Dan Will Travel

Today I drove about 6 hours north from Katoomba staying in the mountains and trees for a full day. Again, as is the case in this range, most of the trip was on ridgetops, dropping into valleys here and there.

Services were limited and the one below provides a possible marketing lesson and a lesson on first impressions.

The Halfway Roadhouse. Sure did not fail due to a competitor across the road. There was nothing for 30 miles either way. Quite a metal man greeter, huh?

Maybe it was this little guy standing at the entrance. Not a super friendly first impression. Loved his shoes.

And, then there was a sign for “Trucker’s Memorial” park.  OK, so let’s stop and see this!

Looks like I had been driving along a far more dangerous road than I thought.  Pretty interesting commentary to read.

A close up of the individual memorials. Note how many were killed versus just died naturally. And note in the overall photo how much room there is left on the walls.

Well, I do not know if everything  is bigger in Australia, but their tires sure are!

To entertain myself on this journey (besides the above sorts of things) I brought my ancient iPod along, which proceeded to die in the first hour. Ok, now what? I found some of my purchased music on my phone, but it was in the cloud so I tried streaming that. After failing to complete any one song due to lack of cell coverage in the remote mountains, I though just what will I do for entertainment when I get really “out back?” I got to my motel in Denman and called Darin, my in house Kasala expert at all sorts of stuff. He helped me figure out how to download the music from the cloud to the phone, thus saving the trip, or at least my sanity. As with everything related to phones and me, it was super easy if only I really looked at it.

What I think will be the most stressful part of my drive across Australia is done. I have picked up my car at Sydney airport and got it through a driving rainstorm (The storm of the century according to the ever excited TV weather people.) and up into the Blue Mountains to Katoomba. For those from the Seattle area, this is not a long drive. Maybe like Sea-Tac airport to Snoqualmie pass, but driving on the other side of the road in a large city and having to pass through it due to lack of freeways was not easy. Here I will do the repacking for a driving trip and stock up on stuff to eat and drink along the way.

Classic view into the Blue Mountains from Echo Point, Katoomba

The Blue Mountains are part of the Great Dividing Range of Australia that runs most of the way north to south along the eastern coast line, sort of like our Appalachian mountains. I have been here before, and blogged under the title of “Going Down…..” Which is part of why the area is so unique. The roads and facilities are essentially on TOP of the range, and the hiking and such is all down into gorges and canyons. Like our Appalachians, these are extremely old, weathered mountains, all covered in dense forests of innumerable species of eucalyptus.

The Three Sisters. Maybe not quite as dramatic as the Three Sisters in central Oregon, but nice.

The “Three Sisters” are a big draw.  One motel somehow got the first use of the name, the 3 Sisters motel.  Right next door was the 3 Prospectors motel with an image of 3 very similar looking women on the sign.   Somehow, I doubt that the two owners speak to each other.

This series of blogs will cover my driving trip totally across Australia. From Sydney to Perth, 4000+ km or 2,500+ miles.) After a few days in the mountains, I will venture out into the outback for nearly two weeks before hitting Perth on the far west coast. Join me and we will see what comes along!