A 2 Week NSW Road Trip - Part 3

We started the second week of our trip staying at Lithgow staying at the Lake Lyell Recreation Area campgrounds.

Since we were in the area we took a day trip south to Katoomba.  Because we could not take Jessie walking in all the national parks we settled for a visit to the 3 sisters look out with her in tow and lunch in town followed by stops on the way back to camp to do other things.
At the three sisters look out there were heaps of Asian tourists there and they were fascinated with Jessie.  The kids wanted to pat her and people were taking photos of her, right now she might be famous in Asia.  She was so good taking it all in her stride, the crowds, the strangers and all the attention.

The Three Sisters

We headed into the town center for lunch and to have a bit of a window shop. As we walked down the main street we discovered that everyone eats out with their pets in tow and out side every cafe there we dogs sitting with their owners. It was great and when we sat down to lunch our nice waiter even brought Jessie a bowl of water.
Again she was really well behaved sitting under my seat watching the passers by.
We stopped of at Evans lookout to checkout the view before heading further back down the mountain.

Evans Lookout

We stopped off at the Hydro Magestic which was a spa retreat built in the early 1900's.  There is an amazing gift shop/cafe/museum filled with interesting artifacts and information from the original hotel which was partly destroyed by fire last century.

The Hydro Majestic

When then travelled on to the historic village of Hartley which is considered one of Australia best historic villages with a total of 17 buildings to investigate.  You can read a bit about the village here.

Ivy Cottage - built 1845

The Farmers Inn - built 1846

This building has seen so much foot traffic the stone stairs are worn away and dip in the middle and below the door.

The old inn at the end of the street was amazing with it's stone verandah, split slab walls and hiding under that tin roof is the original shingle roof.

Shamrock Inn - built 1840's

The rear extension of the building made with timber slabs

Original timber shingles

The sandstone church and presbytery were stark reminders of the wealth and power that the church had in that era as was the court house across the road.

St Bernard's Presbytery - built late 1850's services finished 1965

The court house was an amazing building and it was not just used as a court.  It was the jail, the post office until 1846, land office, registry of births, deaths and marriages and the court house with clerks room. magistrates room an lock up. Then after WW1 it was used as a community hall

The court house

The Old Post Office - built as a residence in 1846
Operated as a post office from 1846 - 1982

Lithgow is a very pretty place and we would have liked more time to explore. We did a bit of a driving tour around the city and saw a lot of the mining history however a lot of it was under restoration/being improved for the public to view as part of their history trail.  I especially liked this sign at one of the old mines.

I will be posting the final part of out trip later this week and a post about some of the amazing wildlife we encountered along the way.