It's been an up and down day.....

Well- its been interesting. We've spent most of it at the top of a hill, or many hills actually! Some of the views we have seen rival many we have seen before, but the Blue Mountains are different, in that there is a constant blue hue which comes from the gum trees below.
Unlike other places we have been, however, we had to share this day with hundreds of other tourists, but we can't have everything.

The road up to this area was originally built by convicts around 1813, many died while working in chains. The road nowadays is dual carriageway, but driving some of the hillside roads gives us some idea how difficult it must have been.  Katoomba Rotary club has erected a bronze memorial to them in a prominent tourist spot, telling that gangs toiled for over thirty years to build the 'Great Western Highway' from Pernrith, where we stayed last night, to Bathurst, some 160 kms. (100 miles)

At Scenic World, a major tourist trap in Katoomba, we found a cable railway that is reputed to be the steepest in the world. Running from the cliff top to the valley below, some 350 mtrs, its steepest angle is 52 degrees, and the seats have to reflect that. There were queues all day to go down, and also at a cable car to come back up. In the valley itself is a jurassic rainforest walkway, with descriptive boards giving information about the various plants and animals that inhabit the forest floor. Yet another cable car runs across the valley, it has a glass floor which would not appeal to everyone.

The cable car was originally built to take coal out of the valley from the mines below, long since worked out. An interesting fact is that the miners built fires inside the mine to vent in fresh air, something I would have thought dangerous.

It has taken us most of the day to see the mountains and valleys, so we have to make onwards to Hartley, a historic village which we shall see tomorrow. In the meantime we have to find our accommodation, Glenroy Cottages. After a deal of argument over the map, which I won, we arrived at the gate, literally a farm gate, but no sign of where we were to check in. We drove over the farm eventually coming to a couple of cottages, both empty. Maybe this is where we will sleep tonight. No-one to be seen anywhere, we turned around to go to a bungalow on top of the hill, to be met by the farmer who told us the cottage below us was indeed ours for the night.

What a lovely place! We look down over the Coxs River, which provides much of Sydney's water lower down, have our own log fire, (we need it- it's bl***y cold up here!) Satellite TV, all we could need. Far away from the crowds, even some distance from the other cottages, it is heaven. See you tomorrow!