#bilpin

Sydney pt. 2

(16th Jan 2026)

I am POOPED. Lauren and I covered even more ground than we did the previous day, kicking things off with the headline act - The Blue Mountains. It’s a huuuuge region with eye candy for days, and is about 1h30 out of Sydney. My personal tour guide informed me that the name comes from the distinctly blue haze emanating from the rainforest - supposedly because of the many eucalyptus trees.

We had a quick look from Lincoln’s Rock, which had people admiring the view from varying positions of safety; my knees went weak just looking at the individuals brave/stupid enough to sit on the edge and dangle their feet - I did quickly hop onto a rock near-ish to the edge after some gentle cajoling from Lauren.

We hopped back in the car and drove around to Wentworth Falls, where we could take a winding trail down to the foot of the falls. Lauren initially took us down the incorrect path (there’s several), but we stumbled out onto a perfect aerial viewpoint (Princes Rock Lookout) to get our first full glimpse of the falls, so we agreed it was always part of her plan.

After locating the correct trail, we made our way down to the bottom via a stairway that had been carved into the side of the rock many years ago. Parts of it were very ‘up, up, up the stairs we go’* but there were railings to hold onto the whole way down and the drop was mostly hidden from view.

At the bottom, we took in some ground-level sights before clambering back up. It was steep, but the return journey went pretty quickly - there were two very sweet little girls doing the descent + climb with their dad that we kept bumping into, so we couldn’t complain about the journey too much!

I was promised another Aussie Delicacy - pie(!) - so we popped into Mountain High Pie and grabbed a couple which we took with us into our next viewpoint, The Three Sisters. They’re a group of tall rock formations that vaguely resemble three silhouettes stood next to each other, and the valley in which they sit was comprehensively the most breathtaking view I’ve had all trip. Even after demolishing our pies, I stood and gawked at the view for a good while longer.

Once we’d finally had our fill of the Blue Mountains, we wound our way around the other side to Bilpin, a small town up in the hills. The drive is very scenic, and it’s a favourite place of Lauren’s; she said we weren’t leaving without a(nother) pie, this time of the apple variety! We grabbed a pie and an Anzac biscuit from The Bilpin Fruit Bowl, then went to Hillbilly Cider for a tipple. We got a ‘paddle’ of four different flavours and sipped them in the sun.

We made it home, and were joined for dinner by Lauren’s flatmate Caiti and another friend Kim. I had steak for the second night running - although this time it was the mooing version rather than the ‘rooing version!

Yesterday was the final night drive of 2024.   As has become traditional, we headed to Bilpin for a late night feast of Apple pie. The week had been very hot and humid in Sydney, and Thursday afternoon greeted us with a typical Sydney summer storm.   We've been a bit unlucky on some of these drives, having good weather during the week and then storms rolling in on a Thursday. Despite the weather, we had a good turn out for the drive.  I took my 560SEL, and on the drive we had four W124s (230E, 300E, 300TE and E220T), a 380SEC, my old 280SE W116, a 280SE 3.5 W108 and two modern Mercedes.

Rukh was standing before a cage that contained nothing but a small brown spider weaving a modest web across the bars. “Arachne of Lydia,” he told the crowd. “Guaranteed the greatest weaver in the world — her fate’s the proof of it. She had the bad luck to defeat the goddess Athena in a weaving contest. Athena was a sore loser, and Arachne is now a spider, creating only for Mommy Fortuna’s Midnight Carnival, by special arrangement. Warp of snow and woof of flame, and never any two the same. Arachne.”

Strung on the loom of iron bars, the web was very simple and almost colorless, except for an occasional rainbow shiver when the spider scuttled out on it to put a thread right. But it drew the onlookers’ eyes — and the unicorn’s eyes as well — back and forth and steadily deeper, until they seemed to be looking down into great rifts in the world, black fissures that widened remorselessly and yet would not fall into pieces as long as Arachne’s web held the world together. The unicorn shook herself free with a sigh, and saw the real web again. It was very simple, and almost colorless.

“It isn’t like the others,” she said. “No,” Schmendrick agreed grudgingly. “But there’s no credit due to Mommy Fortuna for that. You see, the spider believes. She sees those cat’s-cradles herself and thinks them her own work. Belief makes all the difference to magic like Mommy Fortuna’s. Why, if that troop of witlings withdrew their wonder, there’d be nothing left of all her witchery but the sound of a spider weeping. And no one would hear it.”

guess what? :) Video: Den Spalt habe ich gestern in einer großen Sandsteinformation entdeckt. Wichtig: Sandstein hat die Eigenschaft sehr lange Wasser speichern zu können, deshalb wachsen aus, vielleicht auch im Sandstein immer wieder Pflanzen. Zurück zum Video: Irgendwie sind in der kleinen Grotte so was wie Algen und vermutlich durch einen spezifischen Lichteinfall sehen sie grün fluoreszierend aus. What if: Die Korallen irgendwann vom Meer in Hohlräume von Sandsteinen migrieren, um zu überleben. Idee: Sandstein als spekulativer Zufluchtsort für Korallen. Immerhin entsteht Sandstein auch im Meer und könnte in seinem Wachstum ein Carrier für Korallen sein. hmmmm Auf jeden Fall scheint Fluoreszenz ein Ding zu sein. Das würde ich gerne als Lichtmoment im Hinterkopf behalten.