Day 5 - From Bellbird to Hawkesbury

There is something to say about sleeping at home.  I mean, it's not our home, but it's our friends home and it really felt a lot like being at home.  Steve and Margaret bought a 2-acre piece of property and build a beautiful home on it. Recently it was renovated, and the interior is very nice. No stairs either.

Steve & Margaret's Acreage Home

Our Room (for the duration of our stay)

The Spacious Bathroom

We all had a nice breakfast and Steve showed me around the property and the "Caravan" that they use to go camping. Truly a beautiful place and they are the most gracious hosts. Steve is also a collector of small cars/motor bikes. He has a couple of different scales of them and they are not yet placed back in the house after the renovation.  I think he's waiting to build a man cave in the garage and set them up there.  Here is a small view of what he has:

A Small Part of Steve's Model Collection

We jumped into their Toyota Hilux and headed down the road.  Our fist stop was Bellbird Lookout where we could get a good look at the area close by where they live. 

The View From Bellbird Lookout (Parramatta and Sydney in the Distance)

Curt, Laureen, Steve & Margaret at Bellbird Lookout

The views are vast and stunning as you can see here. We hopped back into the truck and made our way to the Blue Mountain Botanical Garden. The place is massive, and we could have spent half our day just in this location. Apparently they recently discovered a tree in this area that they had thought was extinct. There are a couple of them now growing in the entrance to the gardens (although we only know this because Margaret knew the person who was working at the garden and she pointed this out to us).

Map of the Blue Mountains Gardens

At the Entrance to the Blue Mountains Gardens

A View From the Deck of the Visitor Center

This reminded me a little of the botanical garden on the campus of Royal Roads University, although this one is about 20 times the size.

Once again, we hopped back into the truck and headed down the road to the Prince Henry Cliff Walk at Echo Point to have a look at Australia's Three Sisters. Laureen noted that the view reminded her of the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. Now, these are a little different than the Three Sisters mountains near Canmore, Alberta, but they are still amazing to see in person.  This area has a 'Grand Canyon-esque" feel about it as the air was crisp and clean.

The Three Sisters and Surrounding Area

Close Up of The Three Sisters

Obligatory Selfie at The Three Sisters

There was another lookout location, not too far away called "Scenic World" where you could take a Funicular down the cliffside or a Gondola across the gorge. So, we hopped back into the truck and headed that direction.  But before we went there, we decided to stop at a small mall in the area where I picked up an Australia hat to add to the collection of hat's I started back in 2016 on our trip to Europe and we decided that it was time for lunch before we made our way to Scenic World. We parked the vehicle on a quaint little street and walked over to an eclectic restaurant called the Yellow Deli where we all had lunch. The hot steamed Deli Rose sandwich was incredible along with the Mango Lemonade. Laureen had one of their Chef's Salads, but picked out the kalamata olives, to which I was the beneficiary. 

A short walk through an old hardware store next to where we parked, and then we were on our way to this other lookout near The Three Sisters. We managed a parking spot in the nearby parkade, and then wandered into the visitors centre. It was pricey and the lines were incredibly long, so we decided to just take advantage of the views from the balcony.  And, the views did not disappoint. 

The Breathtaking Views at The Three Sisters

A Closer View from the new Location

We jumped back into the truck and made one more stop along the way back to Steve and Margaret's home, a place called Hawkesbury Lookout. From this location there's a great view over the Nepean River and Penrith Beach (also informally known as Pondi - a spoof of Bondi), which is part of Western Sydney Lakes and is located within a former quarry site.

The View from Hawkesbury Lookout

All in all we made a nice loop of the area that took us the day.

Once we arrived back at their home, Steve found me an HDMI cable so that I could connect my MAC to his TV system and we could watch "The Way", the story of one man's walk on the Camino de Santiago. But first was dinner and it was incredible as it has been each night. 

What a great day it was today.  Looking forward to what they have in store for tomorrow.

Curt & Laureen in Australia.