Wagons Roll .... We're Heading West !

Katie and Jackson's Blog:  Today, me Ashleigh and Jackson went on a 2 hour drive to the Blue Mountains. It was really hot and stuffy in the car and I got a headache and watched a movie. I fell asleep then Mum and Katharine (Ashleigh's Mum) drove into the cafe. At the cafe I had a ham and cheese toasty it was delicious and crunchy. When I got to the 3 Explorers Motel Katharine went into the office and got the keys for the room. Everyone put their bags into room 11 and looked at our snug beds and bunk beds it was excellent.

After everyone went to the look out sight and I saw Jackson playing basketball doing tricky skills. I saw a news reporter practicing her speech for the arrival of William and Kate flying in big army helicopters and I waved  at them. On the way back everyone went for high tea at Lillianfels which was a large hotel close to the 3 Explorers. At high tea I had a cookie, scone and a chocolate eclair. Me and Ashleigh sat next to Sir Fred who was a huge cuddly teddy bear. 

After that we went into the car and went to the Station Bar for pizza. I thought it would be quiet and not busy but the bar was really packed up but luckily we reserved a table for ourselves. It took a really long time to cook our food but the reasons were that there were so many orders coming in and that they cooked their pizzas with wood so it took longer to cook. We occupied ourselves with a game of guess who I am and I was Neil Armstrong, Rory ( my cat) , myself and a fox. When we had starters we had 2 mini pizzas ( one margarita and one bruchetta) even though it was quite filling but when we had our main it was really big so we still have 2 pieces to eat left in the pizza box. After that we went home and played Uno. 

Gill's Blog: The Blue Mountains are as beautiful as I remember them being 20 plus years ago. It was such a good idea to come up here. We almost saw Wills and Kate today, but happily waved them off in their military helicopters. Katoomba is one of the early settlements in the Blue Mountains. The architecture is very 'Wild West/Frontier' and very interesting. As we walked down the main street this evening you could almost imagine a cowboy being hurled out of a bar into the road .. !! After doing a little reading ... here is my version of the history of the Blue Mountains (please do pass on this if it is too much for you).. I am going to look into the aboriginal history of the area tomorrow.. to balance what I am telling you ! 

 Once the settlement of Sydney was established at the end of the 18^th Century the need for grazing, twinned with a desire to pioneer a new route into the possible natural resources further inland led to many attempts to find a route through the Blue Mountains to the West of Sydney. It took many attempts to find a passage through, however on the other side plains were found that were turned into grassland and then later gold was also discovered. In the early days, the route was hard and the only people to inhabit the mountains (named ‘Blue’ because of the blue haze that burns off the eucalyptus trees) were farmers and prospectors. However, this all changed when the railway was built, allowing Sydneysiders to travel to the mountains for weekends and longer holidays, supporting the establishment of the tourism industry in the mountains. The mountain air was also promoted as a health tonic in the late 19^th and early 20^th Centuries, driving yet further people to visit the mountains. During the second world war, many British (and other nationalities) were evacuated to Sydney – including some of my Mum’s, however fearing a Japanese invasion many people relocated to the Blue Mountains during the war, and clearly some never returned, making their homes in Mountains.