Blue Mountains Journal

At key points along the drive there are lookouts.  This one gives you a look at the iconic Three Sisters without having to fight the crowds at Echo Point. A closer view of the Three Sisters below.

A mountain escape.  One of the many tourist accommodations in this town.  I can imagine myself sitting on the verandah enjoying the view.

Here we go, a look at just some of cliffs that are all along this drive. No wonder it's a tourist drawcard.  I never tire of these views.

Over the road from the golf course is the ever present bushland and already the promise of the cliffs that have been drawing tourists since the 1800s.    This is very much a tourist drive.

Cliff Drive is a name with much promise.  But interestingly, like Sublime Point Road, also starts with a golf course.    In the distance you can see the chimney at the Carrington Hotel, a Katoomba landmark.  It's a relic of the power station that brought electricity to the town 100 years ago,

And after a short easy walk you reach Sublime Point. The people you can see through the trees are at the lookout.  I was too lazy to walk down the steps.

But no matter how much the gardens are planted and tended the native forest is never far away in the mountains.  As we head down the road the exotic gardens give way to native gardens and not much after to the native bush itself.

And the land of the old very tall cypress hedge.

This is the land of the clipped hedge.

Leura is where the more expensive real estate in mountains is located -- high fences, locked gates, tantalising driveways and a solid wall of vegetation hiding the sweeping views that I know are just over that rise.  Big gardens with hired help and signs on the gate saying "bore water in use" or "tank water" to stop us getting upset at them using water during drought.   Some of the gardens show during the Leura Garden Festival in spring if you want a chance to glimpse behind the walls.

Leura, along with most of the older settlements in the mountains is replete with "exotic" trees which colour beautifully in Autumn (unlike the evergreen native forests which encircle us).

It was a glorious sunny Autumn day on Sunday so the perfect opportunity top choose a new road to walk.  This time we are in the up-market village of Leura and walking Sublime Point Road -- who could not want to walk a road with a name like that. It is a longish starting with Fairmont Resort and Leura Golf Club at one end.

It's a long road and at the end of the bitumen there is a further 5 kilometre of dirt track to go which ends at Anvil Rock and the Wind Eroded Rock .  We didn't drive out there this time even though it is one of the easiest tracks in the mountains to see great views.  Click the links above to see them.

It was a surprise to see the cliff face through the garden growth.  All of the houses on that side of the road must have cliff views, you just can't see it from the road other than this glimpse.

The derelict windmill is a testament to some sort of farming past at this property.

It is a long road with lots of quite lovely older style houses, many with huge old trees like this one.

The Hat Hill Gallery is just down the road from the park.  They were showing some fabulous art glass.

The Anglican Church is over the road from the gardens.  Autumn is getting into swing now.

We were in Blackheath to follow our next road that beckons ... in this case Hat Hill Road. At the top of the road where it intersects with the highway there is the Blackheath gardens.  Here we found the only 'hats' on this adventure.

At the Craft Market in Blackheath among the predictable stalls of knitted goodies, costume jewellery, silk scarves, paintings, photos, cards and wooden toys we found Rik crafter of beautiful pens, clocks and mirrors. To see other images relating to this theme, visit City Daily Photo.