Flowers and fires

The weather on Saturday was gorgeous and Alex was free of tennis, so we took a day trip up into the Blue Mountains. Rather than the motorway, we drove via Richmond to the Bells Line of Road, winding our way up past fruit stalls closed for winter and tiny hamlets selling apple pies and bric-a-brac.

We stopped at a country market outside of Kurrajong, a CWA Hall serving meals while old folk had stalls of cakes, jams and cleaning products.

I had only been this route once before, many years ago on a drive from Marsfield to the Parkes Radiotelescope for a meeting. This was a first for the other two.

We pulled into the Blue Mountains Botanic Gardens at Mount Tomah, joining a crowd of smartly dressed wedding guests. In our much more casual attire we admired the spectacular views across the mountains from the platform at ths visitors centre, wandered the rock gardens of succulents and proteas, listened to the sound of waterfalls, azed up at the giant girth of the Californian redwood.

A few rhododendrons and camelias were in flower, along with a field of daffodils that triggered memories of childhood.

The gardens are quite lovely and very extensive and I would be delighted to visit again.

We continued on from the gardens intending to loop around to return home via Leura.

As we drove we passed through the devastation of last summer's bushfires. Though green shoots clung to the branches of the blackened and otherwise denuded eucalypts, the overall scene was of desolation. Hillsides lay bare, the sandstone exposed. It was truly a scene of the apocalypse.

Leura was busy with day tripping tourists. We walked the main street, bought pastries from a bakery, a Harry Potter door mat from Geekdom. Josophan's chocolate shop was the most expensive distraction, an ice cream, hot chocolate and more.

Then home to clean up the mess of the dog, a brief escape from the routine but not its consequences.

Comments

Springs, castles and the end of the line

I am never happy to stop before the end of the line. It irritates me to know that there is still somewhere unexplored lying ahead. So when I only got as far as Gujo Hachiman on the Nagaragawa Railway last year I knew I needed to return for more. Especially as this private third sector railway is, by its very nature, always at threat of closure due to low patronage. But did Gujo Hachiman deserve another visit? Sure it's a nice enough town, but had we missed out on enough last time to return? Mum's trip provided the excuse. I originally planned the Oito line, which wI'll be partly closed when the Shinkansen line is extended to Kanazawa. However, when I thought of special places in Japan that deserved to be shared Gujo Hachiman was at the top of the list. Before we could go anywhere Mum needed her coffee. There was a Tully's Coffee opposite the hotel entrance, so I parked her there while I booked our seat reservations. Mum got her fast train ride on a ...

One night in Canberra

It's the April school holidays and we are too busy to have a break but need one because of that. And because it's the Easter weekend the options are limited, so we just drive down to Canberra for the night. No, this isn't our first trip for 2023. I wrote about Japan on another site . I refuse to wake up early so we depart after 8.30 AM. There is not much to say about the drive except that the clouds seem so low and Lake George is very full. We stop at a rest area and at the lookout up the hill to take it all in. Everyone is hungry so we first stop in Dickson and then can't think of anything to eat, so I drive us to Civic, where we can't decide and end up eating at the Singaporean Killiney Kopitiam branch. The Canberra Centre has nice shops. I dream of getting an iPad from the Apple Store, we buy a blanket and toothbrushes from Muji and wish that Lego wasn't so expensive. Nothing we can't get in Sydney, but then we rarely go out shopping in the city. It...

The Carlingford Line

We close the year and the decade with a local adventure to mark the closure of a railway line. On the January 5, 2020, the Carlingford Line from Clyde will close to be partially replaced by the Parramatta Light Rail. This is Sydney's quietest line, a single track branch for most of its length from the industrial centre of Clyde to the northwestern suburb of Carlingford. According to Wikipedia, power supply and signalling issues mean that only a single four car train can utilise the line at a time. Newer Sydney trains run in fixed eight car configurations. This will be the first and last time I traverse the Carlingford Line in its current configuration. The weather of the day is certainly appropriate for an ending, the brown smoke haze lending an apocalyptic air to proceedings. I drive to Padstow and catch the T8 line to Central, followed by the T1 towards Parramatta and Penrith. The historic homes of the Inner West give way to industrial complexes, rail storage yards and t...

travelling allrite

Search This Blog