Return to Sydney - Blue Mountains
The flight from Cairns was 2:15hrs and went smoothly - no issues with any JetStar flights. We were in early, but struggled with figuring out how/where to catch the hotel shuttle to the nearby (at the airport) Rydges Hotel . Finally got in the room at ~10:45p and welcomed a dry, bug-free, urban bed (but will miss the nature sounds at night).
Blue Mountains
From the hotel in the morning we had a quick bite in the hotel lounge then walked across the street in the rain to the international terminal to pick up our car from Hertz. This turned out to be the first shag we’d had this the U.S.-AUS date conversion, as we were apparently supposed to have picked the car up a day earlier. Hertz wasn’t helpful but after a few minutes of frustration, Tammy got Orbitz to straighten it out (was one of the few times that we hadn’t prepaid the rental so we could change it)
With a car now, we picked up our bags from the hotel and headed out to the Blue Mountains.
It was mostly highway driving and we stopped in Penrith along the way to get a snack and coffee. We made a wrong turn getting closer to the park but got back on track quickly. We came into Katoomba and decided to have lunch at a busy looking cafe called the Little Yellow Cafe. There was a wait for a table so we walked the main street shops in the now pouring rain while we waited - Tammy found a new puffy coat.
Lunch at the cafe was good and it was super cute...oddly so. After we ordered and took in the surroundings, we felt like there was something different about it - a little eavesdropping and internet searches turned up that it is run by a Twelve Tribes branch (aka “cult”) that lives in town.
While we ate, we decided that camping was looking pretty grim so found a local B&B to stay at. After lunch we checked in and took a break then got rain gear on to go explore a bit. The B&B turned out to be immediately across from the Echo Point and Three Sisters sites, with a nice little shopping/information center that we browsed. In one local arts store we learned a bunch about yiḏakis (didgeridoos) and even played one a bit - contemplated buying one.
The rain let up a bit, although it was super foggy and getting dark, we decided to walk to the Honeymoon Bridge - turned out to be a bit freaky on those conditions. Sadly we couldn’t see any of the awesome views that we’d hoped, so went back to the B&B to search out dinner options. While we looked through the guest book of restaurants in Katoomba, we shared a couple cups of tea, then went back to the room to watch some videos. By the time we were hungry and got into town, most of the restaurants were closing (partly due to the rain), so we ended up getting Thai take away and sat back in our room and ate it - pretty mild night.
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