Armidale to Katoomba

It was a beautiful morning when we left Armidale for Katoomba, driving south along
the New England Highway, sunny but not too hot.  Not until we drove down the hill
into Tamworth, at least--then it started to heat up.  Amazing what a couple
hundred meters will do.

We continued along the New England Highway south from Tamworth.  Instead
of driving through Sydney, we turned west at Scone to Merriwa, where we stopped
to eat a picnic lunch. Not a cloud in the sky, the sun was intense and hot.

We continued west on B84 after Merriwa and turned south on a smaller but
rather well-maintained road.  Discovered the reason the road was so wide
about halfway to Mudgee: coal mines.

The weather forecast was calling for severe thunderstorms all across New South Wales
in the afternoon: it was our goal to get to Katoomba, if possible, before the storms hit.
The cloudy skies and the greener farmlands of the Hunter Valley region, combined
with listening to a British book on tape, made me forget it was Christmas in Australia.

We turned south at Mudgee and got back onto the Castlereagh Highway,
watching lightning flashing over the hills to the east, and passed a gigantic
reservoir: Lake Windamere.

It got darker and darker as we continued south, but no rain ... yet.  It looked
like we'd just missed most of the storm.

Impressive hills in the distance under a stormy sky, but still no rain.

It began to rain as we reached the Blue Mountains, around Lithgow and then
on-and-off through Mount Victoria, Blackheath, and finally until we reached
Katoomba.  The area feels a little bit like driving into the Smokey Mountains.

There were some very impressive vistas as we reached our destination, nearly
completely obscured by fog.  The hot weather of the morning was also
chased away by the rain: a bit of a relief to turn down the air-con.