Archev's adventures in the Berlingo

[T1 Terry]

My wife and I had a stop over in Sydney for a couple of days en route to New Zealand. A highlight of the very brief visit was a trip to Katoomba and the Blue Mountains. We loved it and always promised to return to travel a bit (or preferably a lot). We never did.

No time like now, we are about to head into Autumn so the deciduous trees will start to change colours and drop their leaves, the autumn flowering plants will be out in bloom, the days aren't so hot from here on until Oct Nov, but the days get shorter. You actually have to deliberately go to somewhere to see snow, and even then, it's likely to be man made using high pressure air and water mist .....
The dams will start to fill up again, Lake Eyre might even have water in it.
If you are into motor racing, the Bathurst 1000 is on 9th to12th Oct, it's a big place, so you might want to hire a Berlingo Campervan while you are here.
South Australia has a great wine and food reputation, but so does parts of Victoria, NSW and even WA, Qld is actually developing a wine region I believe.

T1 Terry

 

[Archev]

No time like now, we are about to head into Autumn so the deciduous trees will start to change colours and drop their leaves, the autumn flowering plants will be out in bloom, the days aren't so hot from here on until Oct Nov, but the days get shorter. You actually have to deliberately go to somewhere to see snow, and even then, it's likely to be man made using high pressure air and water mist .....
The dams will start to fill up again, Lake Eyre might even have water in it.
If you are into motor racing, the Bathurst 1000 is on 9th to12th Oct, it's a big place, so you might want to hire a Berlingo Campervan while you are here.
South Australia has a great wine and food reputation, but so does parts of Victoria, NSW and even WA, Qld is actually developing a wine region I believe.

T1 Terry

All of that could have been our itinerary but we spent the ensuing years holidaying here in Scotland and visiting Granddaughter in California. Our increasing health problems meant travel insurance cost was becoming crazy.

 

[siteguru]

I worked in Aus for 5 weeks, back in Nov/Dec 1990, at Wallerawang power station. Accommodation was a motel* on the A32 Great Western Highway between Lithgow and Wallerawang, which had an angry Emu in the field next to it.

* I think it's now called the Bushman's Motor Inn.

I only had 3 days off in those 5 weeks, one of which was spent visiting Katoomba, riding the Scenic Skyway (the 100' trees at the bottom, about 1000' below, just looked like broccoli spears) and seeing the 3 Sisters. There was also a curry house at Katoomba, run by an Aussie couple, which was nice.

Lots of good memories from that trip.

 

[T1 Terry]

I worked in Aus for 5 weeks, back in Nov/Dec 1990, at Wallerawang power station. Accommodation was a motel* on the A32 Great Western Highway between Lithgow and Wallerawang, which had an angry Emu in the field next to it.

* I think it's now called the Bushman's Motor Inn.

I only had 3 days off in those 5 weeks, one of which was spent visiting Katoomba, riding the Scenic Skyway (the 100' trees at the bottom, about 1000' below, just looked like broccoli spears) and seeing the 3 Sisters. There was also a curry house at Katoomba, run by an Aussie couple, which was nice.

Lots of good memories from that trip.

That power station closed in 2014, they are still demolishing it 12 yrs later, it is being converted to a big battery site with all the grid networking and substations still there, it was chosen as an ideal spot.
The last time I was up that way, I bought our second motorhome from people who had a huge house that overlooked the artificial lake that was built on the Coxs River, Lake Wallace., it was built to cool the power station.
I'm guessing you would have cut down through Barton Ave to get to the power station from the Motel. At the bottom of the hill as you came off the Great western Hwy, there was a turn to the right, Rocky Waterhole Drive, it was just up that rd .... Just checked it out on google maps, the house is now marked as Rock Waterhole B&B ......
Apparently, a tunnel was under construction to convert the lake into a pumped storage hydro power station to provide the peak loads Sydney required ..... it was rather controversial and I have a feeling, the people we bought the motorhome from, were at the pointy end of the resistance to that being done ... like they were ever going to stop it

T1 Terry