We started Saturday morning driving north from Canberra to Goulburn and stopping for coffee at the "Giant Merino", a four or five story building built in the shape of a giant sheep. From Goulburn we headed north on gravel roads through pretty but sparsely populated country. We did see colorful lorikeets and green parrots and stopped to stretch our legs at the Bummaroo Bridge. We pressed on through Oberon, Hartley, Mount Victoria, and Black Heath, now in the heart of the Blue Mountains, so called because the eucalyptus trees (also known as blue gums) give off a blue haze. Our weather was nice but cool and became cloudier and cooler in the mountains. At Black Heath we stopped at Govett's Leap lookout to view a canyon carved into the earth and a long waterfall. From there we drove through Katoomba to Leura, where we checked into our bed & breakfast inn called Megalong Manor.
Megalong Manor has only three rooms and we had reserved the "Lindsay Suite", named after Norman Lindsay, an Australian artist who is the subject of a movie soon to come out. The room was decorated in Victorian style with a four-poster bed and antiques. It was very nice and Robin, the owner and host, was very friendly. Leura is one of the prettiest towns in the Blue Mountains and its main street shops are all part of the National Trust of historical buildings. We walked around Leura (it doesn't take long) and looked in some shops. Then we drove to Katoomba, the main city of the Blue Mountains. We walked along its main street, which isn't quite as quaint, in a cool drizzle. Then we went to Echo Point on the outskirts of Katoomba and looked over the valley below and the "Three Sisters", which are eroded rock outcroppings. They are the subject of an aboriginal legend of three sisters turned to stone by their witch doctor father. The view is beautiful even in cool, cloudy weather.
We went back to our inn and made dinner reservations at the Bon Ton restaurant in Leura, just a short walk from where we stayed. We had an excellent meal washed down with Australian white wine.
Sunday morning we took our time getting up and out. Our room and bed were so comfortable we began a week of sleeping late and relaxing. The weather was still cool and cloudy but we went back to Echo Point and the Three Sisters. We went to other lookouts in the area and took lots of photos. We went into Katoomba and to the famous Paragon cafe. It is famous because it was built in the 1930s and still retains its charm and art deco design. Their specialty is chocolates so, after coffee and mud cake, we bought some chocolate candy to carry around with us.
We walked around Leura some more and drove to Sublime lookout for a photo op. From Sublime lookout we drove the Cliff Road, which has several lookouts over the valley/canyon, to the Scenic Railway, an old coal miners train that carried miners to the valley floor. We took the exciting ride down. It's said to be the steepest train ride in the world with an incline of 51% in places. At the bottom we hiked along trails and saw Katoomba Falls from the bottom. We went back to Katoomba for a good dinner in a Thai restaurant.
Monday was our 30th anniversary. We drove to Black Heath and found a deli where we bought breads, pates and cheeses for a picnic lunch. Robin, our host at the inn, had given us a bottle of champagne so we took that as well. Near the town of Bell, we went to Wall's lookout and had our picnic lunch. This area had bad forest fires last Christmas but is already showing signs of re-growth. We drove to Lithgow and then headed south to the Jenolan Caves, a very large network of caves with several different tours. We took a tour to the Cerberus Pool, a clear blue pool that is a part of a large underground river. We drove back to Leura and were surprised by another bottle of champagne and a dozen red roses provided by Robin.
We had a very nice dinner at the Rooster restaurant in Katoomba. It was strange because the restaurant was empty except for us and we had the waiter all to ourselves. It was a small restaurant but I guess Monday night is an off night. After dinner we drove back to Echo Point to view the Three Sisters by floodlight.
Tuesday morning we checked out of Megalong Manor and headed east on the Great Western highway towards Sydney. In one of the Sydney suburbs near Paramatta, we stopped to visit the Featherdale Animal Park, a recommendation of friends at work. It is like a large petting zoo which our niece, Morgan, would love. We got to hold and pet koalas and kangaroos. There were other Australian animals and birds as well but those were the highlights.
Rita navigated us through the Sydney suburbs and we headed north towards the Hunter Valley, home to about 30 wineries. Here we checked into the Casuarina Inn which has about seven rooms, all decorated and named according to a theme. Ours was the French Bordello room - enough said! We drove to Maitland, nearby, to look into the George and Dragon Inn for dinner but decided on the restaurant at our inn. We had a nice meal with local wine at the Casuarina.
Wednesday we drove to several wineries nearby to sample and buy wines to take back home. We went to Lindemans, McWilliams, Brokenwood and Tyrells. We also stopped at the Small Winemakers office for tastings and lunch. We drove up in the hills for a scenic overlook of the valley. And we drove to the small, historic town of Wollombi and had a beer at the Wollombi Tavern, home of Dr. Jurd's Jungle Juice. Of course I had to buy a bottle to take home. We purchased altogether about a case and a half of wines to take back. For dinner we ate at Roberts of Peppertree, a very nice restaurant. It will be a long, long time before I forget the chocolate dessert I had there!
Thursday we checked out and headed towards Sydney. Heading through Cessnock, my mind went blank and I turned into the wrong lane at an intersection. First time since driving here that I reverted to driving on the right. Normally I'm used to driving on the left now. But there wasn't much traffic and the locals just figured I had too much wine sampling that morning.
We made our way into Sydney and across the big Harbour Bridge, only to be in the wrong lane at the wrong time and got lost in downtown Sydney. But we found our hotel, parked the car for three days, and checked in. In Sydney we stayed at the Ramada Renaissance hotel where they put us on the 24th floor overlooking the city. We were only a block away from Sydney Harbour and Circular Quay. We walked to the Opera House and picked up tickets for the next night's performance that we had purchased earlier. We picked up a sandwich and ate in a park nearby, then walked around the oldest part of Sydney, The Rocks. The Rocks today is a mass of shops and restaurants. We spent a lot of time walking around this historic district and looking at shops. We watched the dockside party as a cruise ship departed and had dinner at Caminetto Italian restaurant.
Friday was a long day starting with a walk part way across the Harbour Bridge. We had excellent views from there and took several photos. The Sydney Harbour with ferry boats, opera house, bridge and Circular Quay is so scenic that we felt compelled to take photos from every conceivable angle.
We signed up with a harbour cruise, one which we could depart and reboard at about five stops. We headed towards the entrance of the harbour and departed the boat at Watson's Bay. We had an excellent seafood meal at Doyle's on the Beach, a Sydney institution, with excellent views of the city. We took a short hike up the hill for views of the Pacific Ocean and the entrance into Sydney Harbour. We boarded the next boat, which stopped at the Taronga Zoo then went under Harbour Bridge to Darling Harbour, where we departed again. About this time we realized that we had forgotten hats and sun screen and we could tell we were very burnt. We walked around the shopping malls at Darling Harbour, had some ice cream and took a ride on the monorail that went over Chinatown and part of Sydney. We caught the next boat back to Circular Quay and went back to the hotel to clean up.
We were both sunburnt and Rita had blisters on her feet but we managed to get ourselves ready for a night at the opera. We saw a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, The Gondoliers, that was lively and fun. The Sydney Opera House has two main auditoriums, the opera hall and concert hall. We were in the larger opera hall but it was not all that large. The acoustics were good and we had a very nice evening even though we were tired. We ordered a late night dinner in our room after we returned.
Saturday was our last full day in Sydney and by now we were tiring. We followed our guide book and walked along Bridge Street and then Macquarie Street, looking at historic buildings along the way. We stopped to tour the Hyde Park Barracks, one of the oldest buildings. It had several uses but its first use was as a prison for the early prisoners sent over from England. We looked into the oldest church in Sydney, St. James, and walked to the Queen Victoria Building. Pierre Cardin called it the most beautiful shopping mall in the world. It is very nice, built in the 1880s and recently restored. We looked in some shops but didn't feel like shopping. We had lunch there in a Viennese coffee house. Then we walked to Hyde Park and rested on a park bench for a while. After a while we walked again along William Street to Kings Cross area. This is the wild side of Sydney with hookers, adult stores and strip bars. There are also some good restaurants in this area but we weren't impressed much with the area so we didn't make any reservations. We walked to the Elizabeth Bay area with nice views of the harbour. Then through Woolloomooloo and the Botanical Gardens to The Rocks where we ate pizza for our last Sydney meal. It was a long and tiring day.
Sunday we took our time checking out and headed back home on the Hume highway. We stopped at an Ikea store in the suburbs to buy a small rug and desk lamp, then pressed on. Halfway home we stopped in the pretty, historic village of Berrima. There are lots of little shops here and we had a Devon tea with scones. Then back home where we unpacked and settled back to normalcy, whatever that is.
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