Exploring the Blue Mountains of New South Wales

We spent a lovely Friday driving through the Blue Mountains and discovered the historical town of Hartley.

Last year Greg and I made a promise, if it snowed in Oberon, we would get in the car and drive straight there to see all the snow.

If you don’t know where Oberon is, it’s located around two and half hours west over the Blue Mountains on route to Jenolan Caves, Australia’s famous caves and glow worms.

So when we woke early Tuesday morning to see on the news, snow had fallen all over Oberon and surrounding area. And I mean everywhere. We made plans right away to head to Oberon. The only problem we had was we had so many appointments and other things planned we couldn’t make the trip until Friday. Which we knew would be a risk, as the snow may very well be gone by then.

The footage playing on the news showed an almost blizzard ranging through the town of Oberon and a thick layer of snow laid across the landscape. So, surely it would still be there by Friday. As long as the cold temps stayed. Which according to the weather apps in the phone, all stated below zero temps for the week in Oberon. Just maybe, the snow will still be there for our road trip on Friday.

Sadly, by the time Friday came around, there was no snow. We knew if we spent a good several hours exploring the surrounding forests there would be a possibility of finding snow. The problem was, we just did t have the time to explore.

So, instead we checked out what else was around the area to see what we could explore and enjoy.

That’s when we discovered this neat little historical town called Hartley. With one of its oldest buildings dating back to 1815, the Shamrock Inn.

Hartley is a well-preserved village of New South Wales and remains as one of the first rural settlements of Australia, west of the Blue Mountains. The settlement of this area was significant for the development of inland Australia and although the original building from the settlement; The Shamrock Inn is in need of major repairs (especially internally), overall the town is in perfect condition considering its age.

With the original post office dating back to the mid 1800s being converted into a cute little rural cafe; serving gluten free scones and even a homemade turmeric latte YUM!

What a find, we were super excited to find this town as it was a worthy substitute for snow.

If you’re ever in the area, on route to the Jenolan Caves, I highly recommend you stop in at the village. It’s small enough to fit into any road trip schedule and well worth a stop off at the cosy cafe.