Day 16 - Sydney, Lithgow, Blue Mountains
The
idea had been simple enough. Take advantage of Fred's last day with
us to do yesterday's postponed trip to the Blue Mountains. Enjoy
lots of fresh air, long walks in woods, and other healthy bucolic pleasures.
Take a ride on the Zig Zag Railway, a narrow-gauge line that winds vertiginously
through the hills. Then experience the wondrous views offered from
Echo Point and the Three Sisters.
The
first problem was that, we having spurned the Blue Mountains the day before
because of the possibility of a bit of drizzle, we arrived to find that
it was absolutely pissing down. Constantly. By the time we
got to 1000 metres up, we were in the clouds, visibility was zilch, and
so the idea of taking healthy hikes through the forest lost some of its
appeal.
Not
to worry, we thought. The Zig Zag Train has the great advantage of
having a roof on it. So that is the thing to do. Well, sort
of. We arrived to find that the train had gone a while ago (and there
wouldn't be another one for some hours) but that if we rushed, we might
catch it at its station at the bottom of the hills and so do half the round
trip. Pile back into Fred, set out on mercy dash. Sarcastic
remarks from passengers about David's navigational skills turned out to
be unjustified, as the anonymous and unmetalled tracks he took us along
led us directly to the station. Just in time to see the train leave
without us. So we had a (rather ordinary) beer in Lithgow instead,
next to a table occupied by refugees from the Colicky Baby Convention.
So
off to our spectacular views. Our hopes were raised slightly by the
fact that the rain was now holding off for periods of, ooh, maybe three
minutes at a time. But it turned out that the reason for this was
that we were by now, for the most part, above the clouds.
So looking down on the scenery from high vantage points was, shall we say,
a little fruitless.
A loud chorus of "Sod this, let's go back to Sydney" was heard across
the mountains. Still, the Thai takeaway we had that evening was pretty
good....
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