Mt Tomah and apple picking in Bilpin...

A couple of weeks ago we caught up with our good friends Michelle, Wes and their boys Sam and Jack. After much discussion we opted to go to Mt Tomah Botanical Gardens and apple picking on the way in Bilpin. We have drive past Mt Tomah many times for years always saying that we will have to stop in one day but never did until now.


Apple picking was great wholesome family fun! Even though the kids know apples come from trees there is something earthy about actually picking them yourself. We strolled through the long damp grass at the orchard inspecting apples that looked the most delicious. The orchard owner said we could eat as we pick, so we did just that and discovered that the apples were so crisp and perfectly snow white inside. We picked a total of 6 1/2 kilos, which in the space of less then two weeks are now all gone.
At Mt Tomah we settled down to a picnic feast with our mates. Home made pumpkin, feta and bacon quiches, blueberry muffins, potato salad, ham, salad and rolls, and freshly baked choc chip cookies. We stuffed ourselves for 2 hours before heading out for a lovely stroll around the gardens to help settle it down!


The gardens were beautiful, but you need to check out the photo's to see that for yourself. Lots of lovely plants and ponds with fish in. Ashie enjoyed them so much that when she had a close look in one of the ponds she fell in! She found it funny by the end of the day lol.



Hope you enjoy the photo's, shot on the fancy camera for a change.

We got to eat raspberries off the bush there too. It reminded us of staying with our family in Berlin who had wonderfully delicious berry bushes in their backyard.

Mt Tomah

Here is Sam looking over the edge at a water fall.

Sundial near the visitors centre. It wasn't working on the day we were there, something to do with clouds!

Damien was lucky (or should I say unlucky) enough to find a couple of snakes around the gardens. There was this one, but he also found a red belly black snake! A little bit too close for our liking for that one.

There were so many cool plants and flowers. This is one of them.

Hanging out at the pond watching Koi. This is where Ashie fell in. Wish I had shot this one in colour. Just trying out the monochrome setting.

This is the Wollemi Pine, discovered again in recent years. This plant existed in the days on the dinosaur and was thought to be extinct, until found in this area!

Nothing like rolling down hills.

I love this photo, Aurora looks very rock and roll, messy hair, grassed up from the roll downs. LOL

One of the views. All afternoon we watched storm clouds roll in which finally succumbed before we left.