Leura

To continue to try and make the most of my midweek days off this rotation, I took a day trip to Leura in the Blue Mountains yesterday. It's probably the second most popular town after Katoomba, but I'd never been there before.


First stop was the Everglades historic house and gardens. The site was built in the 1930s.


It's a National Trust site looking over the mountains.




It's really pretty - I love gardens like these, with terraces and winding paths and slightly overgrown.






There is even a grotto! It was man-made.





The inside of the house.


The bathroom.


I liked how it's green and in bloom on one side of the path, but bare on the other.



This place is a total gem! I would totally come back in the spring, when things are blooming, or in the autumn when the leaves turn colour.


The town itself is super pretty as well.



Had a nice late lunch at Lily Pad Cafe.


Since I was in the mountains anyway I figured I'd round off the day by going to the closest lookout.


I wasn't really expecting to be impressed because I've seen the Blue Mountains so many times but the Gordon Falls lookout is actually really beautiful.


There's almost a 270 degree view of the falls (which I didn't get a good picture of), the mountains, and the Three sisters. It was also pleasantly deserted, unlike Echo Point at Katoomba.

I've just had a full seven days off work after my first set of seven night shifts. It's been the longest time I've had off since starting work, so it was quite nice. It's a decent trade off - nights aren't too bad at all. I'm doing another seven nights starting today, and then I'm off for four weeks on my annual leave!