Blue Mountains, Bathurst and Jenolian Caves - 5th September

After the big night at Mike and Sharon's we managed a bit of a sleep in with the boys.......well 7am anyhow ;)  So our start was a little slower than normal, but a good thing really and we were on the road just after 9am to miss most of the Sydney traffic. It took us about 1 hour to get out of Narrabeen travelling via Ryde and Parramatta with speed zones averaging 40 to 60km's an hour. Finally after avoiding tolls (mostly by taking wrong turns) we travelled along the Western Motor Way with our first stop being the Wentworth Falls. 


See photo - The view surrounding Wentworth falls.



See photo - Wentworth Falls,
even a rainbow.

As we entered the Blue Mountains it was spectacular and even the boys were impressed. The temperature dropped 4 degrees and we climbed to nearly 900m above sea level. We found out that The Greater Blue Mountains Area consists of 1.03 million hectares of sandstone plateau's, escarpments and gorges dominated by eucalyptus forest. The most globally important value of the Greater Blue Mountains is the area's representation of ecosystems dominated by eucalyptus. The eucalyptus forest communities of the region are the most diverse and intact hard-leaved forests in the Earth's temperate zone. So what better way to embrace that than to take a 2 hour walk up, down and around well formed tracks and the most amazing outlooks at the Wentworth Falls. We were in awe and no picture can fully describe the beauty of this area (once again lucky with the weather).

 

See photo - Three Sisters at Katoomba.

See photo - Standing next to sister 'Meehni'.

Continuing on we headed to Katoomba, where the amazing Three Sisters reside. They are 922, 918 & 906 mts respectively. That's over 3000 feet above sea level!  The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' & 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.

See photo - Truely a magic view - The Three Sisters.

 We walked onto one of the Three Sisters down some very steep stairs, and in one point almost a ladder. It was truly breathtaking, and to be honest we would not expect anything less from this natural wonderland. We could have spent more time walking around on the many tracks, but the boys were keen to go ... Zig Zagging!

Blast Furnace (can you see Aiden & Chris?)

See photo - 1960's diesel train we went on.

After a chilly night and views of the low cloud around the Three Sisters we hit the road to Lithgow and saw the historic Blast Furnace site (1907) then ..... onto the famous Zig Zag Railway. The heritage railway at Clarence operates on the site of the famous Great or Lithgow Zig Zag which operated between 1869 and 1910. As built, the line formed part of the Main West Line from Sydney across the Blue Mountains and served to lower the line from its summit ,into the Lithgow valley on the western side. The Zig Zag railway run steam and diesel haul trains. In the 1967/68 a group of steam enthusiasts headed by Ian Thornton decided to restore the Lithgow Zig Zag as a heritage railway due to its fascinating history. It's a must do, the achievements of it's time are amazing to see and hear. We went on a Diesel train built in the 1960's, and Chris got to help switch the tracks then we all got to explore the 'train workshop', which was dirty, smelly and full of trains of all descriptions including.......... "Thomas and James"!  ........... now that was enough excitement for one day.

See photo - View of viaduct No. 1.

See photo - James with the boys sitting in the drivers seat

We headed on and arrived in the town of Bathurst located just off the Blue Mountain .range. Bathurst and its surrounding areas saw much of the beginnings of Australian colonial settlement .  Bathurst  was Australia's first inland settlement and the oldest inland city. It's not just about the racetrack!! ( she said ! ) It's a lovely town with examples of early settlement and an abundance of heritage 1800's architecture .................

See photo - Aiden in his element at the
Bathurst Museum.

See photo - Mount Panorama track.

First stop..... Mt Panorama Museum, Chris and Aiden went in, whilst Riley and Mum caught up on some school work. After the two rev heads enjoyed all the excitement of fast cars and bikes, we headed to set up camp at the Bathurst Show grounds, which was the only other option from the Big 4 Caravan Park located out of town. Another day almost gone we had dinner, showers and jumped in the car for our first ride around Mount Panorama at sunset! We thought we'd test the track to see if we could get the caravan around.........!  After a rainy night we awoke at 6.30am to beautiful clear sky's and took the car for another run up the mountain for some panoramic photographs. We headed back for breakfast and to prepare the van for her racing debut.
"It's cool to think we went round Mt Panorama racetrack with an 18ft caravan on the back! "

See photo - Retro and the caravan on 'Brock's Skyline' at Mount Panorama.

See photo - Huge log pile on the way to the Jenolan Caves.

We made our way south to Oberon where we decided to leave the caravan (at the local caravan park) and headed out to the Jenolan Caves. The drive was 25 min along a logging and quarrying route for local trucks, then the road began to tighten up and wind its way downhill to the caves, this road is not for caravans! 

See photo - Lucas Cave.

See photo - Riley looking at the cool cave formations.

The cave network is enormous - over 40 km of multi-level passages - still undergoing active exploration. We visited the Lucas Cave, found in 1860 and which features a number of large chambers including the Cathedral, over 50 metres high, the vast Exhibition Chamber which contains the Broken Column formation. We then entered the Orient Cave (our favourite) discovered in 1903, the Orient Cave was opened to public in 1917, This cave contains some of the grandest formations in the complex and was steam cleaned to preserve them in 1968... truly a fairy tail sight. We were pleasantly surprised the boys managed almost 4 hours of caving with our guide and only one toilet break!

The Jenolan Caves are the most celebrated and the oldest discovered, open caves in the world at 340 million years old, they include numerous Silurian marine fossils of great interest to the geological community.

See photo - Bell and the boys with The Big Merino.

After yet another chilly night (thank goodness we have a heater in the caravan, looks like it'll get a workout as we head south), we headed off to Canberra via Goulburn which has 'The Big Merino' which is a celebration of the Australian fine wool industry, and of course we had to take in all the sights along the way. Lucky for us it has recently been renovated and it was looking ............ big!

We contemplated staying in Goulburn, but decided to push through to Canberra, this proved to be a good decision as unbeknown to us it was a busy weekend in the Nations Capital! We enjoyed an easy drive along the concrete Federal Hwy into the ACT, crossing our 4th boarder. With vast open plains, The Great Dividing Range seemed arid like, with no greenery, but interesting mountains and sculptured trees which keep you tuned in and awake for most of the trip......especially if your driving!.

Enjoy our next video out of the city!

See image - Our Journey on this leg - Blue Mountains and beyond.