This past weekend, we had a night away to the Blue Mountains with five friends. Our house was about a 1.5 hour drive in Kurrajong. It was so relaxing and nice and the weather was beautiful. We stayed on the north east side of the Mountains to explore a new side of the National Park. (see map below) Usually the more touristy area is around Katoomba and the Three Sisters.
We picked Sam up and went to do the Penrith Lakes parkrun at 8am Saturday. We all ran pretty well, the course was nice and flat, though it was too foggy to see the actual lake we were running around. Sam got a new PB. 🙂 We stopped for some brunch, then met the others at the house we rented through Airbnb. We unpacked, then drove 15 min ish to go on a hike at Mount Bowen. The house was really nice; cozy and surrounded by a pasture with some cows. They were doing back burning, so the original hike we wanted to do was out, and the second hike we tried was also out due to a fire helicopter landing site being at the start. So we ended up just going 30 min further to the Blue Mountains Botanical Gardens in Mount Tomah and walking around there. They had an amazing view of the Mountains and another viewing platform to see the Sydney sky line, but we didn’t have binoculars, so couldn’t really make it out. We had lunch at the Potager cafe there after a fun “one minute away” car ride. (we were leading the car convoy and my GPS said it was one minute away. It was actually in the same building…whoops)
On the way back to the house, we stopped at a giant pie and a giant fruit cup to take pictures. There was also a bunch of orchards and cider making shops out that way like Bilpin (named after the town they are in) and Hilly Billy both of which I tried over the weekend. Back at the house, we had a lovely afternoon drinking and talking on the deck. Karen kept trying to call the cows with a yodeling video. It totally worked a few times too! Once the sun went behind the mountain, it cooled off a lot and we moved inside to start the fire place and dinner. Karen made amazing duck (and chicken for picky Brandon) I made WI cheezy potatoes which no one had ever heard of. It was a bit difficult to make as there were no frozen hash browns/potatoes at our grocery store, so I had to improvise and use the blandest frozen french fries I could find. It still tasted good! We had salads and dessert and it was a wonderful meal. We played the Aussie Cards Against Humanity which was educational for some of us and hilarious for all of us.
The next day, Christine was in charge of breakfast, which was amazing. Then we went back and did the Burralow Trail by Mount Bowen since they were done burning. It was a nice trail with a fair bit of hills through the trees to a camp ground. The helicopter was still flying around and actually landed in the campground while we were there. We were all puffed and sore by the end of the hike. We went to the Archibald for some well deserved lunch, then all headed back to Sydney. It was a great weekend and we had so much fun! Enjoy the pictures!
Nerina and I leave for Europe next week, so the next post will be about that trip mid September when I get back, unless Brandon has anything for you sooner. Please feel free to message and talk to him while I am gone! I don’t want him getting too bored or lonely! His Aussie number is 0411 480 665. Happy August all!!
