It Just Isn't Done That Way - Sydney and the Blue Mountains - TR Complete #284.

[PrincessInOz]

Clearing out of Melbourne and Getting to the Blue Mountains, Sydney style



So....How much planning did I do for this trip?


To be really honest, not very much. By way of objective evidence, I provide this picture of the amount of fruit we still had in our stores on the eve of our departure when I realised that I needed to clear out the fridge. Yeah. It was such a low-key build up to the trip that we kinda forgot we needed to run down supplies.







There was no way we were getting through that amount of fruit in one night! Nor the full carton of milk we had. At least the milk had a use-by date after we came home. The fruit.....we donated to our neighbour. And for those of you wondering why I didn't pack it.....we are not supposed to take fruit across state borders.



We pretty much packed on the night before departure. Sadly, I found out that I was to take more clothes on this 6 day vacation than I took for 4.5 weeks to the US in September. In my defence, I hadn't planned on doing any washing and we had to include winter layers on this trip.


I'd planned enough that I booked flights out of Melbourne so as to avoid peak hour traffic; but as we woke up late on the Friday morning, we decided to get to the airport a little bit earlier than planned. Not quite early birds.....







....but at least the benefit of leaving a little earlier and dealing with the tail end of peak hour traffic was that after we checked our bags in, we had time for a leisurely breakfast. We ended up having over an hour for breakfast.



















Don't be fooled by the coffee branding. We ate at Nando's. As far as airport food was concerned, it was the best of the lot there.







Our plane was waiting for us at the gate. We'd picked a great day to get the heck out of Melbourne. Seems like winter was going to hit with a vengeance.








Check out those clouds! I was a little worried for a while that we would be caught by some bad weather. I was to later find out that the pelting rains and bitter cold got to Melbourne in the mid-afternoon.







For us and for now, it was mostly blue skies on the hour and 20 minute flight into Sydney airport.






(Continued in Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

You DO know which way to go, right?



We'd sorted out the car hire about 3 days prior to the trip. Car hire is firmly in DH's bucket of things to do and I figured he'd get round to confirming the arrangements before this trip. Travelling from Melbourne to Sydney really didn't feel like a holiday to us and we were pretty relaxed about firming up arrangements. I know. 3 days is plenty of time, right? It Just Isn't Done That Way but that's the way it worked out for us.



The flight was pretty uneventful and car pick-up was a breeze. Afterall, the car hire places were directly across the road in the parking lot from the arrivals terminal. It took us all of 5 minutes to pick up our bags and walk across to the car rentals. DH had gotten pretty used to my uber-planning when on vacation and therefore he'd expected me to bark out instructions on which direction to head in when we got in the car. Imagine his surprise when he asked me "You DO know which way to go, right?" and I responded "Nope. Not this trip."

"But....But.....that's not how you normally do things!"
"Nope. Not this trip."


Guess what song was going through my mind?

The look on his face was a scream!


Lucky for us, I'd picked up a paper map in the rental car company office and I had my trusty cell phone with me. But there really was no need for DH to panic; I'd always planned on relying on Google Maps.
I can always count on Sydney traffic to give me time to get my bearings.







Ask any Sydneysider or Sydney taxi driver. S-L-O-W is about the speed that they travel in; but there is nothing slow about the complaints about Sydney traffic. This wasn't even peak hour! We got into Sydney at about 12.30 pm and encountered traffic from the get-go.








Our destination for the night was the Blue Mountains.


Sydney to the Blue Mountains is about 100 km or 60 miles. The map and the phone suggested the M5 to the M7 to the M4 and into the Great Western Highway. A snap of a drive of about 90 minutes; if it weren't for Sydney traffic and roadworks. I think we averaged 40 km per hour on this drive.



2.5 hours later, we were in Glenbrook. Glenbrook is considered to be at the foothills of the Blue Mountains. It took us 2.5 hours to travel that 100 km!







And we were starving. This was the first café that caught our eye.
















Thankfully, it did have a semi-decent vegetarian menu. DH got the sweet potato salad.








I got the Goat cheese and caramelized pear salad.








DS got chicken burger.









And a milk shake.








As communities in the Blue Mountains go, Glenbrook is probably the smallest. The village wasn't very large.








If Glenbrook had been our destination for the night, I would have dawdled some more. But we still had to get to our destination for the night and it was right on the other side of the Great Dividing Range.....so it was time to keep going.






(Continued in Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

Jenolan Caves House and Mountain Lodge



Our destination for the night was the Jenolan Caves House and Mountain Lodge. From Glenbrook, it was a further 120 km away. With all the traffic and roadworks on the Great Western Highway, it took us a further 2 hours to reach our destination.
All in all, it took us nearly 5 hours to travel over 200 km! We were really travelling at a fast pace today!



I haven't been to Jenolan in quite a while....but I STILL remembered that last 10 km heading down into the Jenolan Caves area.
It's pretty windy and in any other circumstance, that road would only be wide enough for one car in any direction. In fact, at certain times of the day, they do turn that last stretch into one-way only so that the tour buses can head down and head back out without having to deal with any traffic in the opposite direction. I had hoped to hit this last stretch with a bit of daylight left....but instead, we drove in the dark. I pretty much white-knuckled it all the way down.


We had the wide choice of ONE option for accommodation here. The Jenolan Caves House and Mountain Lodge is the ONLY accommodation available in the Jenolan Caves area. Built in 1897, not much has changed since that time.


The Mountain Lodge is considered the more modern section. Rooms in this section will have telephones and televisions....which you may not find in the Caves House section. There is no WiFi and because the Jenolan area is in a shallow gully, cell phone reception is spotty with only Telstra coverage available.


After the drive down in the dark, I was really pleased to check in to the room. The reception area at the Caves House was charmingly old-fashioned.







The Christmas Tree? Seems like they were preparing for Christmas in July celebrations.







I'd booked a family room in the Mountain Lodge section.







The beds were comfortable enough.








Proof that the television existed!







The room did come with some self-contained facilities. I did have some initial thoughts that we would buy some breakfast supplies; but DH nixed that idea as we were driving up the Blue Mountains. He figured we'd just eat whatever was available. On hindsight, given that there really only was the micro and fridge, it probably was just as well that we didn't stop for any bread or road provisions.







The bathroom was a little on the small side.







But it was clean and in good working order....and that's all I cared about.







The Mountain Lodge to the Caves House is about a 2 minute walk. Upstairs in the Caves House, we found Chisolm’s Restaurant. When we checked in, we were advised to make a booking for the restaurant.



Looking back at the pictures, I took, it seems like all we have done on this day is eat!



Guess who ordered the salad as a starter?







No prizes given out if you picked my DH. But it wasn't the only thing he ordered. He also got the grilled salmon with potatoes and green vegetables for his main.








No prizes for guessing that DS ordered the pasta. It came with a distinct lack of tomato sauce. DS was not happy with the amount of sauce available but he did eat it all.







I ordered the beef tenderloin. The beef was properly cooked to my medium rare preference.







It was tasty and tender enough but the sides were pretty bland and dry.








DS and I had checked out the dessert menu first. We knew what we were ordering and it was the reason why we both didn't go with a starter.


DS got the cheese plate. There was a goodly amount of cheese on the plate! They were absolute hunks of cheese.






The soufflé of the day.....Chocolate souffle with Grand Manier orange sauce. Easily the pick of the night!







We scoffed our food down PDQ as we had an activity planned for this night. We definitely didn't want to be late for this one!

 

[BecBennett]

Pfft! Cheese is not a dessert... I love a good souffle though!

Occasionally we used to return to Sydney through the blue mountains and those roads are terrible for traffic. The traffic would have to be one of the main reasons I'm glad we don't live in Sydney any more.

 

[tiggrbaby]

What a charming little town! And you digs look lovely! And mmmmm, chocolate soufflé!

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Great update! Loving it so far. I get that too as the 'planning manager' of the family. A blank face looking at me for the next instruction!

How funny you can't take fruit into another state. As we don't have states in the UK it's hard to get my head around it! Glenbrook looks a cute one horse town. Like the look of Jenolan Caves Hse and Mountain Lodge. How authentic! Cheese and biscuits as we call it here my DW fav desert. Looking forward to hearing what your activity was for this night maybe cave diving? Mountain climbing?

 

[Fairy Floss]

Thanks for posting this - my grandparents lived at Blaxland and I spent most of my school holidays in the Blue Mountains (while we lived in Australia)
Already bringing back lovely childhood memories

 

[jedijill]

The traffic looks terrible...almost like the roads up to the mountains this holiday weekend!

That lodge looks nice...dinner looked yummy too!

Is flying the best way to get between major cities? I am used to the train in Europe so wasn't sure with the distances in Australia.

Jill in CO

 

[ACDSNY]

Along for the adventure. I think we took the subway to Katoomba, but that was 15 years ago so the memory may be a little off.

 

[franandaj]

Geez I barely made page 2. I really need to get my act together!

 

[usnuzuloose]

Your trip is the only way I will get there. So I am here. Who cares if it isn't done that way….

 

[franandaj]

OK, all caught up. No surprise on carrying the fruit. We can't take it in or out of California due to the fruit flies and stuff.

No surprise that your DH ordered the salads! We would starve without some sort of provisions in the room! That was a measly amount of sauce. Now I want spaghetti!

Looking forward to what you have planned for the night!

 

[Luvchefmic]

It might not be done that way BUT I could never pass up coming along with any adventure with YOU You could probably make laundry day exciting for me just add pictures and narrate the way you always do and I would be IN

Now here we have the shirts that are made from cotton. Did you know that cotton fabric originated in ....? I learn so much from you

 

[shushh]

Hehhehe welcome to Sydney...and its traffic! But seriously, 2.5 hours from the airport to Glenbrook is bad, even by Sydney standards Glad your survived the drive...

And is that sweet potato I see atop your tenderloin!

Cant wait to read your take on Sydney and the BM

 

[shushh]

Pfft! Cheese is not a dessert... I love a good souffle though!

Glad I'm not the only one who harbours these thoughts!!!

 

[zanzibar138]

I also agree that cheese is not a dessert The souffle sounds pretty good though!

Wow that traffic was bad I didn't realise how lucky I was not hitting any traffic on my way to the airport in Sydney - I might have missed my flight if it was like that! That would have been early afternoon I think.

I'm kind of used to windy roads and have no problem driving in the Dandenongs after dark, but strange windy roads in the dark still kind of scare me. The ones in the US will be interesting driving on the wrong side of the road

Your accommodation looks nice enough, even if the TV is in a bit of a useless position

 

[losfp]

Yaaaay Jenolan! Love that place

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Great start

I'm feeling a bit sheepish reading your TR, as I realise that I unknowingly committed an offence on an Aussie trip 4 years back. I visited Tropical Fruit World on a trip to the Gold Coast and bought a couple of bits of fruit at the end to take back to the hotel. From memory though, Tropical Fruit World is just over the border of NSW. Oh dear.

 

[BecBennett]

You're not the first, we almost always buy fruit on the drive home from QLD (through Stanthorpe/Warwick area)

 

[zanzibar138]

As far as I was aware, the only times it's a BIG no-no where you can get into real trouble is going into WA or Tassie. The other borders are too hard to control with so many road crossings. You'd usually see signs advising when organic matter is not allowed in. But I'd say not taking it on any flights is a good rule of thumb