My friend & former art school pal, Jodie Barker, came to visit the mountains armed with numerous cameras and inspiration for a photographic adventure.
Discovering great locations practically on my doorstep kept us in high spirits despite the freezing winds racing up from Megalong Valley & dovetailing through the abandoned & historic Hydro Majestic Hotel.

We scaled the fence knowing that there were no patrol dogs or armed security & felt that we were not trespassing for the wrong reasons, but to glorify through photographs the history & beauty of this amazing old building which dates to opening in 1904.

By the looks of scattered debris surrounding the peripheral buildings, other people or mischievous kids had ransacked various rooms & left them in a state of chaos well before Jodie & I got there.

Signage at the front of the building claims that a newly restored Hotel would be opening in 2012. Already the end of July, this is clearly not going to happen as the property would need a huge sum of money to be restored to it's former glory, not to mention a lot of time.

To warm ourselves up after shooting, we headed to Cafe 'Brown's Siding' on the other side of the railway opposite the Hydro Majestic for hot chocolate.