Idyll in the Blue Mountains

I am blogging, while looking out at Marion talking with Eveline Schuyff's parents on the veranda of Robert and Eveline”s Blue Mountain Homestead. The ground in front of the veranda falls away quite quickly through some horse paddocks, where I can just see the backs of a couple of horses, occasionally their heads as they take a break from grazing, to the tops of a forest of trees into the much bigger Megalong Valley beyond. In the distance I can see the townships of Blackheath and Katumba atop a very long escarpment, frequently sheer of sheer rock These two townships are approximately 15km distant as the crow flies and about 1000 ft higher. The escarpment flattens out to my left and there is a mixture of green paddocks and fields and darker green woods where as under the escarpment it appears to be all woods. The only way into the valley is via Blackheath and as one looks at Blackheath it is difficult to imagine how the road can possibly lead up such a steep mountain side, but it surely does testing as it goes my phobia of vertiginous roads.

In the foreground just to the left of the horse paddock is a horse manege where Eveline and her daughter Lottie school the horses when it is not too hot. Behind the homestead is a grove of olives which Robert has planted and which is now productive and managed by Eveline. They produce top quality early picked Olive oil which they sell either directly at the homestead door or via a few retail outlets. To the side of the homestead there is a small cottage which is let out.
Getting here from the Hunter Valley was a four and half hour drive through some very beautiful country side. We seemed to cross two mountain ranges before climbing into the Blue Mountains themselves. Passing through some vines lots of woods and latterly some quite extensive fruit farms.

Robert runs his worldwide business from the homestead. Just a few short years ago this would not have been possible but the advent of broadband has changed all that and distance working is a real fact.

We are staying with Robert and Eveline for a couple of days before returning to Sydney and then on to New Zealand.

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