Friday, July 20, 2012

Driving Holiday

Sorry...took awhile to get back.
Hubby and I had a lovely 10 day drive down the New England Highway to Bathurst, the Jenolan Caves, the Blue Mountains and the Hunter Valley. As I said in the last post, the main aim was a visit to Anni Down's store -The Home Patch, but we also got to see other parts of our lovely country that neither of us had seen before.

 


 Of course, we both had a drive around Bathurst's Mt. Panorama race circuit. (Note to non- Aussies - this race circuit is in real life a normal road , but 2 times a year becomes the scene of some great car racing.) It would have to be the best bit of bitumen in Australia!

  The Jenolan Caves are thought to be the oldest cave system in the world - around 340 million years old. We really enjoyed our day here and would recommend it to anyone.
Before leaving Bathurst, I was able to have coffee with blogmate Janice before she started work for the day. No photo - we only had a short time together and we were talking too fast to even think about getting the camera out.


 We stayed at Glenella - a comfortable old guest house/ B&B at Blackheath in the Blue Mountains. They had a warm and inviting log fire in their large guest lounge. The photo, above and left, is of one of the 3  rides at Scenic World at Katoomba. It is the 52 degree scenic railway (in other words really steep). Originally it was the railway used by miners to remove coal from mines at the bottom of the cliffs, early in the 1900s. Later, bushwalkers  would ask for a lift back to the top instead of climbing out. Eventually it became a tourist attraction. It is quite daunting. Another way to the bottom is the cable car. The Skyway goes from one point to another over a gorge with a great view of the Katoomba Falls. The Skyway has a glass floor so you can see down to the bottom of the gorge.

We finished up in the Hunter Valley wine country. We did a 'Hunters and Gatherers' tour with the 'Two Fat Blokes' -  a delicious tour with a friendly fun and very informative host. I'd be happy to go back there again.

Actually I'd be happy to go back to everywhere we went. All in all, it was a restful time away, enjoying seeing new places.

But back to normal life now, which has included some productive sewing.

Take care,
Kayly


9 comments:

Maria said...

Certainly is a beautiful part of Australia; love the photos!That scenic railway looks a bit daredevil! lol

Susan said...

Sounds like you had a great time - I love the Blue Mountains.

Peg - Happy In Quilting said...

Great photos so pleased you had a fab time.....

Michelle Ridgway said...

Great pics Kayly, we will be travelling home along that way and I am sure will have to do the Bathurst thing AGAIN! So glad you had a lovely trip.

Janice said...

I'm glad you enjoyed your time in this part of the world. It was nice to have a catch up - be it short. That tour in the Hunter sounds very interesting.

Anita said...

Looks like you had a fantastic trip!!

Anonymous said...

Such a lovely part of the world down here near us :) Glad you enjoyed a little bit of NSW. Maybe the ZOO next time :)

reeta said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
reeta said...

The trip home was exhausting and a bit harrowing in places as we had to drive ...