209: The Blue Mountains and Lilianfels Resort and Spa, Australia, the 1000 places to see before you die book

"Even better in the wet" promised the marketing blurb for the rainforests of the Blue Mountains in Australia. They didn't mention the cold though did they? To be fair, I hadnt factored in that a mountain range would be significantly colder than it was in Sydney- even though it was only a mere 1 hour drive away to the coast.


The settlers obviously named this mountain range after the blue balls they got trying to cross it.

It was freezing. It was wet. I had the flu. An 18 month baby on my hip. And it was a miserable, bone knawing 4 degrees with snow predicted. A 5 degrees with a 15mph wind curling into the damp of the rainforest before twisting its way "right back in ya face" as one tourist remarked to me upon check in at Lilianfels.

I had to laugh that my sister had advised to bring my bathers. The outdoor pool was barely visible through the thick fingers of fog that grasped the sodden branches of the paperback and lillipilli trees. The sun vainly tried to jostle for greater exposure but the storm clouds threw their squat oppressive weight around and bulleyed their way back to a dominant position. 

My niece Evelyn in happier moments in the room

So much for a meander through the bush this weekend I thought checking in to a room which came straight out of Country and Garden. Pink and white ole English bird wallpaper, some faux- french bed drapes arrangement falling off a wooden semi circle screwed in the wall above the pillow, reproductions of John Gould's drawings of wildlife of Australia gracing the walls, a stuffed kookaburra on the bed that when squeezed hard laughed for a bit and a decent enough bath which sadly was now housing a toddler who had thrown up on the way there.

I decided to venture further afield...well...in the hotel that is, as clearly with the weather outside  I would need a fortifying G&T at the bar first. I discovered a pleasant enough reading room, a room housing a full billiard table, an indoor pool (hurrah) and a spa replete with sauna and steam room (double hurrah).

The bar wasnt conducive to long chats with strangers but the restaurant cum sitting room area with big squashy sofas and two fires at either end took the chill off the interior decor of the bedroom.

 Still...there were two things that needed to be reviewed in order to tick off one more entry in the 1000 places to see before you die book.  And to do that...I had to venture outside.

Rugged up, the first stop was the cablecar down to the bottom of the mountains- replete with a boon for vertigo sufferers like myself- a glass floor

But the bottom was quite amazing. Trees rising for miles, the sounds of kookaburras in the distance, the call of birds rising out of the tree ferns and the towering mountain range as its backdrop.

After that a hair-raising ride back up to the top on the world's steepest railway. Katoomba used to have a coal mine and the railway was used to transport people up and down. Nowadays the mine has shut and a new railway put in for the tourists.

Railway through a tunnel in the rock

The original railway

 After that another cablecar back to the other side and over the waterfalls.

So....to dog ear the page from the 1000 places to see before you die or rip it out? Well we were undecided about this- it is a rainforest and it is a stunning mountain range. However, I think Tasmania (probably, I might add as like most Australians Ive never been there) has as stunning ranges albeit without a rainforest...and Lilianfels despite its historic nature is a nice hotel but one can die without being worried they've never stayed there.

So on balance...its a rip out