The rain had eased a little but the clouds were still low in the mountains but we had to get out. First we went to a lookout near Blackheath, to the east there was a bit of a view but to the west it was cloud nearly to ground level.

Hargraves Lookout, Blue Mountains

From there we went to the historic Little Hartley Village, most of the shops were closed except for a small café but after a quick dash through the rain to the loo we decided to move on. We drove through the Hartley Valley toward Lithgow. We stopped at the Zig Zag Railway but the train wasn’t running so we headed up one of the forest roads near there to the Clarence Colliery. Then it was back to Lithgow to find a late lunch.
After lunch we went looking for the Glow worm tunnels but we never found them, we did however get a little look at the old Lithgow coal mine but the main museum was closed.

Mining Cage, Lithgow State Coal Mine

We then continued out through numerous forest tracks nearly as far Wollemi National Park when we decided we should try and head back to the highway. Putting our faith once again in the Hema GPS to lead us out of trouble, we turned back towards the highway. The main problem is that most of the forest tracks are not marked in the GPS and after a few wrong turns we ended up heading down this narrow track that required low range to negotiate the rutted hill on the way out of the valley. The one advantage of the GPS is that it shows you the direction you are heading and even if the tracks aren’t marked, by choosing tracks heading in the general direction you wish to go, in most cases you will eventually get back on to the main road. We eventually came out on the logging road we had been on earlier in the day and then it was an easy run back on to the highway. The 100 series certainly looked like it had been through some mud.
The plan was to head down the Bells Line of Rd to Richmond and to have tea at the Hogs Breath except the Hogs Breath I had tea 7 years ago was no longer there. A quick check in Google and we found that the nearest store was in Penrith. We enjoyed a nice steak before heading home to the Blue Mountains.