Blue Mountains Journal

Mount Vic has the misfortune of being the current village undergoing the never ending roadwork on the highway.  But good progress is being made and the parts that have been completed are looking good. That's if for this town.  I am not sure where I will go next.

We capped off our visit with a nice lunch at the Petalura Eatery.

The railway is important here too.  Many trians teminate here while others go onto Lithgow. Trains are a historic feature of this villiage with a Train Museum and a Great Train Weekend held each May.

Back up at the village you find a range of small shops and eateries as well as hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation.

The modern road down the escarpment is Victoria Pass.   I caught this shot going up rather than down.

Finding a route across the mountains and then building a road across to the grasslands to the west was a very big thing in 1813-1815.  The western point of the road before descending the escarpment is at Mount York. They had lots of trouble getting down to the plains below with various roads being built over time, each trying to improve on the steep descent. At Mount York there is a collection of old monuments celebrating the centenary and other milestones.  There is also very interesting modern signage explaining the history.  A short bush walk (which I didn't do on this occasion) also takes you to historic cuttings from the first road.

We started our exploration heading out of the village towards Mount York.  At Barden's Lookout you get a great view of the countryside west of the Blue Mountains.

Mount Vic has a popular old style cinema - a real trip back in time.

Instead of going to Katoomba (which wasn't inspiring me at the time) we went further up the mountain to Mount Victoria.  This is the last of the villages before descending down the other side to the west - hence its slogan "Explorers gateway to the west". Let's do a little bit of exploring ourselves.

And of course there is some pleasant bushwalking to be done in the area.  This is Leura Cascades, a quite easy walk. This is the end of my short revisit to Leura.  I will move up the road to Katoomba in a week or so.

Also in Leura there is the Toy and Railway Museum at the historic home Leuralla and the Treasured Teapot Museum at Bygone Beauties tea rooms. Over the road from the Toy and Railway Museum Boofhead and Olive Oyl have a lovely mountain view.

Leura is known at the village of gardens - they run a great garden festival in the Spring each year where you can get a chance to visit a range of open gardens.  Perhaps the most famous of the gardens is the Everglades which is open all year and run by the National Trust.  It is a delight to visit whatever the season.