Mount Tomah Botanic Gardens
The rest of the Putty Road was not nearly as twisty as we drove south to Windsor. We headed west from there toward the Blue Mountains, stopping at a service station to fill with diesel, and after that to read our email. We were surprised to find a flood of emails indicating that our furnace had quit in our house. Fortunately it was repaired by the end of the day, and not too much damage appears to have been done, only one kitchen pipe froze.
We stopped for lunch at the Mount Tomah Botanic Garden, which is at an altitude of about 1000 m. Here they have a lot of temperate plants that won’t grow well in the hotter temperature of Sydney. We spent about two hours looking at flowers. After looking at much of the main part of the gardens we went on a walk through the temperate rain forest, a mostly old growth wild area that was saved from logging years ago. As we neared the end of this walk it just started to rain, and we didn’t have the umbrella with us, so we hurried back to the motorhome. Just as we got there it started to pour, and so we decided to leave. As we did so it started to hail. We didn’t get much hail, but the news tonight showed that there was a major hail storm in parts of Sydney this afternoon.
We drove on to Blackheath where we stopped at an information centre, and also went and looked at Govetts Leap (“leap” is apparently a Scottish word meaning “waterfall”) also known as Bridal Veil falls. There are quite spectacular views out over the Grose Valley. If it had been sunny, not raining, doubtless the views would have been much better. We tried to take a short hike to one of the lower viewpoints, but it was raining too much, and the trail was in terrible shape so we just turned back.
The Three Sisters
We stopped at the Katoomba Falls Caravan Park. From here there is a trail which starts just across the road. We walked on it for somewhat over an hour. It’s very steep, and consists mostly of steps carved into the rock. We didn’t go all the way to the bottom as it looked like it was going to rain again. We did however get to the viewpoints that showed the very tall Katoomba Falls, and The Three Sisters, which are an icon of The Blue Mountains. It was a steep climb back up.