Tuesday 10th
Well folks, we are finally back on the road again! What a great feeling. We were meant to leave first thing this morning, but as usual the Disco decided to throw a curve ball right at the last minute and had to have some last minute repairs done before we could get away so we didn’t get away until 2:30ish and only got as far as “Ayres Rock” Roadhouse at Karauah where we spent the night. I managed to do some work while we were travelling along. Everyone has been warning us about how hot it’s going to be but so far we have had rain and jumpers all the way!
Wednesday 11th
It was cold and miserable again today and we kept on driving into Sydney where we had to pick up a few bits and pieces that Ross had won on the internet. Our first stop was at Horsley where Ross had to pick up some Land Rover parts. It was really weird because we were driving through the city and traffic and all and the next minute we were driving through farmland and country lanes – weird! Anyway, we got there and found Erich and his lovely wife on their farm with their fantastic workshop – turns out he is an ex engineer and he has this awesome workshop setup (Ross wanted to be adopted so he could live there and use the workshop). They were lovely people and would have been more than happy to stay and chat all day but we had to keep going and get the other parts and look for somewhere to park the caravan for the night. Erich said we could have parked it there overnight but they were going out and locked the gate at night –would have been a nice quiet spot to camp but never mind – we will find somewhere! Next we were off to Hurstville to pick up some K’Nex for Ross to play with while we are travelling – don’t laugh!! It is really light to carry in the caravan and it keeps Ross amused – they are kind of like Leggo/Mechano. Anyway, we had to wait around for the lady to come home so we walked around a bit and came across a guy doing his gardening out the front and started talking to him and he was just the most lovely guy and really interested in what we were doing, then when we kept walking along people were nodding and smiling at us and saying “hi” as we walked past, which was really weird because we thought people in Sydney were supposed to be cranky, but everyone seemed so nice. Once we got the K’Nex it was off to Merrylands to meet the people who are going to look after Boris for us while we are staying up in the Blue Mountains. Ross won some accommodation up there for a few days but Boris isn’t allowed to stay with us so we are leaving him with a family who will spoil him to death while we are there and he won’t miss us at all!! We arrived in Merrylands and met Shannon and her family of 5 kids and they are just the most beautiful family and Boris is going to have a ball! We parked the caravan in the carpark of a huge park just across the road from Shannon’s place and in the morning we will drop Boris off with his adopted family.
Thursday 12th
We dropped Boris off first thing this morning and headed for the mountains. It is still cold and miserable and raining. I worked as we were driving along again and we went straight to where we will be staying which is called “The Old Leura Dairy” which isn’t actually an old dairy, but a kind of eco friendly place that they built all these cool buildings out of straw bales and recycled materials – apparently it is made 80% out of recycled materials. Anyway we were too early for check in so we went sightseeing. We walked around Leura and then thought we might go to one of the local lookouts and see what we could see (even though it was raining!). It was hilarious; we trooped down to this lookout only to find we couldn’t see a THING!! Everything was just completely WHITE – we could hear a waterfall though! We decided sightseeing wasn’t going to do the trick so we went to the cinema at Katoomba (only a few minutes drive away) and saw a film about the Blue Mountains on this huge gynormous screen which was pretty awesome. By the time we finished there it was time to check into our accommodation – we were staying in “The Studio”, which is a tiny little building made for two – it’s just great – we love it. The rest of the afternoon was spent working out what thing we wanted to see while we were here, taking a lovely long hot bath, etc, etc. It very cold and very wet at the moment. We are booked in to do the Plughole Adventure at the Jenolan Caves tomorrow, which is a 2.5 hour introduction to caving as well as some abseiling and it also involves “sliding and wriggling through to the infamous ‘S-Bend’ squeeze”. Can’t wait – sounds like fun! It will be cold and wet and raining again – but that won’t stop us – won’t matter what the weather is like once we hit the caves.
Friday 13th
WOW! What can I say!? That was one of the most amazing things we have ever done! We both had a fantastic time. Ross was a little concerned about the abseiling because he isn't great with heights, but he surprised all of us and did it with ease. I of course jumped over the edge with no qualms at all. It was then on into the cave itself and got to look at all the old signatures from the original explorers from the 1850s. From there we were straight onto squeezing through impossibly small looking holes and sliding on our butts all around the cave for the next two hours. We both loved every second of it and would love to do it again. Neither of us felt claustrophobic at all. We also went to Selwoods Science and Puzzles and hung around there for a couple of hours - it was a great place full of stuff to do and it's free entry - keep you amused for hours. We ended up buying a couple of things as pressies for the kids looking after Boris - had to buy something, there was so much to choose from, it was a hard decision! It looks like it is going to be cold, wet and raining for the rest of our stay here so we are going to have to get creative about what to do to amuse ourselves. We will head into the information centre tomorrow and have a chat with them about what we can do on a wet day on a budget! We can't really afford to pay to do activities all day every day, so we will have to work something else out. We originally wanted to do lots of bushwalking while we were here but I don't think that's going to happen now.
Saturday 14th - Valentine's Day
Yep, it's raining and foggy again. We briefly thought about going to the Scenic Railway, but then thought better of it as there wouldn't be any scenery to be seen because of the fog! We decided to hit the shops at Katoomba to see what there is to see. We had a great time at the op shops in Katoomba buying warm wet-weather gear and getting some great bargains. We also went into "Pickwicks" store at the top of the street which is just amazing. There are two stores next to each other and although they have different names they are apparently combined because I was in the first shop (antique, bric a brac) and I asked where there was a toilet and the lady said they had one next door upstairs, so I trooped into the next shop (another antique, bric a brac shop) and went upstairs looking for the toilets thinking the toilets would be in a corridor as you would expect but instead there were more rooms full of books and antique clothing, etc, it took me about 5 minutes to find the toilets - it was a total rabbit warren - every time you turned a corner there was another room with more stuff in it! I eventually found the toilet and Ross joined me upstairs and we started to make our way down again and noticed more stairs so we investigated and found more rooms! The place goes on forever and it is just fascinating!
Sunday 15th
The weather is still bad so we didn't do mcuh today. We went and checked out Lithgow which we didn't think was nearly as exciting as Katoomba. We went and had lunch at the local club which was nice.
Well folks, we are finally back on the road again! What a great feeling. We were meant to leave first thing this morning, but as usual the Disco decided to throw a curve ball right at the last minute and had to have some last minute repairs done before we could get away so we didn’t get away until 2:30ish and only got as far as “Ayres Rock” Roadhouse at Karauah where we spent the night. I managed to do some work while we were travelling along. Everyone has been warning us about how hot it’s going to be but so far we have had rain and jumpers all the way!
Wednesday 11th
It was cold and miserable again today and we kept on driving into Sydney where we had to pick up a few bits and pieces that Ross had won on the internet. Our first stop was at Horsley where Ross had to pick up some Land Rover parts. It was really weird because we were driving through the city and traffic and all and the next minute we were driving through farmland and country lanes – weird! Anyway, we got there and found Erich and his lovely wife on their farm with their fantastic workshop – turns out he is an ex engineer and he has this awesome workshop setup (Ross wanted to be adopted so he could live there and use the workshop). They were lovely people and would have been more than happy to stay and chat all day but we had to keep going and get the other parts and look for somewhere to park the caravan for the night. Erich said we could have parked it there overnight but they were going out and locked the gate at night –would have been a nice quiet spot to camp but never mind – we will find somewhere! Next we were off to Hurstville to pick up some K’Nex for Ross to play with while we are travelling – don’t laugh!! It is really light to carry in the caravan and it keeps Ross amused – they are kind of like Leggo/Mechano. Anyway, we had to wait around for the lady to come home so we walked around a bit and came across a guy doing his gardening out the front and started talking to him and he was just the most lovely guy and really interested in what we were doing, then when we kept walking along people were nodding and smiling at us and saying “hi” as we walked past, which was really weird because we thought people in Sydney were supposed to be cranky, but everyone seemed so nice. Once we got the K’Nex it was off to Merrylands to meet the people who are going to look after Boris for us while we are staying up in the Blue Mountains. Ross won some accommodation up there for a few days but Boris isn’t allowed to stay with us so we are leaving him with a family who will spoil him to death while we are there and he won’t miss us at all!! We arrived in Merrylands and met Shannon and her family of 5 kids and they are just the most beautiful family and Boris is going to have a ball! We parked the caravan in the carpark of a huge park just across the road from Shannon’s place and in the morning we will drop Boris off with his adopted family.
Thursday 12th
We dropped Boris off first thing this morning and headed for the mountains. It is still cold and miserable and raining. I worked as we were driving along again and we went straight to where we will be staying which is called “The Old Leura Dairy” which isn’t actually an old dairy, but a kind of eco friendly place that they built all these cool buildings out of straw bales and recycled materials – apparently it is made 80% out of recycled materials. Anyway we were too early for check in so we went sightseeing. We walked around Leura and then thought we might go to one of the local lookouts and see what we could see (even though it was raining!). It was hilarious; we trooped down to this lookout only to find we couldn’t see a THING!! Everything was just completely WHITE – we could hear a waterfall though! We decided sightseeing wasn’t going to do the trick so we went to the cinema at Katoomba (only a few minutes drive away) and saw a film about the Blue Mountains on this huge gynormous screen which was pretty awesome. By the time we finished there it was time to check into our accommodation – we were staying in “The Studio”, which is a tiny little building made for two – it’s just great – we love it. The rest of the afternoon was spent working out what thing we wanted to see while we were here, taking a lovely long hot bath, etc, etc. It very cold and very wet at the moment. We are booked in to do the Plughole Adventure at the Jenolan Caves tomorrow, which is a 2.5 hour introduction to caving as well as some abseiling and it also involves “sliding and wriggling through to the infamous ‘S-Bend’ squeeze”. Can’t wait – sounds like fun! It will be cold and wet and raining again – but that won’t stop us – won’t matter what the weather is like once we hit the caves.
Friday 13th
WOW! What can I say!? That was one of the most amazing things we have ever done! We both had a fantastic time. Ross was a little concerned about the abseiling because he isn't great with heights, but he surprised all of us and did it with ease. I of course jumped over the edge with no qualms at all. It was then on into the cave itself and got to look at all the old signatures from the original explorers from the 1850s. From there we were straight onto squeezing through impossibly small looking holes and sliding on our butts all around the cave for the next two hours. We both loved every second of it and would love to do it again. Neither of us felt claustrophobic at all. We also went to Selwoods Science and Puzzles and hung around there for a couple of hours - it was a great place full of stuff to do and it's free entry - keep you amused for hours. We ended up buying a couple of things as pressies for the kids looking after Boris - had to buy something, there was so much to choose from, it was a hard decision! It looks like it is going to be cold, wet and raining for the rest of our stay here so we are going to have to get creative about what to do to amuse ourselves. We will head into the information centre tomorrow and have a chat with them about what we can do on a wet day on a budget! We can't really afford to pay to do activities all day every day, so we will have to work something else out. We originally wanted to do lots of bushwalking while we were here but I don't think that's going to happen now.
Saturday 14th - Valentine's Day
Yep, it's raining and foggy again. We briefly thought about going to the Scenic Railway, but then thought better of it as there wouldn't be any scenery to be seen because of the fog! We decided to hit the shops at Katoomba to see what there is to see. We had a great time at the op shops in Katoomba buying warm wet-weather gear and getting some great bargains. We also went into "Pickwicks" store at the top of the street which is just amazing. There are two stores next to each other and although they have different names they are apparently combined because I was in the first shop (antique, bric a brac) and I asked where there was a toilet and the lady said they had one next door upstairs, so I trooped into the next shop (another antique, bric a brac shop) and went upstairs looking for the toilets thinking the toilets would be in a corridor as you would expect but instead there were more rooms full of books and antique clothing, etc, it took me about 5 minutes to find the toilets - it was a total rabbit warren - every time you turned a corner there was another room with more stuff in it! I eventually found the toilet and Ross joined me upstairs and we started to make our way down again and noticed more stairs so we investigated and found more rooms! The place goes on forever and it is just fascinating!
Sunday 15th
The weather is still bad so we didn't do mcuh today. We went and checked out Lithgow which we didn't think was nearly as exciting as Katoomba. We went and had lunch at the local club which was nice.
2 comments:
Hi there Ross and Lisa
Its Peter Blackwood , just in case you didnt know who this is .
reading your Blogg is great , I will be checking daily.
Just out of interest what was the last minute problem with the Disco.
Wish i was doing what your doing.
Take care peter
Hey Peter, good to hear from you! The problem we had with the Disco was that Ross washed it down on Monday night with the guerney and some water got into the headlight relay so the lights came on all by themselves that night. Ross went down to check out what was going on and while he was blundering around in the dark he broke one of the hose fittings off of the radiator overflow reservoir. We rang the next morning to JPs to find out how much a new one was but it was going to be $180 and they didnt have one in stock so Ross did a bodge job and patched up the reservoir himself. When we got to Sydney we went to a guy who pulls Land Rovers apart and got a second hand one off of him so we will replace it as soon as it stops rainging!!
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