Kangaroos, king parrots but no killer whales...

So after a chilly night (actually felt lovely to snuggle under a duvet - first time in months!), we woke to a dry but overcast morning. Pie and Crack have both been suffering with my head cold, so weren't feeling up to a very strenuous day. So we enjoyed breakfast with King Parrots and Rainbow Lorikeets (they loved our muesli!), before saying goodbye to the kangaroos and checking out.

This is what we saw when we opened the curtains! A King parrot! And this is what happened when Pie went out with a handful of muesli!

Crack tried to "pat pat birdies" but they weren't having any of it! Eventually he lost interest, here's a video if you're interested!

Gorgeous Rainbow Lorikeets

Crack was pretty persistent! It must have been great muesli for them to bother sticking around!

Pie the Parrot Whisperer, charming the birds from the trees!

Just a few kangaroos to say goodbye to.....

Love how this Joey's tail is curled over his head! Clearly it's getting a bit cramped in there!

Here's a quick video Pie took. Lovely! but there is a downside to sharing a site with the Roos:

Some friendly Australian Wood Ducks came to see us off!

We took a gentle 4 km bush walk around Durras Lake and through several types of forest, along an enormous log and past lots of (Burrawang?) Palms, one of which had some cones on it. We also saw our biggest termite mound yet!

Here's a video of Pie and Crack walking the log.

 

 

Afterwards we drove through another part of Murramarang National Park, to Pebbly Beach - a spot I had visited as a child. In fact I recognised it as the place I saw a huge Goanna come out of the ladies loo, just as I was about to go in! No Goannas today though, I think it wasn't warm and/or sunny enough! We enjoyed our time on the beautiful, not at all pebbly, Pebbly Beach and Crack made good use of his new bucket and spade set!

 

After lunch we hit the road for a two and a half hour drive south to Eden, our overnight stop. We arrived to a beautiful location, perched between a lake and a long beach and checked into the most luxurious cabin so far! It was lovely and so close to the ocean that we could hear the surf as we went to sleep! We didn't see a great deal of Eden as Pie had emails to catch up on and I had laundry to do. But Crack made full use of the playground, and had his first go on a big boy swing! And I thought I'd managed to extract the world's oldest soda from the vending machine, before realising it was a retro edition!

 

Eden has some high cliff lookouts in between the beaches and the bays, and they are a prime whale watching spot! The town used to be famous for its whaling fleet and the numerous towers and light houses were used to spot the humpbacks and southern right whales as they passed on their migration back to Antarctic waters. They also have killer whales, who apparently used to help the whalers by chasing the bigger whales towards the harpoon boats. Thank goodness whaling no long happens here! We had our morning coffee at the lookout hoping to catch a glimpse of a whale before we set off again, but although the conditions were good, we didn't see any.

Pie and Crack had a quick go on the swings and then we were off!

A three hour drive south (on which we narrowly avoided running over a huge Goanna who was sunbathing in the road), brought us over the border from New South Wales, into Victoria (our 4th, and last, Australian state!) and Lakes Entrance.

Crack had a proper nap in his bed, rather than his car seat! And then he and I hit the playground and all 3 swimming pools whilst Pie napped, trying to keep the cold under control!

We headed into town for an early dinner and hit the jackpot! Fresh seafood in a floating restaurant! Crack ate loads of spaghetti bolognaise followed by ice cream, whilst Pie and I started with oysters. Pie followed it up with a scrummy seafood platter and I had flake and chips, then we shared a melting chocolate pudding with macadamia ice cream.

Yummy!

 

After that, we dashed up the hill (in the car...too full to walk!) to the lookout to watch the sunset over Lakes Entrance

 

And that brings you bang up to date!

Night night x

 

Ee by gum tree!

Well our first ever visit to the Blue Mountains was a real treat! We were very lucky and despite showers that morning and much of the day after, our trip was sunny and the views, magnificent!

The Blue Mountains get their name from the blueish haze that covers them, which is caused by all the eucalyptus oils in the air, emitted by billions of gum trees. It makes for some gorgeous vistas....I'm afraid I've gone a little overboard again, but they are just so lovely, I couldn't decide which to share!

We collected the hire car and headed out of Sydney and up into the foothills. Crack fell asleep, so rather than go straight to the hostel, we drove on towards Blackheath. It was not far from the recent bush fires (mid-Oct) and has some great viewpoints. The plan was to leave the car running, so Crack would keep sleeping and take turns to nip out and look at the viewpoints.......but the plan went out of the window when Crack woke up the first time we stopped! Needless to say, looking at views is not something that interests him, so we never had quite as much time as we would have liked to look at the views, but we savoured what little we did!

This area is aptly named the Grand Canyon.

We did a short walk between lookouts which Crack loved, and then Pie came up with a (very) temporary solution to the "not being able to enjoy the views for fear Crack would fall over the edge of the cliff" problem!

Afterwards we checked into the very clean, well-appointed and fabulously Art Deco Blue Mountains Youth Hostel, and headed to Echo Point, Katoomba's most famous view. From here you can see the Three Sisters in all their glory, a truly remarkable view now - I can't begin to imagine how it looked when all 7 original sisters were still standing!

Again the views out across the mountains and the Jamison Valley were just stunning, and we even caught a glimpse of Scenic World (the next day's destination) and the railway stops at the top and bottom of the scarp (above pic, but more of that later!).

We went on to visit some beautiful little falls and have a lovely but eye-wateringly pricey pizza dinner! Before rushing back to the YHA to Skype my mum and say happy birthday!

Next day we checked out and headed to Scenic World and met the locals....

The statues are of a witch doctor and the three sisters, when they are complete, they will create a water feature! I'm assuming the water is coming out of the odd pipes on his fingers and not his willy!

Scenic World is home of the world steepest railway at 52 degrees. I was pleased that it had been modernised since the first tourists arrived, it looks like they were using the original mining carts!

 

We took the train down the scarp, enjoying some marvellous views, as we descended into the rainforest, partly via a natural gap in the cliff edge,

 

then did a 3km walk (which Crack walked almost all of himself!) visiting a waterfall, and an enormous Turpentine tree,

 

And spotting a lyrebird (finally! We looked but never saw one in 2009, although we heard many!), apologies for failing miserably to get its head and tail in any one shot!,

 

before taking the biggest (capacity) cable car in Australia back up to the top.

 

After a return trip on the railway, just for Crack's enjoyment (click here for a video of the view going up!), we had lunch and then queued for the Skyway. This glass bottomed cable car goes from one side of the valley to the other, at a height of 270m, highest cable car in Australia! And as we found out, passes over the waterfall we'd seen earlier, from the valley!

The little black dots to the left of the lower falls are people, just to bring a bit of perspective! We were very very high and I kept myself occupied taking pictures and trying to ignore my fear of heights! From that far up, the rainforest looked like a giant broccoli field! You can see the cable car's shadow in this photo!

We passed a lone pillar of rock called The Orphan, which you used to be able to climb up. Sadly, it's now too unstable, so we just looked instead!

 

Then we hit the road, heading for a beach town south of Sydney called Kiama. We had chosen it because its about the right distance away (couple hours driving, not too far, but enough for Crack to have a nap whilst we make a bit of progress towards Melbourne 950 Km's away) and because it has some famous blowholes. But I realised when we got there, that I'd been before! I recognised the view of the Main Street from the park/playground beneath it, and later when we visited the Big Blowhole that seemed familiar too! My family must have stopped in Kiama when we travelled the coast from Sydney to Melbourne - I think I might have been about 10, so it's almost 25 years ago now!

We checked in, then headed straight out to see the Little Blowhole which is a bit out of town smaller but more reliable than its big brother. It was pretty impressive! Crack was fascinated (briefly!) by the "shower" and we agreed that the guidebook's description of it being like a snort from a dragons nostril was pretty accurate! It made a wonderful whomping whoosh sound too! Here's an explanation for the scientists

And a picture for the artists!

And here's a video for anyone who wants the check the accuracy of my writing and/or their imagination!

Next we visited the Big Blowhole, which is on Kiama Point - overseen by a lighthouse (Crack's favourite new word!)

Although it is much bigger, the display is slightly less impressive than the Little Blowhole, we thought!

Although it was slightly better this morning when we popped back to see it again after noticing the rough seas!

 

Here is what we could see of the entrance to the chamber underneath it

And here are some dumb ass boys in flip flops who were lucky not to get washed off the rocks!

There were a few showers which we largely avoided but we saw this beautiful rainbow on our way to dinner

This morning we checked out and headed up into the hills to the Minnamurra Rainforest Centre. It was raining. But we couldn't complain as we were in a rainforest! We had a lovely but steep walk through several types of rainforest to a beautiful waterfall. Unfortunately, because it was so wet the wildlife we had come to see (lyrebirds in particular, although apparently someone saw an echidna yesterday!) was pretty elusive. Pie saw two lyrebirds, one ran across the path in front of him, and another was alongside the car park when he went back to the car! But I saw none :-( good job I'd seen one yesterday, or I'd have been gutted. The waterfall was worth the walk and the soaking though!

Cool bridges, just wobbly enough to make Crack laugh without being scary enough to make me wet my pants lol!

Recycling, rainforest style!

Termite (or white ant) mound

Insect damage under the bark of a now-dead tree!

Very striking lone red tree!

Beautiful Minnamurra Falls

 

We had a picnic lunch on the coast partway to this evening's destination! A bit of time for Crack to stretch his legs and chase the "naughty birdies" that tried to eat his sandwich!

We arrived at our cabin by the beach at Murramurang National Park this evening, to find we are sharing the park with some natives! Needless to say Crack has been very excited! Although I am a little worried that he keeps trying to pick up roo poo and calling it "snack"!

Hopefully, I'll take some more photos in the morning. But for now, here's a very full pouch....

And a little peeking Joey