Saturday 28th October 2006

The Blue Mountains from the Skyrail

Our anticipated bad weather and strong winds did not eventuate overnight and we woke to a bright blue sky, although there were still some gusts of wind making their presence known. As the day looked pretty good we decided that the Blue Mountains was the place to visit and started our preparations with that as our days activities.

We managed to drive out of the caravan park just after 9:a.m. and made our way up the old road from Penrith to Katoomba for about the first ten to fifteen kilometres. This road wound up the side of the first range on the mountain and at times gave some pretty spectacular views out over the plains way past Penrith and beyond, unfortunately there was not any safe place to stop and photograph these views so we will just have to remember them.

When we reached to top of the first range of the mountain, we joined the Western Highway and continued about thirty five kilometres before taking a short scenic drive that lead around the edge of the mountain and came out at Echo Point, which is where the famous 'Three Sisters' and the lookout is located. Fortunately Pammy wore long slacks and had brought he warm coat with her as there was a fairly strong and very brisk wind gusting around this lookout. We stopped there for about forty minutes and admired the panoramic view out over the valley and right around to Katoomba Falls. There was also a souvenir shop there that Pammy wanted to visit, partly to see what souvenirs she could find but mainly to get out of the cold wind and try to warm up. Fortunately for the 'Other One' she was so cold she couldn't get her purse out of his pocket so was not able to spend any of his money in that shop. (but don't worry, she will make up for it elsewhere!)

From here we drove around to Scenic World which has an even bigger souvenir shop and also has scenic attractions such as a Railway, Walkway, Cableway and Skyway. We purchased a ticket that allowed us to experience all of these scenic rides and the walk, the first one we rode was the scenic railway which isn't really much like a railway that we had experienced before. This was a cable drawn set of very low carriages that had laid back seats and traveled down an extremely steep incline into the valley below, bit like a rollercoaster. Part of the way it was traveling through a tunnel with the roof only inches from the top of the very low and laid back carriages It was an experience and at the end of it we climbed out onto a walkway where we were able to choose between three different walks through the rainforest in the valley. We chose the longest one which may have been about a kilometre long but very cool and refreshing.

At the end of our walk along the boardwalk walkway, we caught the Cableway back up to Scenic World at the top of the mountain. This Cableway runs up a cable strung out over the side of the valley and provides some great views of the side of the mountain and out over the valley. It carries about eighty people, although it was full, we believe there were very few of the passengers that used English as their first language.

Next we took a ride on the Skyway which is a fairly large cable car that crosses a narrow section of the valley and has glass viewing panels at the side and also some in the bottom as well, allowing views straight down to the bottom of the valley under the cable car. This was a short trip and we turned around and traveled back to Scenic World in this car and found ourselves in the souvenir shop, but this time he didn't get away so cheaply.... Pammy found a few things she 'Had to Have!'.

It was then time to return to Emu Plains and the caravan park so we made a final drive through Katoomba (more than once) before making our way back to the Western Highway and started off back down the mountains. Along the Way Pammy was so hungry she screeched out to stop at some golden arches that we were about to drive past, so a late lunch was devoured in that well known fast food restaurant. This was the first MacDonalds store we have been in since well before we left Kalamunda back in July, in fact is was almost the first lot of 'Junk food' in that time.

The rest of the drive back to the caravan park was uneventful and we arrived back at the caravan at about 3:p.m. Once again, we will wait until tomorrow arrives before we make a final decision on what we will do on the day, but there will be plenty to keep us amused we believe. One of these days we intend to have a 'lay day', but we just can't seem to find the time to lay back and do little on any day.

Sunday 29th October 2006

Young Jack and Little Ruby - our little friends

Bowral Cricket Oval where Don Bradman started

The House of the young Don Bradman

Daylight saving started today, but we didn't start with it.... In fact we were even a little behind the old time but if we don't tell anyone we may get away with it. Just before 10:a.m. we had a pretty long chat with the people in the caravan beside us before they pulled out of the park and headed south. They came from Kalgoorlie and had two delightful your children, Jack who is 'almost five' and Ruby who is two. Before they left Ruby and Jack came into our caravan to have a look at the Teddy Bears and Ruby fell in love with Rosie, but was happy for her to stay with us and her friends. They were a very nice young couple and the children are a credit to them. We waved them good bye sometime after 10.15p.m.

We managed to get ourselves organised and on the road by about 11:a.m. heading south on the road toward Campbelltown but just on the edge of Campbelltown we turned off and made our way to Cambden. In an attempt to avoid the Motorway we then headed toward Picton on a less established road and drove up through the hills where there were a number of great views encountered before we found ourselves on a road to the Motorway again, somewhere before Bargo. From here it was just a cruise down the Motorway until we turned off and drove through Mittagong, then into Bowral, the 'Home of the Don'.

We found our way through the streets to the cricket ground that the Young Don Bradman lived beside for his very young years and also made his Debut for the Bowral Cricket Club one day when they were short of an eleventh man, and he won the game for them with two sound innings. We stopped beside the oval and took a photograph of the cricket match being played there at that time (wonder if there were any potential Don Bradman's on the field today).

Next we drove around to near the pavilion where the 'Don Bradman Museum' is located and for the sum of $14 we were able to enter the hallowed hallways that display so many memories of the 'Don'. Just outside the museum, behind the cricket pavilion is a fountain with a life size statue of The Don' and inside the displays covered cricket from it's inception, some rooms that were dedicated solely to 'The Don' and even a theatre that had a 22 minute continuous video of the old Movie News.

This was a very interesting museum and there were a number of people in there, all showing great interest in the items on display. There were some younger children there and it was pleasing to see how interested they were in the game of cricket and particularly Donald Bradman. There was also a great souvenir shop, that we of course, just had to spend fifty or so dollars at. We spent a very enlightening two and a half hours in the museum, not departing until after 3:15:pm when we piled back into the Patrol and found our way around to the address of the house 'The Don' spent a few of his very early years in.

After a couple of photographs of that house we set off back toward the Motorway and north as far as Campbelltown where we turned off the Motorway and made our way back to Penrith and Emu Plains where we did a little shopping therapy at Woolworths before returning to the caravan just after 4:50p.m.

The Daylight savings time change has come in but we haven't caught up with it yet. Happy Hour started an hour late (or if it was yesterday it would have been on time) and then dinner followed in that same time delayed manner. Maybe tomorrow we will catch up with it but it really doesn't make all that much difference does it!

Once again we have not made any plans for tomorrow so we will sort that out after the sun comes up in the morning, that is another day and it is too far away to think about at this time.

Monday 30th October 2006

Pammy is in Teddy Heaven

Pierre and Bruno have now been adoped

And these are the ones she also wanted to adopt

The morning came early again this morning but it was accompanied by a blue sky and no wind to disturb it, however some high hazy clouds (maybe combined with some smoke form a fire in the Blue Mountains) drifted over around 9:am.

We decided (He thought) that we were not going to do very much today but Pammy wanted to visit a Teddy Bear shop she had seen in Blaxland as we drove back from the Blue Mountains on Saturday and as it was only about eight kilometres away, he drove her up there for a look...... HOW DOPEY CAN HE BE!!!!

Once inside the Teddy Bear shop, Pammy almost died, or at least thought she had and had gone to Teddy Bear Heaven. She found herself surrounded by over 14,000 teddy bears of all shapes, sizes and of course PRICES! Any attempt to get her out of that shop was met with total failure and after almost an hour in there, he had to resort to bribery to get here out... Yes, Pierre the French Bear and Bruno have now both been adopted and joined the ever growing family of caravanning bears. The bears have definitely taken over his spot on the bed, but now he is worried that there won't be room in the caravan for him either....

Having managed to get Pammy out of the Teddy Bear Shop, his thoughts were to get his wallet back to the safety of the caravan park... WRONG!!! There is a very large Westfield Shopping Centre in Penrith and that was where he was instructed to get there by the shortest route.

Once in the shopping centre we had to check out almost every shop in the centre and after a full examination and the purchase of three kilograms of chicken, some goodies from Woolworths and a cask of white wine from the liquor store (we will not mention the block of beer and cask of red) Pammy felt a bit cheated because she hadn't bought anything (only because in all those shops she couldn't find anything, just right) and 'he' had bought a battery for his watch... That wasn't fair!. However 'He' put his foot down (Oh yeah...) and he drove back to the caravan park with his wallet still partly intact and a feeling of survival.... WRONG AGAIN!!!!

We had not been back at the caravan long when the lack of a purchase in the shopping centre was causing some very strong withdrawal symptoms so urgent therapy was required. This was in the form of a return to Penrith (about three kilometres) and a visit to a Christmas Shop we had seen not far from the shopping centre. Guess what colour decoration will be on our christmas tree this year..... Did you say Pink??? How did you guess that??!!!!

Now that Pammy was happy, he was able to get something for himself... yes we called in to a car wash and ran the Patrol through it to wash the mud and dust off that had collected over the past couple of weeks... We didn't realise on the way in that it was a full service car wash and cost us eighteen dollars, however we found the Patrol under all that dirt and it looks almost like a new one... Well a used second hand one anyway. We then returned to the caravan at about 3:50p.m. with his wallet totally shattered.

If this was that quiet day we had decided on, please don't let us have a busy one!!! Having said that, tomorrow looks pretty hectic as we are on our way into Sydney sometime before 7:a.m. so Pammy can get to see the Channel 7 Sunrise Morning Program in Martin Place, before we do a little sight seeing around the CBD. Then in the late afternoon we are heading into Sydney again to go out to the Airport to see daughter Kym and son-in-law Lee for an hour or so as they pass through Mascot Airport on their way back to Perth after a few days on Hamilton Island. Maybe the web site will either be early (before the airport visit) or real late tomorrow. Then on Wednesday we will be heading south a little further with the caravan in tow.

Tuesday 31st October 2006

Pammy's memorable trip into Sydney