2026-05-12
We woke around 6:30 this morning and I proceeded to make breakfast of crumpets (sans coffee as all my coffee gear was in the caravan! The Horror!). We then sat around a bit, until I decided that putting the bags in the car would be a good use of my time. Lea's Mum eventually got up, and it wasn't long before it was time to leave. Because Sydney traffic is terrible, and I don't come here often, I managed to take the wrong turn and ended up on the Great Western Highway instead of the M4, but that wasn't a big deal, it was still going in the same directions as we wanted to. Along the way we stopped at Penrith, since I'd forgotten to pack pot holders, and there's a Kitchen Warehouse there (this is a decidedly bad place to go if you don't want to come out with more things than you planned on purchasing). Anyway, one set of pot holders, a set of pot holder mits (for youngest child), two spoons and a pair of tongs later, we were back on our way towards the Blue Mountains.
Astute readers will remember I was still lacking coffee, so we planned at stopping at a café along the way and Lea suggested a place in Glenview. I didn't get coffee, but I did get some strawberry jam and some parmiggiano regiano, oh, and a loaf of sourdough. Back on the road again, the next stop was Leura where we were most definitely going to find coffee. We parked, mucked around with the PayStay app to pay for our park (and as it turns out, fail to pay for our park, with no consequences), and went in search of a café. The first up was very busy so we passed that one. The next one, also busy, and didn't catch my eye, then Lea spotted a café down an alleyway next to the Post Office, Café Sana. Turns out this Japanese Café also served Churros, so we went inside, and I got a small Cappuccino, and we shared four churros with chocolate sauce and crushed peanuts. All excellent, can definitely recommend.
Refueled we set forth towards Lithgow. The trip was fairly uneventful, it rained lightly, we followed trucks. Since I had no wish to travel over the road I took from Oberon to Lithgow yesterday, I looked for somewhere off the main road to check the maps and route around that without going miles out of our way. In the process, I saw a sign for a lookout at Hassan's Walls, and since it was only 3km, we went there. The road up the mountain was unsealed (mostly, there was evidence some of it had been sealed in the past), and there were some truely massive potholes (seems to be the order of the day in these parts), but the view at the top was worth it. On arrival, I didn't go to the main lookout, but found an interesting little path through the heather to a grotto of sorts that turned out to also be a lookout.
After that we went to the main lookout, where the view was vast.
Of course, while investigating the lookouts there were little birds everywhere (as I didn't have my big camera out), but when I did get the big camera out, most of the little birds disappeared. However, I did briefly spy a Spotted Pardalote
And a pair of New Holland Honeyeaters.
Back down in to Lithgow with a planned route, we set off towards Bathurst on the Great Western Highway, and then the GPS had us turn at Curly Dick Road (I kid you not, that's what it was called!). This took us over ok-ish roads, but still potholed, to Tarana. The maps were going to then take me over the horrid road, but we opted to go up Hazelgrove Rd, which was actually in pretty good condition for this area. No car-swallowing potholes, just smaller, regular sized ones. We got back to camp around 13:00ish and I made us a tasty lunch of German Walnut Layer Cheese, Venison and Gin Salami, and Bavarian Mustard sandwiches with the sourdough we bought earlier. We then found the caretaker and fixed up the booking for our stay (adding another night as we've used two of our days here just doing Sydney and back).
The afternoon was spent pottering about, and then I cooked chilli con carne for dinner, served as loaded nachos. We've decided it's too cold in the amenities block, so we'll be showering in the van (I think it's something like 9° outside and falling). Tomorrow though, we're off to the Zig Zag Railway to ride in a steam train.