I was lucky enough to escape to the Blue Mountains with Cameron this past weekend. It was so good to go away for the weekend like normal people.

The main reason for this little weekend away was to visit the Japanese bath house Sparadise. Lately I have been craving hot pools and spa baths, I guess coming into winter and feeling the cold would do it. I haven’t spent a lot of time in the bath at home so this was going to be an interesting experience for me and my ME/CFS.

I’ve been lucky enough to have managed a lot of outings lately, so I knew this weekend would go well. We headed off to the Blue Mountains on the Saturday just before lunch, I managed to do a few light duties around the house before we took off. During the drive I was a bit tried, but knew I would bounce back soon. Unfortunately I should have packed some lunch and left a little earlier so I had enough time to rest, but all good.

The drive was 2 hours, that is my longest little trip to date. 10 minutes before we arrived at our destination we stopped off at the famous pie shop Mountain High Pies. I like to think I’m a healthy eater, I made the mistake of not bringing healthy snacks on hand. Lucky for me Mountain High Pies do all types of pies, vegan, gluten free, sweet, veggie and meat pies! I was spoilt for choice, I picked a vegan satay lentil and chickpea pie! It was delish!

At our Motel we had 10 minutes to spare before moving on to Sparadise, we were booked in a time slot of 3pm – 6pm. I had a quick rest, then off we went on a 40 minute drive to the Bath house. Feeling a bit fatigued, I rested as much as I could during the drive.

Arriving at the bathhouse I was ready to rest and soak my muscles, I had been looking forward to this for a while it was going to be enjoyable. A friendly welcome and we were given a quick tour, then it was into the hot baths.

There were two baths, one was outside and it was 40 degrees. The other bath was inside at 38 degrees. There was a cooling pool as well as a steam room. I tried all of these but I found myself mainly in the indoor poor. After 2 hours I decided that was enough for me. The hot baths were enjoyable but probably not something I would rush back too, I was left feeling more fatigued up to an hour afterwards.

Cameron was determined to catch the all blacks game, a 5 minute drive down the road and we found a quiet pub down in Lithgow. They kindly put the game on for us. I was zoned out during the first half trying to get some life back, then second half it was game on. Lucky for us the pub was quiet and there was only one rugby league game on! All blacks won, but only just…..

The next day I was a bit sore but nothing a hot shower wouldn’t fix. It was extremely fresh outside, there was rain and low cloud. We weren’t going to see a lot out here in the Blue Mountains with that around. We headed out to find some breakfast, we enjoyed that outing at a lovely cafe. After brekkie there was potential of seeing the three sisters. Down at the Katoomba viewing platform the winds were ice cold! This was going to be a quick stop! After nearly getting blown away it was off home.

This outing went really well. I did learn though to make things a little easier on myself, I should definitely prepare healthy snacks for on the road and allow time for much needed rest. Very happy with my recovery from this outing, I’m not suffering too much from it. WINNING!!!

Bye for now

Lennae
xxx