Yesterday (Saturday) we decided to head up to the Blue Mountains:

http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/parks.nsf/parkContent/N0004?OpenDocument&ParkKey=N0004&Type=xo

We had planned to go on Thursday but Colin had work traumas due to an earthquake in Taiwan!!

The Blue Mountains (or Malcolms as Adam calls them) are about 100k from Sydney so we loaded up the car and headed off. We set the destination into Betty (Sat-Nav) and once we got on the motorway she told us to ....follow the course of the road ...for a while.

We had no particular plans so just stopped whenever we, or the kids felt like it. The first stop was Wentworth falls which was very picture-skew. We went then on to Leura and the Toy and Railway Museum.

http://www.toyandrailwaymuseum.com.au/

Which reminded me a bit of Haggs Castle Museum, when it existed, with lots of rooms full of some-body's collection of toys. It was a bit disappointing for Adam and Emily as they weren't allowed to touch anything but there were some buttons to press that made trains go or cable-cars work.

After lunch we went to Leura Cascades.



It was about a 500 metre walk from the car park down some quite serious steps. Adam did a great job going down and was quite happy jumping down (like a skateboard guy, he informed us). Emily was on Colin's shoulders - I think if we are going to do this again we need to get one of those baby backpack carriers. Unfortunately Adam didn't like climbing the stairs as much as he liked jumping down them so I gave him a piggyback to the car park. Considering he was complaining of being tired, it was amazing how his energy levels came back at the sight of an ice-cream van!!

The final official stop on our tour was Echo Point and the Three Sisters

The whole range is huge and really is blue. The blue is from the light reflecting off the eucalyptus oil on the trees.

By this time it was nearly time for tea so we went on to Lithgow and stopped at Red Rooster - KFC but without the fried bit. All day clouds had been gathering and we knew that rain was forecast but before we finished, some serious storm clouds had appeared. The heavens opened - it started really heavily and we thought we could wait 5 or 10 minutes for it to ease off and then go to the car but then it got really serious with thunder and lightning and at one point the lightning blew the lights in the restaurant. Throughout this, Adam and Emily were perfectly happy running round ignoring the near Biblical rain, thunder and lightning.

After getting into the car, we changed Adam and Emily into their pjs and set off home - Adam said it was just like when they went to Granny's house. It took about two hours to drive home and we arrived home with two sound asleep children.

Today we are not planning on walking any further than to the car as we Colin and I have very tired legs!!