Sydney Post-Christmas Holiday - Day 3 - Blue Mountains

Adam is exhausted:

We had decided to spend the day in the Blue Mountains, with a bit of advice from Eldon Davison about some of the sites to see. Elissa particularly wanted to do some bushwalking, and we determined that Wentworth Falls would be the likely candidate.

We'd stocked up on breakfast items' from the Emperor's Garden the previous day to allow us a quick breakfast, so we were able to head out for the drive further into the mountains, with the first stop being Wentworth Falls.

The plan was to walk from Wentworth Falls to the Valley of the Waters, however upon getting there I was a bit certain about whether the kids or I would be able to complete the trek, as it was rated a hard trek of 3-4hrs, with much of it ascending and descending the cliffs. In the end, we ended up going down to the Princes Rock Lookout, along the Overcliff Pass and National Pass. All up we walked for about 2.5 hours along tracks that varied from open bush, to expansive lookouts to crouching through small caves to railed cliffside paths to literally walking through waterfalls.. The paths were wet and muddy, and there were lots of tourists, but it was an awesome experience.

7-photo stitched panorama - view from National Pass - click to enlarge

By the time we got back to the carpark, it was determined that I wasn't going to die from the walking and stair climbing, well, at least not for a while, so we headed into Katoomba for lunch, to another of the "1015 Things" - the Paragon Cafe.

The Paragon Cafe is a rather unassuming normal shopfront on Katoomba's main street on the outside, but on the inside it is a National Trust listed example of 1930's Art Deco style architecture. The entry featured old style counters and displays of hand made chocolates. We were then ushered through into the front dining area containing ornate wooden booths with wooden carvings of Greco-Roman history. We were invited to explore the rest of the cafe whilst our food was being prepared. The other rooms were equally as impressive - ornate designed rooms filled with wood, brass, mirrors all detailed with exquisite intricacy and workmanship.Lunch itself was nice too - the menu is very simple - very traditional British/early Australian fare from the 30s era, but it was delicious with generous servings. We topped off our great lunch with some of their hand made chocolates

Following on from lunch, we drove out to Blackheath to Govett's Leap. This featured a lookout across the Grose Valley, the Bridal Veil Falls and walks down to the Horseshoe Falls. Jayde was all "walked out" and so stayed at Govett's Leap to sketch whilst the rest of started the walk down to the Horseshoe Falls. The path become too wet and slippery for my liking so Jewel and I headed back to keep Jayde company whilst Elissa and Seth continued on.

5-photo stitched panorama - view from Govett's Leap - click to enlarge

After taking in the Govett's Leap views, we continued on down the Victoria Pass end of the Blue Mountains down into the small historic village of Old Hartley. This consists of a a dozen or so well preserved buildings from the 1830s. We had fun having a quick look around and discussing what it would have been like back in its prime.

We then took the drive back to the camp spot, detouring via Katoomba and Leura to do the Cliff Drive on the way home. Elissa had wanted a BBQ for dinner and we were looking at where we could go to have one when we got a text from the Davison's, inviting us to have a BBQ dinner with them. I grabbed some some food at the local shops to contribute to the BBQ, including a salmon steak for Elissa in lieu of us missing our Anniversary celebrations because we were camping. It was an enjoyable evening with the Davisons, we all got on well, including the kids. We had fun during the preparations identifying a geocache in the neighbouring park, which the kids then took off to try and find after Eldon & I had originally discovered it.  Later on, we enjoyed a small bonfire out the back that Eldon set up which both families then sat around toasting marshmallows over and talking.