Echoes Boutique Hotel Katoomba

... beckon.

Arrived in Leura at about 11am, for coffee, then headed to Katoomba where we have B & B arranged for two nights. Went to Scenic World and did the cable car, scenic railway and scenic skyway experiences, high above the valley floor. Also walked a bit through the rainforest.

After that we had a wander through Katoomba town centre before booking into the B & B, which came ...

... and as a surgeon and pilot! - I questioned his wisdom in his pursuits...surely area's where a steady hand might be the preferred!? ;-)
Anyway we scrambled around a big rock - and told others had reached ruined castle --only to -discover the real ruined castle further down the way.. DOH! we then proceeded to scramble around this - and then onto Mount Solidary. Time had totally escaped us once again - and therfore around 3pm, having set off at 8am, we're just about half of the ...

... elusive falls. Well, after walking for about an age, and covering a meagre distance I decided to call it quits. I found myself walking through quaggy soil, lush temperate rainforests and canyons. I couldn't find the falls and the frustration was setting in. So, as I had to wait for 30 minutes for the bus, I persevered. 22 minutes later I again failed and walked back to the bus stop defeated and annoyed. But, tomorrow is another day and I will find this place come what may!

... the Grand Arch and lucky for me i was the only person on the tour (everyone else was in the Lucas Cave), it wasnt even busy at the caves and was a lovely hot day. I entered the cave and just sat by myself admiring this utterly gorgeous rock formation. There was nothing except the sound of birds and me, so so quiet and so perfect, I could have sat their all day. The caves were explored just under 200 years ago and to this day there are about 300 odd cave ...

... travellers we had met, but we found we enjoyed it more than expected - esp the South Australia Museum which had excellent Aboriginal displays and some beauiful minerals on show. It was soooo hot today, but fortunately we managed to spend most of the day outside of the suns penetrating rays,,.,

Today (14th Jan) we visited the Barossa Valley - one of the main draws for us heading out west to Adelaide. We visited the rather corporate (but very pictureque) Jacob's ...

... through lush rainforest and past picturesque waterfalls, great and small. There were quite a few of these handsome water features, each one totally unique to the others, but one in particular completely and utterly stole the show. I have never seen anything quite like Wentworth Falls. The name is totally inadequate as far as giving any clue to the magnificence of these falls goes. The cumulative drop measures a drop of 300m, but an intermediate ...

... and hot so with a 2 hour drive ahead of us we made tracks after an hour or so. The drive to the Blue Mountains is quite straight forward and we made good progress as we started the crawl up the mountains after passing through Glenbrook. We stayed at the same hotel when we were here in December 2006. It's very nice and serves as a bit of pampering after 21 nights in the ...

... Centre after which we all went to the free Maritime Museum. The exhibition was outstanding for a free entry attraction and very inspiring. We had a great day and were so glad to have met up with the Heads. On the return journey we stopped in at Mark and Kate's to say a final farewell and wish them luck on their future travels. Wednesday 15 th October The trees were finished off today and the yard ...

... trail through the rainforests and bush. next we headed up to various other pretty viewpoints around the place and an awesome sunset over the vast valley. Late into the evening we hit the Sydney traffic once more and the turmoil of one way roads in Bondi our home for the next couple of nights. The guesthouse was nothing like it had advertised on the website and frankly we were a bit disapointed but it didnt really matter as it's just somewhere to sleep and we needed that!

We woke up at about 7am, Katie feeling refreshed and well-rested, me feeling like half the house had collapsed on my head.

Thankfully we both went straight back to sleep, until Rob knocked on the door at 8:30 to say goodbye as he was off to work.

Katoomba, Australia al_fey