Honeymoon Lookout

Up until the last decades of the twentieth century, the Blue Mountains played host to countless thousands of Sydney couples on their honeymoons. It was the place to go. Eventually of course, the Blue Mountains ceased to be good enough. Any honeymoon worth the mention had to be taken in Fiji or Bali or Bangkok or Europe ... as if keeping up appearances was more important than being able to afford housing or children afterwards. Likewise, instead of an honest Holden or Ford to drive, it had to be a BMW or an Audi.

The Honeymoon Lookout is one of those places left over from the tourism glory days before the war and into the nineteen sixties. Right now the mountains look tired, They are genuinely showing the rigours that weeks of unrelenting smoke and flame followed by weeks more of torrential downpours have brought. Certainly the greening effect of long awaited rain has been astonishing but everywhere one looks, one finds landslips and avalanches cutting bushwalks, roads, natural waterways and railway infrastructure. It'll be months of labour to return everything to normal. For the sections of burnt bush (of course), it'll mean years.

Cultivated mountain trails are almost obliterated by the loose branches, bark and general vegetable rubbish brought down by the wind and rain. Barricade tape and physical barriers are everywhere. So much work to do. Where to begin?