVE the dream?! Well, for a couple of hours anyway and then go out for a nice café lunch... which is just precisely what we did ;) We set off from an obscure starting point in a residential area of the town of Wentworth, down a path into the National Park. It took us alongside a peaceful creek for a while with tall green grasses and striking ...

... nach oben. der rueckweg hiess "undercliff walk", und ich war serh froh, nur 1.6o m gross zu sein, denn alle anderen mussten sich buecken, um unter den felsen zu laufen. heute , 09.01., sind wir dem regen und dem nebel entflohen und sind bis nach cooma gefahren, das liegt am eingang zum mt. kosciuszko national park. wenn das wetter mitspielt, erklimmen wir morgen den hoechsten berg dieser gegend, den mt. kosciuszko. wir melden uns wieder mit weiteren taten!!

... th October A fairly easy going day for today started with another trip to the shops and more food shopping! It being such a lovely warm day we stayed in doors for most of it doing research on cars, Africa etc. To have a break and enjoy the sunshine we all headed out to the garden and put Flo in her paddling pool. She had a great time and really enjoyed Alex teaching her how to squirt water at Clare! Tuesday 14 ...

God are my legs gonna hurt at the end of the day today. Hiking around the blue mountains today - but doh! I don't think flip-flops was the best thing to be wearing whilst doing this!! Anyhow, scenery was stunning and see what you think about the piccies of the water falls.