4/19/10 (katoomba)

Katoomba - Parklea

Our final day in the Blue Mountains. Annie and I seriously debated about doing some canyoning on this day. Canyoning is when you repel down waterfalls into deep pools of water that are canyons formed out of rock. It sounded fun but ultimately proved to be too expensive and we decided to save the money for something down the road. I am lobbying for a helicopter ride at the Great Barrier Reef. 

For the third day we got up at 5:30am to capture the sunrise of the Three Sisters and the Blue Mountains. I returned to Echo Point to try and get a time lapse I was happy with since my first day didn’t turn out. I set up shop on the lower deck and started the camera rolling at the Three Sisters. Several people came to join me and I met a group of three from France. Two of the people lived in Australia and one recently moved to Pacific Heights in San Francisco. It was fun to swap favorite spots from a familiar location. Annie came to join me after a bit and I got two really good time lapse shots of the morning sunrise. 

We returned to the camp sight and chatted with our neighbors for a bit on sites in the Melbourne area we should check out and then cleaned up our area. We visited a fun little cafe just at the entrance of our campsite for the first time to enjoy a hot beverage before our departure. We were then off for lunch at Katoomba’s sister city Leura.  Annie and I decided on a cafe called Wayzgoose, famous for their flowerpot scones. They had a little eating area out back. Apparently, Leura only has one set of public toilets and they were within a stones throw of were we were sitting. We watched wave after wave of people come looking to use the toilets only to discover they were closed. Someone had put a note on the door saying they should reopen at noon. At this point it was 12:30 and Annie and I got a few laughs at how upset people were getting. We decided to eat quickly and get on the road before the town had a mini revolt. 

We had to return our camper tomorrow near Sydney and so it was a short drive to our next camper site. We ran into a little speed bump because our original site we had planned to stay was booked because of the annual RV show just outside of Sydney. We we a little concerned we would have some challenges with accommodations but luckily the Gateway site we stayed at a few nights ago had availability. We checked in and I was ready for a nap, while Annie was off to do laundry. After a few hours rest for both of us we decided to go out and get some dinner. We headed to the Blacktown mall based on a recommendation from our camp site and found that it had already closed when we got there at 7. We found the downtown area that was a pretty sketchy and settled on a bistro that looked like the neighborhood nightclub. After a nice meal and a little rugby on TV we were back to the camp site. This was our final day full day in the camper and in the Sydney area. We are looking forward to our next adventures in Melbourne. 

Likes: The Blue Mountains, toilet troubles.