My wife and I plan to leave Central Station 9-13 to visit Blue Mountains, and would like to visit Euroka Clearing. Where should we leave the train to rent a car, and after visiting Euroka, is it practical to continue by train to the popular sites in the mountains and use a tour? Would like to stay for one (or two nights if needed to see Euroka), and return to Sydney by train. Suggestions for lodging in BM - need clean, private facilities? We enjoy walking, but are waaay past the point of being treckers.

Hi, Pottle!

Euroka Clearing is lovely, but you may have to tell a white lie or two to your hire car comapny, as the last four or five kilometres are unsealed road, and I think the rules of hiring cars specifically forbid you taking them off the bitumen. I'm sure everybody does it, but the point is that if anything went wrong on those four or five kilometres -- and since you are "new chums", unfamiliar with the roads, the rules, and the local hazards, it may well might -- then you'd almost certainly forfeit your deposit, and maybe be liable for costly repairs. Now, if Euroka Clearing was a unique paradise, I'd say, well, take the chance. But I don't think it's quite as good as you perhaps hope it's going to be. There will probably be some kangaroos hopping around, but maybe not, as (since they are unconfined) they have a habit of disappearing into the scrub when they smell the exhaust from the tour buses or the smoke from the campfires. You will certainly see some white cockatoos, but you can see them all over the Mountains without going into Euroka Clearing. I would honestly have to say to you -- and I live only two kilometres from the entrance to Euroka, so it is a familiar destination for me -- that after forty-five minutes of wandering around looking for wild-life, you'd be ready to move on. Is it worth taking a chance with your rental car insurance to have this experience?

Anyway, this is not the question you asked, so back on task, Alan. You should leave the train at Emu Plains, the first station after Penrith. Just near the station, on the northern side, is Budget Rentals. They will pont you to the Great Western Highway, about two kilometres further on. When you join this road, you will travel no more than three kilometres (up what is called "Lapstone Hill&quot when you will come to a Caltex Service Station and Tourist Information Centre. The road sign on the left will direct you to the "Blue Mountains National Park", which includes Euroka. If the tourist office is open, that would be a good place for maps and advice. You'll drive through tiny Glenbrook Village till you get to the Railway line, turn left, and follow the road all the way to the entrance (where, if there is anyone on duty, you will pay $6 entry fee). From there it's about five or six kilometres to Euroka Clearing, including driving across a causeway which, in rainy times, can run quite fast. The last few kilometres is unsealed road, and there's one very sharp turn with a considerable drop on one side. This is why Euroka has retained some of its charm... the big tourist buses can't negotiate that road, so only the smaller ones go in there. The best time to see the clearing is early in the morning or at dusk, when the roos are most likely to be feeding. Camping is allowed, and if there are large camping groups there, you can forget the roos... they don't like the noise, the smell, and the children who chase them.

Yes, you could continue by train from Emu Plains to the other sites in the mountains, although if you want to see some unspoiled Blue Mountains areas you might be wise to keep the car and drive west to katoomba, taking some of the side roads where the signs point you to waterfalls and glens. There are great walks in Lawson and Wentworth Falls, to name just two. If you're going to stay the night and you don't want to spend a fortune, you could do worse than try the Grand View Hotel just at Wentworth Falls station. Not only is it "traditional" and "Australian", but there's a nice bush walk nearby. I don't know whether all their rooms have private facilities, but they have a website where you can check this out. Otherwise, there are lots of motels and guest houses in Leura and Katoomba, just a couple of kilometres further west.

Hope this has been of some help.

Pottle:
If you whistle " Danny Boy". the kangeroos will come out from the bushes at Euroka Clearing. If not the ranger will refund your A$6.

A/D

AD
You're a fiend!

Daear Margo,

True, but at least w/ good table manners at the dinner table.

A/D

Hi Alan!!!
Many thanks again for your detailed, helpful advice. Have sent an inquiry to Grand View; if there's no availability, we'll probably skip the car rental and continue on the train to Katoomba. Hordes of kids chasing distressed kangaroos doesn't qualify as seeing them in a natural state...the Roos that is, not the kids.
A.D., as I was practicing Danny Boy, my wife confirmed I can't sing, and she thought my whistling sounded like a ruptured balloon. Margo, is he really house broken?
Thanks all.

Pottle, FYI the morning we went was the last Sturday of Easter school hols. The kids who had camped there were just getting up at 11AM
( all that PM carousing w/ aforementioned kangeroos). The only person running after the kangeroos, aside from yours truly was a toddler. (Have you heard the story of the mother who may have killed her infant and blamed it on a dingo at Uluru or Kings Canyon?)

A/D

Pottle, you better watch out - Australia is a dangerous place! Boxing kangaroos, drop bears, man-eating sharks, yowies, mutant cockroaches and piano playing, baby eating dingos are everywhere!

John,

The piano playing dingo wasn't the one who might have eaten the baby.
besides we think the mother did it.

The bad news is she's apparently living in America

A/D

PS are yowies the S. Florida version of owies?

Pottle
I don't know whether AD is housebroken or not - we met outside and ate outside. Inside he might be an absolute terror. He does have nice manners, (table and otherwise), though.