Road Trip 2011: Day Nine

After a wonderful evening chatting with past ABA and current Facebook friend Aine and her husband, it was up and out the next morning for my very first time seeing the sights of Katoomba - or not! It was the most hysterical experience as Aine, who works with tourism in the Blue Mountains, proudly took me to the lookout onto the famous Three Sisters and pointed them out to me:

Oh well, at least I hadn't come from japan, like the poor confused tourists I asked to take our photo!!

This is what we should have been able to see:

Not to mention that only the day before, my online friends had been frantically warning about the bush fire in Katoomba, deliberately lit, just at the foot of this very lookout. So recent, the staff hadn't yet removed the warning signs (probably the rain was too heavy to do so!)

In case the mist/fog/rain is too thick for you to read it, the words warn "Bush Fire. Trails Closed" LOL.
The entire area stank of wet fire. I think it was out.

There was nothing left for it - Aine went to work and I went - shopping :) nearby Leura was just the thing and I spent the rest of the morning browsing and had a wonderful lunch at a cafe before hitting the road toward the city.

On the way, I stopped in to see Debbie - after a bookshop and hippy shop detour! Lovely to have tea and goodies surrounded by her purple walls!

I arrived in Parramatta in good time and dry conditions and headed tot he home of my cousin Bruce and his wife Sharon. The rest of the day was spent in conversation, then their son Darren, his wife Amy, their 2yo old Chloe and 2wo baby Keiran arrived for dinner and some breastfeeding talk!! And then to bed.