KATOOMBA... The Three Sisters

A visit to the destination of one's childhood holiday playground is always somehow on the agenda of a visit back home.  Never far from home... but that is all they could afford in the mid-fifties.

I travelled up to this lovely city by train.

Much different to the journey from Wollongong to Sydney then on to the Lithgow line to Katoomba.  Very different to what it was in the 50's.  Three steam engines coupled to the train around Emu Plains, dragged the passenger carriages up the steep incline to the Blue Mountains.  Many times kids would spend the time on the trip extracting foreign bodies from their eyes. Told not to stick your head out the window, constantly disobeying and  getting caught from the emissions of the steam engines.

The main attractions being Echo Point, the Three Sisters, the Scenic Railway and the Skyway. 

The Echo Point area has changed for the better now.  The view is still the same.  I spent an hour to sketch this view.  it was a must do project.  The amazing thing was to see the trolley buses, formerly Brisbane electric trolley cars.  The brass plaques inside the bus testifying to their  authenticity.  The then Mayor of Brisbane Sally-Ann Atkinsons' name was among the dignitaries names printed.   

I was also taken back to my visit to London, 1987.  English double decker buses transporting tourists all over the city of Katoomba.  Taking me back to my arrival at Gatwick Airport, during a storm just hitting London, I just had to do the sitting in the front seat upper deck of a double decker bus.  Had not done that since I was a teenager.  I promptly fell asleep...   JET LAG.