The Three Sisters
Katoomba, home of the Three Sisters, one of Australia's iconic rock formations, did not disappoint. The Three Sisters are an aboriginal sacred site in which a tribal medicine man turned his three daughters to stone to protect them before going off to battle but unfortunately for them he died in battle and thus they stay that way. Echo Point, the best place to view the formation is an example of how well done a popular natural attraction can be managed. It is clean, well laid out and quite impressive in its simplicity and access to all. The only thing you pay for is parking, and even that can be avoided if you are willing to walk a quarter mile. Allie read that there are something like 3 million visitors each year, which equates to 10% of the population of Australia.
Sunset at Katoomba was good but the sunrise was, as often is the case in the Blue Mountains, a bust. So, we packed our bags and headed north to Armidale. We decided to revisit a place we had been to last year in hopes that the weather would be better than then, when it was pouring rain. After weaving through the outskirts of Sydney, we ascended up the Hunter River valley through one of the most bizarre countryside combinations imaginable. The Hunter valley is famous for its wines and apparently is huge horse country, all which was quite nice. However, it is also one of Australia's largest open pit coal mining and power production regions and the juxtaposition of miles wide pits and huge machines co-existing with vineyards was a bit much. Thankfully, we left the area in short order and continued up our favorite road, the New England Highway, toward Armidale.
Now we realize that if you look at a map the coastal road from Sydney to Suffolk Park/Byron Bay is a much more direct route. There is one major problem with that, though, it is like taking Route 1 from Maryland to Maine. Yes, it is direct, but you stop and slog through every single coastal town along the way and here it is the exact same. Australia is even "blessed" with strip shopping centers (or 'centres') along the highway, so it really does feel like the US. So, we opted out of the hustle and bustle and headed inland. It added another 100 Kms but it was well worth it.
We arrived in Armidale in time for a fine evening and checked into a motel and strolled around. What we saw was absolutely charming. It is a relatively large college town but still maintains a sense of class and style. It was clean and full of parks and greenery. It also, apparently has an annual sheep festival which is this weekend and lodging fills up fast, as by the time we got back to our room, there wasn't a vacancy to be found. After a very nice dinner at the Wicklow Hotel, we retired for the evening hoping for continued good weather for the drive to Suffolk Park.
Well, that was certainly not the case. We awoke to rain and our hopes of seeing this area of Australia in sunshine were dashed. Last year we drove through the area in the rain, and it appears Mother Nature has a mischievous sense of humor, for yet again it was a full day of rain. So we motored through six hours of rain and murk, thankfully most of it on very good roads to Tenterfield and then the coast, and arrived yesterday here at our friends' home in Suffolk Park. At long last. We move in on Monday to our digs where we'll be until the end of September.
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