Emu Plains to Glenrowan

From Emu Plains, we made a couple of trips to the Blue Mountains (so called for the blue colour caused by the evaporation of eucalyptus oil from the forests below). Firstly we drove to the Blue Mountains Botanical Gardens at Mt Tomah, in somewhat better weather than when we drove through Mt Tomah on our way to Bathurst! As with other gardens, there were many plants, birds and butterflies to delight us and we ate our picnic lunch on a lawn, accompanied by blue wrens.

Black Jezebel butterfly

Waterlily

Bassian thrush

White-browed scrubwren

New Holland honeyeater

Superb blue wren

Sarracenia

Cunningham's skink

View over gardens

Sarracenia

From the gardens we headed to Mount Wilson where we had a short but pleasant walk through the Cathedral of Ferns. We then continued on our circular route and, near Blackheath, we saw a sign to Pulpit Rock. The path was quite good but with many steps which tested my metallic joints as well as my stamina! All came through OK and although the weather wasn't ideal by then, the views were worth the effort.

Cathedral of Ferns

Cathedral of Ferns

On the way down to Pulpit Rock

Pulpit Rock

Panoramic view from Pulpit Rock

Judith starting the climb back

By this stage we were quite hungry but were surprised to find that neither Katoomba nor Leura had a restaurant that appealed to either us or had room, so we ended up with an excellent Chinese meal at Hazelbrook.

The following day we decided to head out to Echo Point and were horrified to find the changes since our last visit - no parking close by and crowds three deep at the viewpoint (mostly Asian tourists with forests of selfie sticks - yuk!). The last time we had been there, we had just driven up, parked, enjoyed the view then walked the 900 steps down by the Three Sisters. Progress? Mmmmm!

The Three Sisters from Echo Point

The Three Sisters from Echo Point

Having recovered from our disappointment, we moved on to Leura where we visited Everglades where our UK National Trust membership gained us free entry. The Art Deco house is minimally furnished but very interesting. Having complained about the density of tourists at Echo Point, the Everglades merited far more visitors than we saw on our visit. The gardens are the showpiece with formal areas laid out in tiers and large areas of bush garden. At the time of year we visited, the floral display was a shadow of what it would be in spring but there were birds and lizards to entertain us and Judith spotted one of the few native orchids which flower in summer. In trying to identify the orchid we asked a volunteer who later drew our attention to a diamond python which was resting in a tree, digesting its meal!

View from Lower Terrace

Female satin bowerbird

Statue in gardens

Large tongue orchid

Diamond python

Agapanthus Terrace

The Pool

Leura's name has an interesting history and the Aussie Towns website offers the following: "No one is sure how Leura got its name. Some claim that there was a local Gundungurra word 'leura' which meant 'lava' but it is more likely that William Eyre, who subdivided the area in the 1880s, planned to name the settlement Lurline which was the name of his daughter. Somehow Lurline became Leura which became the official name of the town when the railway station was opened in 1891."

Time for fun in the Blue Mountains ran out and we had to head back to Canberra. We again travelled on Remembrance Drive and stopped at the Mackey VC Rest Area where we had some of the best 'on the run' coffee from a Driver Reviver volunteer. The citation for Mackey's VC reads:

"Corporal Mackey was in charge of a section of the 2/3rd Australian Pioneer Battalion in the attack on the feature known as Helen, east of Tarakan town. Led by Corporal Mackey the section moved along a narrow spur with scarcely width for more than one man when it came under fire from three well-sited positions near the top of a very steep, razor-backed ridge. The ground fell away almost sheer on each side of the track making it almost impossible to move to a flank so Corporal Mackey led his men forward. He charged the first Light Machine-Gun position but slipped and after wrestling with one enemy, bayoneted him, and charged straight on to the Heavy Machine-Gun which was firing from a bunker position six yards to his right. He rushed this post and killed the crew with grenades. He then jumped back and changing his rifle for a sub-machine-gun he attacked further up the steep slope another Light Machine-Gun position which was firing on his platoon. Whilst charging, he fired his gun and reached with a few feet of the enemy position when he was killed by Light Machine-Gun fire but not before he had killed two more enemy. By his exceptional bravery and complete disregard for his own life, Corporal Mackey was largely responsible for the killing of seven Japanese and the elimination of two machine-gun posts, which enabled his platoon to gain its objective, from which the Company continued to engage the enemy. His fearless action and outstanding courage were an inspiration to the whole battalion." Maybe crazy but selfless and utterly amazing.

We were delighted to be able to catch up with old friends from Rhodesian days, Colin & Nat, and put the world to rights over a refreshing cuppa.

After a night's rest at Tilly's place, she joined us in travelling down to our overnight stop at Jindabyne (the name being derived from an Aboriginal word meaning 'valley'.). On the way down we stopped at Bredbo and enjoyed and excellent snack at a creperie which was delightful and highly recommended for anyone travelling that way. Bredbo's name is another derived from an Aboriginal word, this time meaning 'joining of waters'.

Earlier in our travels we came across a pub which laid claim to having hosted Banjo Patterson who gained the idea for 'Waltzing Matilda' from local events. Now, at the other end of the country, we found that Banjo Patterson had stayed at the Bredbo Inn and is believed to have met a character who was the inspiration for his epic poem 'The Man from Snowy River' - we are following in great footsteps.

Once settled into our accommodation, Tilly and Judith went off to do some shopping and came back with gin and schnapps from a local distillery! Both proved to be excellent drinks.

Wild Brumby Distillery

It would have been good to have more time at Jindabyne but we had to press on towards our next overnight stop at Glenrowan. On the way we went through Thredbo and some truly magnificent scenery in the Snowy Mountains. There were vast areas where the trees were white on hillsides and we thought at first that there had been a die-back problem but it turned out that these were mountain ash trees which had been burned in bush fires. Fortunately they seem to recover from burning quite well.

Mountainside of burnt-out mountain ash

Mountain stream

Panoramic view from Scammell's Lookout

Once out of the mountains, the temperature rose and by the time we reached Yackandandah, it was distinctly hot. Yackandandah's name has Aboriginal origins but there are conflicting theories as to which is correct, so suffice to say it is a very pretty small town. We scheduled a stop here as Judith's 3rd grand uncle (!!), Matthew Sharpe Rome, had emigrated from Scotland in the early 1850s and my family history research had found that he and his wife lived and died in Yackandandah and were buried in the town cemetery. We don't know why they emigrated but the spur for the move may have been the gold finds in the area, even though he was a pharmacist. In 1891 he was apparently still practising as he registered a patent for an antidote to snake-bite. We visited the cemetery and found a headstone for Matthew and his wife. We know that their first daughter also died in Yackandandah but it was too hot to go roaming through the cemetery on the off-chance of finding a headstone. Although Matthew and his wife lived and died in Yackandandah, they must have moved around as their children were born in Beechworth, Reid's Creek, Murmungee and Malakoff Dairy!

Yackandandah

Gravestone for Matthew Sharpe Rome and his wife, Dianah (Richardson)

Our journey then resumed and we reached Glenrowan and Ned Kelly country. Glenrowan is named after two farmers, James and George Rowan.
More of our stay here in the next blog...