Ever had the feeling that you just had to go to a specific place no matter where it is? Once a thought is planted in your mind, it becomes a fixation, and the only way to satisfy that itch, is to scratch it. Nothing will satisfy you, until you have actually done the deed.
sitting on the edge
Years ago while traveling along the Great Western Highway into Lithgow, I was looking for a high point just to get a bird’s eye view. I had only been in Australia for 13 years in 1999 so I was still a bit shy about asking the locals for an observation point. As it turned out, Aussies call it a “lookout”! (Look out for what?) It seemed that my academic English was incomprehensible. But that’s another story.
So during a weekend last month, just days before the bushfires broke out, I went to scratch my Lithgow itch. I didn’t have Lawrence Hargreaves’ wings so I opted to follow a sign which said “Hassans Wall”. Lithgow is two hours from Doonside, if you take the Great Western Highway. I took the Bells Line of Road, so it took me a little longer because of its lower speed limits and also because of its picturesque meandering roads.
So, I followed the signs expecting to find a wall that Hassan built – an Aussie named Hassan? Of course!
As it turned out, Hassans Walls was so named because it reminded Governor Macquarie, back in the colonial days, of the Rock Walls of Hassan in India. At Hassan in Southern India, the Rock Walls have deities carved on its face. Here at the cave lookout, where I squeezed myself into the opening, nature had shaped the rocks into tiered layers of rock, making it look like pagodas. Hassan in India is the location of the Master Control Facility of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Indian national Satellite System.
Here at Lithgow, 1100 metres above sea level, the cave is the highest lookout in the Blue Mountains. Not many people know about this place. There were only two other cars there. From this cave looking down the steep crevices, one could wonder who went out ‘n back and shaped and painted these matchless views.
Get there before or after noonday, you’ll have better photos because the sun won’t create shadows under your eyes. You could walk around the place, or sit quietly on a chosen spot, feel the wind blowing through your hair, and wonder at the power that exudes from this elixir of life.
