It does rain in Australia

The Blue Mountains is one of the most beautiful places in the world. It was designated a World Heritage site in 2000 and we were there slap bang in the middle of it …….

I contemplated this as we sat in the traffic jam on our way to do a four hour hike near Wentworth Falls and Leura Cascades. The jam was caused by the New South Wales authorities carving a four lane highway through the midst of this beauty. It could have been much worse. We could have been driving an open top car in which case the lashing wind and rain would have sorely tested our wet weather gear. As Den watched the men at work (geddit??? well you will if you are over forty) he began to talk to  me about about the wonders of reinforced concrete and its manufacturing process, as well as its many uses. Fifteen minutes later I was considering crashing the car into one of the  concrete road dividers, just to make him stop talking.

The weather was getting worse and the cloud base was such that we couldn’t see very well. We decided to abandon the four hour walk, and instead made our way to the pretty town of Leura. Quaint shops and plenty of coffee bars. As the rain got heavier, we stepped into one and ordered lunch, two very tasty baguettes with coffee.  Forty five minutes later, we drove to the Leura Cascade, a spectacular waterfall. The rain worked in our favour, as we were literally the only ones there and we took a lot of pictures.

The rain was easing so we drove onto the Wentworth Falls which was to have been our original destination. We parked up, put on our hiking boots and made our way to the many lookout points where we saw, well, lots of clouds hovering below us. It is true to say that the waterfalls when they came into view, were exhilarating. Again there were very few people around. A visit to the Observation café followed, where Den ate a huge slice of lemon cheesecake and I had a piece of toasted raspberry and pear bread with butter and we were on our way back to Pete, Roisin and Sam’s place to get ready to go out for dinner.