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As usual, the birds made a racket in the morning. In fact, one
was laughing so loudly and distinctly that it sounded like a monkey
laughing its head off high above in the trees.
Our campsite
After our usual camping breakfast of oatmeal, pop tarts, and hot
chocolate, we packed up and started the nail-biting drive back
up. It was good thing we were only staying for one night! If we
had stayed a second night, we probably would have decided to stay
in a motel the second night.
Road from Murphy's Glen
Jean and I began to wonder if anyone ever uses the road anymore,
except perhaps for rangers. After what seemed an eternity, we
emerged back onto the paved road unscathed. Relieved, we stopped
in Leura so Jean could get her coffee and I could get some orange
juice. Jean also found a place selling wool hats and blankets
and couldn't resist.
Originally, I'd been thinking of doing a long hike this day. But
we were both sore from the previous day and we wanted to relax
and enjoy the sights more. So I decided to go for a shorter hike
and leave time to see a few more sights, like the Three Sisters.
So off we went to Govett's Leap Lookout near Blackheath, where
we'd hike to Pulpit Rock and back.
Just after we pulled into the large Govett's Leap Lookout parking
lot, a tour bus unloaded about 20 people. Fortunately, they didn't
stay long and obviously weren't hiking. They looked at the view
and a few minutes later were gone. The wind here was quite strong,
as were my allergies. After a few days reprieve, they'd returned.
The gusty winds didn't help. I took the other half of the antihistamine
pill.
The view from Govett's Leap Lookout is inspiring. It reminds me
of the Grand Canyon, only greener (and of course smaller). To
be honest, I was surprised there weren't more people here considering
it's only a 1 1/2 hour drive from Sydney. There's even a
train station nearby. That's right. A Sydneysider can take trains
from downtown Sydney all the way to the Blue Mountains. Imagine
how crowded Yosemite or Tahoe would be if people in the Bay Area
could take a BART train directly there. But no, there was hardly
anyone here. It was a weekday (Friday), but it still surprised
me. It's like having the Grand Canyon in your backyard and you
never go out to take a look.
The sun was finally out. There were clouds here and there, but
other than the gusting winds and my allergies, it was a pleasant
day. We soaked in the view and then went off to hike to Pulpit Rock.
After the hike we drove back to Katoomba, where we knew there
was another Paddy Pallin. The town was small enough that we found
the store very quickly. We did a bit more shopping. I also dropped
off our remaining fuel so that someone else could use it, rather
than burn it off completely. I couldn't take it on the plane with
me, so I had no further use for it.
We asked the people in the Paddy Pallin store what they thought
of the Thai restaurant next door. They told us the one down the
street was better. We made a note of that and then drove a few
blocks down the road to Echo Point, where we could get a view
of the famed Three Sisters.
A 30 mile per hour wind was gusting as we visited Queen Elizabeth
Lookout and the smaller Prince of Wales Lookout next to it. Tourists
snapped pictures of themselves with the Three Sisters in the background.
What are the Three Sisters? It's like three Pulpit Rocks next
to each other. Standing next to a cliff are three spires of roughly
equal size. The sun was playing hide and seek with the clouds
again, but when the sun was winning, the Three Sisters glimmered
beautifully in the late afternoon sun.
Three Sisters
After enjoying the view, we went back to the car to get warm.
And then we went to the Thai restaurant recommended by the Paddy
Pallin employees -- Chork Dee (216 Katoomba Street). We should
thank the Paddy Pallin folks, as it was an excellent restaurant.
We had shrimp, curry chicken, and Pad Thai. One of my only complaints
is that they don't serve Thai iced tea.
After dinner we drove back to Sydney. It was smooth sailing until
we hit the downtown area. We then circled our hotel for 25 minutes
trying to find a way in through the maze of one-way streets. At
one point Jean actually made a left turn onto the right side of
the road. All I could muster was "Shit shit shit!!! Wrong side
of the road, wrong side of the road!!!" Luckily for us, there
wasn't anyone on that street when that happened.
Eventually, we made it to the hotel and used the valet service.
We vowed to take taxis the rest of the time until we drove to
the airport.
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