From the Doghouse: Day 3. Around Sydney

March 4th.

A beautiful sunrise ... from poolside of the Motel we stayed at.

And what a glorious day it looks like it will be ... no rain ... at last.

On the Freeway at last, heading over to Blacktown area, to visit Nikki, and some of her family. Suddenly I started to tense up, knowing I was in the 'big smoke'. At least Steve knew the area we were heading to.

Imagine cutting through all of this rock, to put roads through, years ago, before bulldozing equipment !

We followed this car pulling this boat all the way, some 2.5 hours, from Hornsby to near Blacktown, Western Sydney. The man must have rocks in his head to go all that way to go fishing ! In the rain, at that ! The fine morning lasted, until we packed our bags back in the car to leave. Just when we crossed the Hawkesbury River it started to pour !!!
We got to Nikki's for morning tea and had a good old chin wag, and some laughs, at some thing's Miss Isla said, but she has beautiful manners for a little girl her age.
From Nikki's we travelled to the Blue Mountains, primarily to see the rock formation The Three Sisters. We were going to go to the Tourist Lookout, but Nikki told us you had to pay, and can get just as good a look from a turnoff before Katoomba, so we went there. She was right, too ! It was a glorious drive through all the trees just starting to turn yellow and red.

This is over a major river on the western side of Sydney, on the Great Western Highway, but just can't remember it right now. Must look at one of those maps ! LOL Steve tells me it is the Windsor River.

Some of those roads are pretty tricky going up the Range to Katoomba.

This is where we got to look at the Three Sisters, at Leura, before Katoomba, NSW.

The track has been cleared, to follow to look at the Valley and Three Sisters formation.

More clearing being done.

A sign to say there is a cliff ahead, on the building.

Another sign. Just beyond that rock is the edge !

There are the Three Sisters, and see the blue hue, that is why it is called the Blue Mountains.

A closer view ... and clouds, and no sun ...

Looking down the valley, and a little bit of sun ...

When they say cliff, they mean CLIFF !!!

A couple of adventurers, or suicidalists, we thought ... they had lots of ropes and hooks tied to their waists.

On to see how far we could get, towards Melbourne. Whatever we did today, we had less to do tomorrow, to reach Melbourne by late afternoon, with a stop off at another "nuts" home - Annette. If you look on top of these hills, there are a lot of windmills, on a wind farm. There were about 10 of them, but every time we tried to get a photo there was a bunch of trees in front of them ! LOL

Near Bathurst, lovely and green. Wonderful roads, too.

Those of you who enjoy car racing will be familiar with Mount Panorama. This is the turnoff to all the excitement :)

Cootamundra - birthplace of Sir Donald Bradman.

We came across this set of traffic lights in the middle of nowhere, and we waited, and waited ... for 5 minutes ! We were wondering if they were actually going to change !

Just about to turn right, and join the Hume Highway, to go south to Gundagai.

Well, we got as far as Gundagai, NSW, and dropped in to say G'day to the Dog on the Tuckerbox, which is a Tribute to the Pioneers of Australia, which was NSW to start with. This was opened by the Prime Minister Mr Lyons in 1932.