Fair Game

The Three Sisters from Lady Game Lookout, Katoomba, New South Wales

As I packed last night, I had a decision to make. Should I take the potentially more picturesque trip along the Parramatta River by boat but have a half hour walk to Circular Quay to start the day or take the more convenient option of walking five minutes down the road to Central Station and catch the train? Convenience won the day. I thought I was going to have a nice comfortable journey as the train left the station, since it was almost empty. And it stayed that way, until two stops before Parramatta, when it seemed the whole of NSW jumped on, effectively trapping me with my bulky luggage. Bugger! Fortunately, most people were jumping off with me so the slight panic at having to push through the crowded carriage came to nothing. Unlike Geelong, I didn't even think about it this time. I hunted out the taxi rank straight away and before long I was whizzing my way along to Avis to pick up my second rental of the trip.

I knew there was something wrong straight away. There was a lot of humming and hawing from the guy behind the desk, pushing of keys on the computer and scratching of heads. A phone call didn't seem to help but a wee wander into the backroom seemed to get me closer to a set of keys. When he finally returned he was holding a set and the co-worker accompanying him told me that I would be getting a double upgrade. What this meant was I moved up from an intermediate hatchback to a full size sports car. A Holden SV6. This Holden SV6 to be precise! Now that was a nice start to the day, although I did wonder about fuel consumption. Ah well, I'd worry about that later...

Leaving Sydney behind, my first stop on my second road trip of the holiday was Katoomba and the Blue Mountains. About an hour and a half west of Sydney, the town lies on the edge of the Jamison Valley and the vast Coxs River Canyon. The famous rock formation of the Three Sisters are just a short walk away and at the end of the valley is the Scenic World complex, built on the site of the old Katoomba coal mine and host of the world's steepest passenger railway, boasting a 52 degree incline. Both were targets for today's trip.

As with most of the holiday, time was a factor and so all I had time for was a quick visit to Echo Point in town to view and shoot the Three Sisters before I headed out of town to the Leura Falls lookout. Unfortunately the Falls were a little disappointing so I decided to head back towards Katoomba and stopped off at the Tallawalla lookout and wandered along the 3km trail between there and the Lady Game lookout, stopping off at all the lookouts in-between, each of which showed a slightly different view of the magnificent landscape which was laid out in front of me. The Lady Game lookout itself was interesting. Only a couple of hundred metres from the end of the Three Sisters, it is tantalisingly close but gives little idea of the triple outcrop you get from the more classic views. A completely different perspective and I like it, which is why its my choice for today. Just like Uluru the local Gundungurra tribe have a story, untold to the white settlers, regarding the rocks however it isn't the widely told dream legend normally associated with them, which apparently was concocted by a non-Aboriginal local sometime in the 1920's, presumably for the benefit of early tourists.

After making my way back to the car it was time to head up to Scenic World. In addition to the railway, the attraction boasts a glass bottomed skyway which carries you 270m above the valley. Looking down on the Cockatoos, the cable spans the cliff tops in front of the impressive Katoomba Falls. A more horizontal rise or fall into the valley lies in the cableway, which lets you take in the views in more sedate surroundings than the railway as you descend the 545m to the floor. Once there, you get a chance to wander through the rainforest and the remnants of the old miner's village that used to exist at the mine. The railway was initially built to carry the coal from the floor to the cliff tops.

In spite of me remembering how tight time would be today, I completely misjudged the time it would take to get from Katoomba to my stop off for the night, Port Stephens. I had thought it would be about a three hour drive. Unfortunately it was going to be four. Eeek! The drive itself was uneventful, but one thing I've noticed here is that once you get out of the towns, lighting is used sparingly, so when I arrived in the Nelson Bay area well after dark, it was pitch black as I approached Port Stephens. To make matters worse, the sat nav couldn't find the hotel so all I could do was punch in the road before I left Katoomba and now it was so dark that I drove past it. It wasn't until well down the road that I saw a house number that let me know I'd gone too far. Turning back, I decided to turn into another holiday complex. It was only when I turned off that I saw the poorly lit sign for my hotel behind the other one. Result... of sorts. It was just after 9pm when I arrived and I walked into the reception just as the girl behind the desk was putting on her coat. Phew... Just! Apologising profusely for my late arrival, I was signed in and on my way in record time! Like most of small town Australia, it seemed like Port Stephens closed early. I wasn't really bothered though. After another big day, I was ready for my bed and so I headed off to the land of nod early, to be ready for another big day tomorrow.