Day 538 – 544 31/10 – 6/11 Pitt Town/Katoomba

Our first stop after Newcastle for a couple of nights is Pitt Town which is just outside of Windsor on the upper reaches of the Hawkesbury River. The Bridge to Bridge Ski Race is on later in the month so there were lots of boats practicing.

The Ebenezer Uniting church is the oldest church in Australia & dates to 1809.

Just up the road at Windsor is St Matthews Anglican which is the second oldest church & dates to 1817.

Whilst on churches here are some other oldies from around the area.

Heres my favourite church.

A day of ferries. Wisemans Ferry first, then lunch at Berowra Waters. We were surprised at the number of very large houses out this way. Suburbia is getting closer to them.

Rocked up to Blackheath (a few k’s down the road from Katoomba to find out it was the rhododendron weekend. So we joined all the other oldies & visited the gardens. Lots of impressive colours.

The Waratah is the NSW State flower.

View from Lovatts Gap & Bridal Veil Falls. It is dry as they have had no winter rain.

Wentworth Falls was hardly flowing

Leuralla is the home to a Toy & Rail Museum. The house & gardens were built in 1910 & are now owned by Clive Evatt a grandson of the original owner. The collection of toys & railway museum have been collected by parts of the family over many years.

Not a bad view from their private amphitheatre.

Drinks at the Hydro Majestic. It was originally opened as a health retreat in 1904 as it was reported there were mineral springs in the area. The mineral springs were never found.

View from Evans Lookout.

A day at Jenolan Caves. We did the tour through the River Cave. This is the largest & the cave with the most steps. There are another 6 or 7 caves that you can look through. We have put this on the bucket list to spend a weekend at the hotel.

View from Boars Head Lookout & Cahills Lookout.

Next stop Scenic World.

The Skyway was our first interlude with the Three Sisters & Katoomba Falls in the background.

The Scenic Railway has changed a lot over the years. Here is a postcard my Grandfather collected in the 1940’s.

This is it today. It was originally built in the 1880’s to haul coal from the mines on the valley floor. The coal mine closed in 1945.

They had a dinosaur exhibition in the valley.

Up the hill on the Cablecar.

This is a steam clock. The clock is wound by a miniature live steam, two cylinder engine, hauling a coal skip up the scale model incline. The weight of the coal skips then drives the clockwork mechanism. The clock is rewound every 30 minutes at the signal of the tiniest of the 11 steam whistles.

One of us wanted to stop at the Chocolate shop.

Finally made it to the Three Sisters, this is the view from Echo Point.

We were lucky to see this choir getting filmed.

Us at Echo Point & then at Sublime Point.

On the track to the Three Sisters.

Ulrika was brave & climbed down to the First Sister.

Leura Cascades.

Wind Eroded Cave & Anvil Lookout

Some Flora & Fauna on the track

In the park across the road is this play equipment that was made in the 1960’s by a local guy. They were taken out of the park due to safety concerns but then put back in again after a public outcry.

A couple of more churches on the way to Lithgow.

This is what’s left of a Steelworks at Lithgow. The history of steelmaking at Lithgow goes back to 1875. It really took off when the Eskbank Blast Furnace was blown in in 1907. It lasted until 1928 when the owners (the Hoskin brothers) moved the operations to Port Kembla.

Quote of the Day

“The only sport I’m not interested in is horse racing. That’s because I don’t know the horses personally. ”

Nat King Cole