Katoomba

Wednesday, 31 May 2017

Lunch at the Paragon Cafe

Peek a boo

Ballroom

Piano (and entrance to Gents)

Memorabilia

Another selfie in the bright sun

Three Sisters

Leura Cascade

Wentworth Falls

There wasn’t any frost this morning, but the wind chill factor must have had the temperature around the -8 degree mark – I did wish I had packed my fur hat and long johns!  Despite having full thermals and a down jacket, I was very glad when we were in the car and underway.  Snow clouds were building rapidly over Oberon as we headed towards Katoomba.  The drive was very pretty but very hilly and quite windy, also a favourite route of truck drivers.  We even passed the spot where Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson stopped in 1813 and returned to Sydney.

We were at the Katoomba Falls Tourist Park about 10.30 am and because we hadn’t made a reservation, the receptionist decided we should wait outside for ten minutes while she finished her conversation and let us in.  This woman certainly had attitude!  Although a very nice park and with wonderful new amenities, the $40 per night is rather expensive.  Having a monopoly certainly helps.

After setting up, we headed to the shopping centre, looking for a hairdresser, a supermarket and somewhere nice for lunch.  We found all three without any trouble; lunch was partaken at the Paragon Café.  This café was opened in 1916 and has managed to retain its Art Deco décor – lunch was delicious, as were the hand made chocolates!

Then it was time to act like a tourist and join the 8,137 Asian tourists at Echo Point for a view of the Three Sisters and the Blue Mountains.  Although extremely cold, it was also very clear and sunny, which did not make for good photographs.  We then followed the tourist drive towards Leura, with a stop at the Leura Cascades (and more steps to climb down and up!) before continuing to the Wentworth Falls Lookout.  We decided it was too cold and too far (also too many steps) to walk down to the falls, so just took a photo of the falls and surrounding red cliffs.

Today, we finally managed to convince Cat to leave the caravan and venture outside for afternoon tea in the sunshine, but it wasn’t very long before he was back inside where it was warm.