Blue Mountain Birthday with My Babies

I wanted to go somewhere for my birthday, and Fiji was tempting, but it's just not quite as hot as I like it, in July, so I took the kids to the Blue Mountains. Jenolan Caves is a really magical place, so I thought I would spend my actual birthday there.

We stayed at Mountain Heritage, where I stayed last time I was up there (I know, total creature of habit, but when you find something good....). The kids and I had the family room in the turret, which was pretty cool, kinda round, and big enough for us, and it had a good amount of heating too!

First, I helped them mis-spend their youth in the games room.

It was cold.

Back in the main hotel building, near the open fire, we were treated to a sunset rainbow.

And I love this photo of my three. Evan outside with me and his camera, the girls inside with the wifi (we don't have wifi at home).

My birthday week, so I got to do what I wanted. Pool. Scrabble. I don't know that my companions were quite as into it as me...

Dinner that night was a my nephew Ben's pizza place. Poor guy was too flat out to chat. I think he works more than me!

The next day, my actual birthday, on the steep, narrow, winding road down to Jenolan valley I spotted on the opposite side, in a small picnic area, a wallaby. Having kids in the car is a perfect excuse for a wildlife detour so I pulled the car over. As I grabbed my camera and started to creep out of the car (I didn't want to scare the wallaby away) it started hopping over to the car!

I've never seen that before, but I'm pretty sure this one knew exactly what the deal was - travellers often have food in their cars, and sometimes they share!

Jenolan Caves is a magical place to visit, and I really love it there, but the huge letdown is the shit food on offer. The hotel restaurant is expensive, but good, but for day-trippers the only fare on offer is fried and greasy. The kiosk smells oily.

We didn't eat there. But the birds do.

My birthday photo.

Lilac hair and off to the Rooster for dinner (service was very crap, and food was overpriced for the quality - not at all like the experience I had last time I ate there, and so disappointing for my birthday treat), but at least I had the kids with me, and I do love their company.

The next day was a lesson learned with signage on bushwalk tracks in the Blue Mountains. If the sign says the degree of difficulty is 'hard', then they actually mean it is...

hard.

Downward descent from the Wentworth Falls Conservation Hut was fine for the first half, though the stone stairs are uneven and can be slippery in the second half. However, once at the falls you are rewarded with some really beautiful sights. We descended with the falls to four different viewing points, but I think it may have even gone further into the valley.

Spot the photographer...

The walk up is hard for anyone who doesn't do aerobic and leg workouts daily, and it was at this point that I really wishes for an inclinator that I could step into and be jettisoned upwards. Only problem with that would be that I couldn't boast about having done the climb afterwards.