The second day dawned. This was a Good Thing. I know that there are those who believe that one day the dawn will not come although as a concept that is rather fraught with difficulties given that the dawn appears at a different place each of the seconds of each period of 24 hours. Anyway this isn't a treatise on the end of the world.
The day dawned with some sun. In fact we had some sun for some of the day and some heavy rain for some of the day: what is loosely called a mixed bag. It didn't stop us seeing the sights and being Proper Tourists and doing touristy things.
 |
| We started with breakfast at The Hatters Café |
 |
| I so wanted to buy another hat (or two or three). I could have bought a bowler, a top hat or even a Homburg. A good leather Australian bush hat would have done though. |
 |
| Then to Scenic Park with it's cable car across the valley, and fernicular railway and cable car down to the valley floor. |
 |
| and it's sculptures |
 |
| Cable car |
 |
| Some of the original coal mine buildings have been preserved |
 |
| and the original open shaft is still open to view |
 |
| with lots of information boards and some excellent sculptures |
 |
| The scenic railway is the steepest passenger train in the world with a 52° incline |
 |
| The Scenic Cable Car is 270 metres above the valley floor |
 |
| with stunning view over the valley through the rain |
 | |||||||||
| The waterfall was impressive in its height |
 |
| More cliffs and waterfalls further round the valley rim. |
 |
| Then we started the long and tedious hawl back along the Great Western Highway and the M4 to Sydney. It was like this almost the whole way. As you can see Sydney is still 26 k away and the traffic in both directions was bumper to bumper and crawling. That might have been expected leaving Sydney for the Blue Mountains given that it was Friday night but the returning traffic was a puzzle. |
Posts
Oh Heavens, that traffic !! Luckily for us, Brisbane traffic really only happens in Peak Hour and is nowhere near as bad as that ! I'd hate to do that every day!
ReplyDeleteI don't know how bad it is on ordinary weekdays Helsie but this was a Friday evening when people were 'going to the country' ie the Blue Mountains for the weekend. The really curious thing was why the queue stretched for so many kilometres going into Sydney as well.
DeleteI suppose to be fair Helsie this was a sort of 'peak hour' it just seems to last most of Friday afternoon and evening from what I was told. However Sydney itself is, as one resident told me, just a permanent traffic jam on some routes. Either way I couldn't live there. But then I haven't lived anywhere near a city for 40 years.
Delete
ReplyDeleteI love hats. Seeing a Hattery and a Hatter's Café together would definitely make me want to take a closer look!
Cable cars "not really my thing", I have to admit - so glad to be able to just look at someone else's pictures of the fantastic view :) (If I had to actually be in the cable car I'd probably automatically be keeping my eyes shut!)
Me too! I even found your images a bit vertiginous!
DeleteMonica the cable car and railway would definitely not be the thing for anyone not liking heights. Oh dear Kate the real thing would definitely not suit you then.
DeleteThis is again wonderful. The mine looks more like a drift mine than a shaft making the shaft an adit. Either way it looks good with the sculptures.
ReplyDeleteI would have stopped for a beer or two till the traffic lessened but then I'm always ready for a beer or two. I forget it is Fosters there. Perhaps not.
That's what I'd call it Adrian. This was not Yorkshire either. There's not a pub on every corner. There's not even a pub in every town.
DeleteI found the cable car in Wellington quite scary ~ so this would really unnerve me I think. I have never been to the Blue Mountains. Time I spent down there was on the Southern Highlands around Bundanoon.
ReplyDeleteCarol I've not been on the Wellington cable car but this was steeper but, I should think, shorter. I've not been to the southern Highlands so can't make a comparison either.
DeleteWhat fantastic views.....cable care rides are great for enjoying such lovely scenery....the 52 degree incline is a tad steep but I would have enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteAll my cable car rides during my travels have been gentle inclines.
Loved the sculptures and the waterfalls, but the bumper to bumper traffic not so much.
Virginia the ride was rather too short to appreciate the views but was quite exhilarating.
DeleteAwesome scenery! Thanks. Now I know exactly why you have traffic problems! You drive on the wrong side of the road! (You must get tired of clowns saying something like that.)
ReplyDeleteActually Red I always thought it was everyone else who drove on the wrong side.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSorry, left a rather rambling and disconnected comment. Let's edit it a bit before posting. I wondered if that was your shadow on the hat shop? If so, a very clever picture!
ReplyDeleteI loved your Blue Mountains photos. The place in Australia I'd most like to revisit was the Blue Mountains. I have seen quite a few photos of it but oddly enough yours are the ones which bring back to me the visual memories I had as a small child when I stayed there. Friends of my parents had a little primitive cabin in a remote spot, with a kumquat tree in the garden. It was their holiday retreat and they came out in the summer and at weekends, and we stayed overnight in tiny cramped bedrooms. I remember it as being tin but it might have been log. Anyway nothing like a "normal" house.
Seemed a long drive from Sydney, and I recall it as not having much traffic, so THAT'S obviously changed! I don't remember any other buildings near the cabin, which was reached down a track. I was thinking of the wonderful occasion when my friend's mother made toffee outside, pouring the sugar onto a baking tray and letting it set into brittle. She had pointed out that the kitchen was inadequate for cooking, which even I had noticed. I remember being very happy just wandering around and admiring the wonderful views. I was an artistic child and they made a great impression. Ialso remember being inside a forest with big fern like trees, like nothing I had seen before and being warned not to sit on any of the logs lying around, in case of snakes. Still, I was equally interested in the toffee as the scenery or wildlife, I must confess. Yum yum!
Yes, Jenny, it was my hat (and my head).
ReplyDeleteThe area is now one large holiday retreat for Sydney as well as visitors from the rest of the world. There are lots of holiday homes everywhere from tiny cottage to virtual palaces. The motorway and highway linking the mountains to Sydney mean that the journey should, in theory, take less than two hours. In practice at the weekend when most people 'escape' the journey takes a great deal more. I should detest it to the point that I would not undertake it.
It's really good to hear the experiences of someone who actually enjoyed them before they were such a commercial 'success'. I feel rather like that about the English Lake District just as my parents felt like it before I did.
We've been on both the scenic railway and the cable across the valley. First I was a bit dubious going onto that cable car until I read it was made in Thun, Switzerland, my home town. We do have traffic like that in Brisbane, every Friday afternoon after 3 pm on the way to the Gold Coast.
ReplyDeleteOf course Bill, Swiss = precision quality, so you would be reassured.
Delete