Toora Leura!

Wednesday 14th December 2016

We slept surprisingly well last night.  We had our 'continental' breakfast which included orange juice, large sugar puffs as a cereal and toasted white bread.  Shortly after 9am we were driving to Echo Point, near Katoomba to start our day walking.

Echo Point is a view point over the Three Sisters rock formation and the Jamieson Valley.

A supposed Aboriginal story tells of three sisters from one tribe being wooed by three brothers from another tribe.  The matches were not allowed and a 'wise man' of the tribe turned the sisters into stone until after the dispute had finished.....but.....the wise man was killed by the other tribe and no one has been able to release the three sisters since.  As far as stories go I am not completely convinced by its authenticity especially when I have also been told that once there were seven sisters of rock pinnacles, four of which have now collapsed.  Anyway, disregarding the stories, the Three Sisters are an interesting rock formation.  

Perhaps because of the fairly early time we arrived the area was very quiet and we walked down to the Three Sisters....

...and we stood on 'Honeymoon' Bridge.

From here we walked down some very rustic steps down to the valley floor and followed some tracks down in the deep bush.  Whilst down in the valley we only saw two other couples in a two hour period.  The bush was dense and it was a bit like Jurassic Park in that it was so isolated from any civilisation. There were all sorts of bird calls and chirps that we couldn't really identify.  We did see cockatoos again flying over the trees below us.  I have taken the liberty of checking the correct designation for collective cockatoos.  It can have several alternatives which are...a chattering, clattering, cluttering or crackle of cockatoos.  I had imagined something rather more rude but out of the available choice I quite like 'crackle'.

The temperature was only in the mid 20's so we were OK for the walking in the valley and on the way back up the stairs to Leura Cascade.  The name Leura made us associate the name with an old song, Toora Leura Lay (phonetically spelt because I don't know how it is really spelt). That song reminded me of a rugby song that I will not disclose but I think my brother David will know it well.

The Leura Cascade was stunning, probably because we didn't have any mental image of it at all.

To say that the Three Sisters and the Cascade are probably the two most mentioned beauty spots in the Blue Mountains we had them all to ourselves, it was great.  We had a little cool off in a pool.

On our way back to the car a nice lady gave us a lift the last couple of kilometres.  We had walked for about 3 hours so we gladly accepted.

We called into Katoomba again to pick up a bit of lunch and later went to have a look at a viewpoint called Evans Lookout.

The view may look like all the other views but they are still worth it and they are panoramic in scale which doesn't really show on the photos.

We returned to our palatial accommodation and had a little look around the local area.  From a public information sign it states that Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip have been to Mount Victoria on the train but didn't stay.  The Imperial Hotel in the village has had George V and George VI as residents before they ascended to the throne.  That place looks like it has seen better days too.

The day hasn't been as hot as we expected.  We aren't complaining.  As I am writing this we are just rather shocked because it is raining!!!  It's not our first rain in Oz but we certainly don't expect it.