To us, Australia Day Celebrations attract a bigger celebration than New Years Eve, whether it be a BBQ at home with friends or a night out to see a band playing Aussie Anthems, we always plan something for the big day. This year proved to be a little different. Not wanting to spend the big bucks with a day out in crowded Sydney, we opted to soak up the sun while exploring the Blue Mountains! It was a glorious day and we began with visiting many lookouts showcasing the beauty of the land.
The escarpment was impressive at every lookout and soon discovered there were plenty of walks you could do to explore! We did a couple of the shorter walks as we wanted to continue on in the same day. However we made a promise to come back and explore the longer walks at a later date. The highlight and most popular lookout is Echo Point in Katoomba. This is where the rock formations known as the Three Sisters can be seen.
The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, 'Meehni',
'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba
tribe.
These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry. The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle.
As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the
Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to
protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the
battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse
the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in
their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to
come.(Courtesy of: www.bluemts.com.au)
We continued on our journey west out to Bathurst, it was lovely to watch the country change from the mountains into the dry rolling hills. However we had driven out further west for a reason... a pilgrimage if you like to the home of Australian Motor Racing and the Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama.
Its quite unique as the actual track is a tourist drive, and surprisingly people's homes are dotted around the circuit. With a speed limit of 60, you can "slowly" enjoy Pit Straight, The Cutting and finally coming down Conrad's Straight! Although no top speed records were broken i can assure you we would probably be in the running for the slowest lap record with the car crawling up Mount Panorama!
From Bathurst we turned south and drove for about an hour and a half to Ambercrombie Caves for the night. As it was late in the day, we camped and decided to explore the caves the following morning. It was a beautiful spot to camp with plenty of shade and a little creek running through the middle. Directly in front of where we set up the tent was a Wombat burrow, and later that night we saw the wombat wander from his burrow and cross the creek! A little excitement for us as this was the first time we saw one in the wild! What a wonderful and unforgettable way to spend Australia Day!
The next morning we set off to explore the caves. Although not as spectacular as nearby Jenolan Caves, it was still an amazing adventure and we had the place all to ourselves! There is also some interesting history with the caves as back in 1830 the Ribbon Gang of bush rangers used the caves as a hiding place!
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