Part 4 - Cavepeople

Our Thursday started out with a new experience for some of the Q family in that the mountains were in a cloud. It wasn't actively raining but "fogging" (as one local described it). It was cold but we were prepared with jumpers. There wasn't much hope of seeing great scenery outside so we decided to head to the Jenolan Caves. It's quite a trip there and as we travelled the fog made me feel like I was in the middle of a murder mystery in the woods somewhere in England. I don't know if this photo quite conveys the feeling:

Our trip took us quite a way west before heading way down the mountain. Matt has been studying a lot of Australian history this year so we took this snap to show him just how far those explorers got on that 1813 trip:

The trip down the mountains involved a very windy and steep road. Not surprisingly the centre double lines indicated that overtaking was a complete no-no. Someone in a small silver Subaru car decided to overtake us nevertheless. We then watched in horror as the same people overtook a semi-trailer going uphill with no view whatsoever of anyone coming the other way. Thankfully no-one was coming the other way.

Eventually we ended up at the caves and it's quite an interesting road which goes through the entrance to the caves to get to the other side where there the parking and houses are:

Once we parked the local wildlife soon appeared on our car roof eager for the morning tea we were getting out of the boot. These rosellas are quite agressive and bite so we didn't feed this one:

After our morning tea we heading down to buy tickets for a guided tour of one of the caves and met up with someone who was staying at the same motel. He commented on how much wildlife he had seen on the drive down and enquired if we had seen any. We mentioned the rosella but said we hadn't seen too much other wildlife but then Hubby added, "Except for the wildlife in motor cars."

We all enjoyed the caves. Matt said it was his favourite part of the holiday. So here's some pics of those limestone stalagtites and stalagmites. The single pillar is appropriately named, "Lot's Wife" and the last pic is of the "Crystal City":

Well Wishes

I haven't forgotten about blogging the rest of the holiday but with today being a rather significant day I thought I'd take time out of the holiday for a different post. We've had a really relaxing day and I was even able to take time out to play with my new craft machine present. It's called a Cuttlebug and comes all the way from Salt Lake City.

This morning our church met in the home of one of our families and our minister's wife had a cute story. Early this morning Mrs J had a phone call from a very excited little boy. As she listened to the little one breathlessly talking away about all of his presents she was thinking that it didn't sound like her (only) grandson. Nevertheless she managed to get in "Wow" and "That's exciting" and "Wonderful" to the little fellow on the phone. When he finished his list he passed the phone to a lady to speak. Mrs J was still wondering if it could possibly be her grandson and asked, "Is that Kathy?" (paternal Grandma). The lady confessed that her name was Tamara. It seems something went wrong with the automatic dialing on the phone. One little fellow had all the joy of explaining to two "Grandmas" (one real, one pretend) about his Christmas.

I hope everyone's day is as happy as it is for that little boy. Merry Christmas!

Wednesday - Zig-zag time - Toot toot

Wednesday dawned sunny and pleasant and off we went in our car this time to get to Clarence, near Lithgow, to go on the Zig-Zag Railway. On the way we popped in on the "Explorers Tree":

Apparently when Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth were crossing the Blue Mountains in 1813 they stopped and marked this tree. The tree stump still stands next to a memorial plaque which is partly decipherable.

Some distance down the road we arrived at Clarence and the Zig-zag railway steam engine was chugging in just as we arrived:

Before we went there we told Mike that we were going on a real steam train. The last time we did this sort of experience Lloyd was 4 and he commented that the ride was nice but he didn't like the "doot" in his eyes. Mike was quite excited but when he saw the engine up close and realised that it was an awful lot bigger than the little Thomas engines he played with at home he was a bit reserved about it.

The railway is run by volunteers. (More deja vu as Hubby and I remembered the carriages as the ones we had in Queensland years ago when the engines were diesels - I also jammed my fingers opening the windows in them, just like I did years ago too). The trains zig-zag their way down the hillside so at the end of each "zig" part you can hop out of the train and watch it make it's way to either end of the train. Lloyd and Matt really enjoyed this part:

After zig-zagging our way to the bottom and back up to the top we ate our packed lunch and took the long trip home enjoying pretty scenery on the way.

At the motel that night we had hilarious fun at dinner. Sadly I can't divulge what happened or it will spoil the fun for future visitors but we went to bed with our sides aching from laughing so much.

Our holiday - part 2

The next morning the Q family got up to start the first full day in the Blue Mountains. We had two adjoining rooms, Hubby and I in room 31, and the Q children in room 32. When we first got there the adjoining door was locked but we had keys for each room. In the morning I unlocked room 32 to see who was awake and put the key down on the bed. Hubby came in and then we all went to room 31 to have a chat before breakfast which was to be served at 8 am. The problem was that security conscious Hubby locked room 32 without checking I had the key. It was just as well that all were dressed as the reception didn't open until 8:30 am. The only problem was that the three boys did not have shoes on. Lloyd borrowed Hubby's spare shoes, Matt went in socks and Mike wore his sandals which just happened to be stored in our room. That night before dinner Mike took off his boots and put on his sandals insisting that they were the "dinner shoes" and for each meal the sandals were worn. At 8:30 the doors were opened by the cleaner and the adjoining door was unlocked, saving us a lot of hassle.

After brekky (more on food later) we all got organised for the day and went up to the motel entrance to hop onto the tourist bus which was to take us to Katoomba town where some of the sightseeing was to happen. There was another feeling of deja vu as we hopped onto a bright red double decker bus. I had travelled in these in England as a young child. Of course we had to go to the top deck and there I noticed why the feeling of deja vu was so strong. The bus was an import from Yorkshire. I took this pic to show my Mum (the peeling sign says "Yorkshire transport"):

Our next stop was a lookout spot where we had a view of the Jamieson valley and the Skyway car that went across the top of it:

I asked Mike if he would like a trip in the Skyway. After looking at it for a few moments he replied, "Yes, but only if the doors are closed." We signed up for a day pass for the Skyway, the Scenic Railway (a very steep ride to the bottom of the valley) and the Cablecar (to take us back to the top again). Here's the view of the famous rock formations known as "The 3 Sisters" taken from the Skyway (yes, they kept the doors closed):

And here's a view of Katoomba falls from the clear glass bottom of the Skyway. I tried not to think of the distance to the valley floor. Apparently the Aboriginal word "Katoomba" means "Shiny, tumbing water." The guide told us the falls were twice the height of Niagara Falls, it's just that there's a lot less water:

After various trips around and bushwalks inbetween Mike was quite done in and fell asleep on the bus back to the shops part of Katoomba. We went in search of a reviving drink of milk and an internet cafe to fix up our crime of not having a vistor's e-tag for the toll road. It was either that or return home to a hefty fine.

Then back to our motel and a delicious meal. Taking a leaf out of TobyBo's blog I snapped this pic of Mike's Puppy enjoying the penne pasta entre:

Lloyd was having the time of his life with all you can eat buffet breakfast and huge amounts of 3 course dinners. Part 3: the zig-zag coming soon.

Our holiday - getting there

The Q family have just returned from heading south to the Blue Mountains for their holidays and now that the laundry is tamed it's time to blog (in stages) to answer everyone's questions about how the holiday went so here goes for days 1 and 2.

We set off on Sunday 7 December and started nice and early. New South Wales has daylight saving time so we had to get up nice and early to get going in time to get a bit further south to join in worship with some fellow Presbyterians at 10 am. Anika was our researcher and quickly worked out which churches we would attend in our holidays. We printed out Google directions and all went smoothly getting there except that a learner driver almost took us out at a roundabout. Very quickly we noticed an incredible amount of P and L plate drivers in NSW so Lloyd and Matt started doing a tally.

After worship we were on our way again and stopped near Grafton for lunch. I had everything planned out. On the Saturday I had cooked and sliced a nice piece of corned meat and had picked up one of those prepared salads at the shop. I had also noticed a packet of baby potatoes and picked those up too thinking that it was going to be nice and easy doing lunch without having to stop and waste time finding something suitable to eat:








I had a tablecloth, disposable plates and cutlery and some peaches for dessert. When we pulled up at the rest area picnic table a couple who had just purchased a snack from the nearby petrol station commented on how incredibly organised we were. I felt a bit clever with myself as I served out lunch. At least, until we started eating. Matt commented, "Mum, can you cut my potatoes please?" I wondered at his lack of strength until I realised the problem - the potatoes weren't cooked! Silly me thought that a packet of something picked up in the salad section of the supermarket would include something prepared ready to eat. We made do with the rest of the lunch and cooked them later at our motel. They were quite nice but next time I'll cook them first.


The rest of the trip was uneventful and we stopped at Port Macquarie for the night at a lovely motel that had views of the Hastings River behind us:




It was so nice there that we wondered why we had bothered to go so far as the Blue Mountains but our holiday was booked so off we went the next day. Some 18 and a half years ago we drove to the Blue Mountains on our honeymoon so we had a feeling of deja vu. Last time we got terribly lost bypassing Sydney on our way west. This time though, armed with Google directions, we thought we'd be fine. After all, we had got to Port Macquarie in good time. We were making good time and Hubby had driven 2/3 of the way so it was my turn at the wheel. The problem is that Hubby had left his glasses in the boot of the car. Google's directions told us to go on the M7 heading west but all we could see was a sign to the M2. We drove a little further and realised we were lost so stopped at a service station for directions. The directions we were given reminded us that the residents of Sydney must be impressed with us because the directions they always give us guarantee that we'll never get out of the place.

Eventually we figured the M2 and the M7 must be the same thing so off we went, paid our toll at the gate to a nice man and kept going. Anika was reading the Google directions and said slight left after 0.6 km. All we could see was an exit after driving this far so we thought that's where we were meant to go. As soon as we got off we realised we'd made a mistake. We then figured we'd better get on the M2 again and got back going east (paying another $2.20 toll) then got back on going west again and came to the same toll man. "You back!" was his comment as he took another $2.20. We confessed we were lost and asked the way to the Blue Mountains. He said to take the Blacktown exit. We got off at the Blacktown exit and had no idea where we were to go (logically speaking you would think there would be some indication of the way to the Blue Mountains seeing as it is a major tourist spot but there were no road signs). Somehow we ended up on a cashless toll road and we saw signs saying if we didn't have an e-tag we had 48 hours to make amends. Anika quickly jotted down the website and phone number. Soon after this a huge thunderstorm dumped a heap of rain and I couldn't see a thing.

We were getting a bit desperate at this point, just following any road and then I saw a sign for the Woolworths headquarters. There was a scramble in the back seat by Anika and Matt for the Woollies Homebrand choc-chip bickie packet to see where Woollies headquarters are - Bella Vista. At this point I pulled over and Hubby took the wheel and I took the map. Bella Vista wasn't on the map. (By this stage you can guess that Google directions were abandoned and the map was brought out). We found out later that if we had turned the map over we would have found a more detailed map with Bella Vista on there. I think it was at this point that I commented that Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth probably made better time than us at their first European crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813 (Australia's indigenous peoples had it worked out well before that). Well, we decided to do what the nice man said and follow the signs to Blacktown and sure enough there were signs to the Blue Mountains (finally). A bit of time lost but we were there. Never was a cup of tea more appreciated than the one I had when we got there.

Things aren't what they seem

Well, the school year is well and truly over and this SINKS Mummy is so pleased. Hubby now has time off too, but is not impressed that Lloyd's mowing job has fallen to him for most of his holidays. Lloyd broke his wrist on Wednesday when he fell backwards in an attempt to avoid the plastic sword swipe of a friend's son (more bone pictures for the Q family). Now that school is over Anika has finally taken the hint and got her learner's permit a week ago. Hubby declares that she is not getting anywhere near the wheel of our car until she's had proper driving lessons so off she went on Thursday morning.

She's decided to learn to drive a manual car and her instructor decided to have a big long chat first in the car outside our house then she went around and around the block of our street many times just to get the hang of everything.

Later in the afternoon Anika called in on our elderly neighbour for a chat. The conversation went like this:

Mrs L: I was really worried this morning. Someone in a car went around and around our block and I'm sure it was a stalker looking out for a young boy or girl. If they had gone around the corner one more time I was going to report them to the police but then they went away.

Anika: I'm glad you didn't. That "stalker" was me learning to drive.

One started on her way, three to go, but thankfully not all at once.