Blue Mountains

Putty Road connects Singleton and Richmond in NSW; it is very windy in places and a favoured run for motorcyclists.   Part way along is a new roadhouse, The Grey Gums.  Camping is free, with a nominal amount if you want a shower.  The food is good and it is a comfortable place.  A mob of 'roo can often be seen in the surrounding paddocks, begging for their photo to be taken.

At Singleton I stayed in a special section of the RSLA carpark to encourage motorhomes & caravans.  Great spot, great base from which to tour the area. 

The Blue Mountains can only be described as Magnificent!  IF they had ghost gums THEN they'd be perfect!  Scenic World (no affiliation by author) have a great setup with a steep railway down into the valley & an old coal mine, boarded walkways through the valley, a cableway to get you back up again and a skyway to take you across the gorge & back.  Brilliant experience at a reasonable cost.  The Three Sisters,  some spectacular waterfalls and panoramic vistas will dazzle and amaze you (as well as the other 20mil tourists)!  Katoomba is a fascinating town, part hippy, part new age/alternatative but mainly geared toward tourists, in a good way.  

In Kurrajong is a Radio Museum that has a fascinating collection - some of it classified I'm sure, I hope my Secret clearance from the US Navy still applies!  There is the radio station off a North Korean boat running up & down the Australian coast selling drugs for a few years!  Many superceded military transmitters and receivers from over the ages, plus School of the Air equipment and just too much to describe.  Many of the items are in working order and the owner gives commentary on any item you (or he) wishes. 

The Mt Tomah Botanical Gardens are well worth a visit as they are beautifully laid out and give plenty of descriptions.  I'm not sure that they've correctly labeled their  'Nothofagus cunninghamii'  though, my opinion is that it is a S American nothofagus.   Their dawn redwoods are excellent specimens, a couple of the biggest I've seen.

The final day was overcast & blustery, limiting walks and the views were iffy so I continued on to just past Lithgow for a couple of days; then south to the Snowy Mountains, and with this cold snap present at the moment, it could well be snow (again).