Singin’The Blues

April 6, 2002-Highs and Lows
(photos:Three Sisters,
Scenic Railway)

Today was one of the nadirs of all food days. We were reduced to a breakfast of egg Macmuffins (no sausage) at MacDonald’s. We were privy to being spectators at a tiny tot costume birthday party there. A two-year-old Superman had a little cape trouble when it got tangled in the door to the playhouse in the kiddie area but was quickly freed by Supermom. We caught lunch on the fly. David wolfed down a sausage (beef) roll & I grazed from the larder in the car. Dinner was at (I am embarrassed to tell you) KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken). It’s one of David’s favorites, but he only likes new recipe extra crispy & spicy. They were out of it & we had to settle for original recipe. Let me just say that after I peeled away all of the greasy soggy skin, I was left with a dinner of fries & cole slaw. It wasn’t one of our stellar epicurean experiences.

We awoke to find ourselves in suburbia. Housing subdivisions, treed lawns, & soccer fields surrounded us. The aroma of freshly cut grass was so sweet. I hadn’t smelled that since we left home. We lived in such a commercial concrete area of the Gold Coast that despite all the beautiful plantings, any grass clippings were well out of reach of our sniffers.

As we made our way into the Blue Mts. The unattractive steel & wire skeleton of the commuter railway followed us. The topography grew more beautiful as the angle of the climb increased, & we were afforded glimpses of occasional yellows, reds, & oranges of the scattered maples. The air became crisper & people wore sweaters or jackets. We’d found autumn. The sun was in its usual prominent place in the sky with only the puffy vertical trail of one cloud climbing up from a ridge.
We arrived in Leura, a picturesque little town of three blocks filled with trendy cafes, galleries, a nursing home, & tourists. Its claim to fame is the Sublime Point Lookout. There the Jamison Valley unfolded & the Three Sisters rock formation was visible. As we were gazing through our binoculars a friendly couple of Sydneysiders asked us where we were from. When they heard that we were from Ohio, they became very excited. We were equally thrilled they’d actually heard of our state. It turns out they have a son who lived in Cincinnati & had just been in Cleveland. His home was Pittsburgh (two-hours from Akron), but he travels a lot for business. He cooks Awesome Aussie Ribs in rib cook-offs around the country & just won in Reno, Nevada. As we were marveling at the co-incidence, the man’s mobile rang. It was his son calling from Pittsburgh. We were introduced by remote, checked the weather in Pittsburgh, gloated at our weather here, & cheered when we heard he was buying a restaurant there. Our bonding attained new depths when we learned they too were expecting a new grand baby. We parted with best wishes for all & directions to our next stop, Echo Point in Katoomba. There we could admire the Three Sisters from yet another vantage point.

Three Sisters Three Ways We were eager to ride on the infamous Katoomba Scenic Railway. It was originally used for access to the coalmines on the hillsides, but the old cars have since been replaced. It’s listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the steepest incline in the world. As we boarded, I thought it could be more aptly named the “recline” railway. Our seats were tipped so far back that the only view I had was of the sky & treetops. As the “incline” pulled slowly out of the station, the theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark began to play. That should have alerted me. The cars plunged over a cliff & into a tunnel. In the blackness I heard David say, “I don’t go on roller coasters!” I was too busy trying to stay in my seat to calm him. Suddenly the angle of the seating made sense. We were now in a vertical, almost standing position as we plummeted out of the tunnel & could see the chasm unfold under us. We heard a story about an elderly woman who’d asked what would happen if the cable broke. She was assured that the cars would stop in three seconds. No one told her that was all the time it would take for them to crash to the bottom. At the bottom we walked a short distance along a trail until we came upon one of those wonderful warning signs this country does so well. It said “Warning: If you should walk beyond the landslide, note that the climbing conditions are rigorous; be sure to have water with you; be aware of magnificent trees & leeches.” We headed back to the railway, looked at the Three Sisters from a third angle for the third time, & were treated to an ear-popping ascent.

Our goal for tonight was to get to Cowra, a town noted solely for a Japanese breakout at a POW camp during WWII. About 250 people lost their lives during the uprising. The Japanese hid out for a while in the hills before returning to what they decided were not such awful conditions at the camp. The drive was reminiscent of our Smokey Mts. Since we were seeing it from the “wrong” side of the road, I felt as if we were seeing it in reverse. We emerged into kangaroo country where it looked as if the roos were losing. We saw three carcasses along the roadside. The undulating hills alternately framed & hid the setting sun, but the ancillary reflection lit up the sky in shades of mauve & lavender as we rolled into our motel.

Toby