Mount Victoria is the last village before the Blue Mountains drop away to the west, a handsome, slightly worn place on the crest of the ridge, with a main street of antique shops, cafes and old guesthouses. The village is heritage-listed, and gives the sense that the railway era has never entirely ended. The railway station, with its wide verandahs, is still the centre of the village, and the old station buildings hold a small museum. The Victoria and Albert Guesthouse, a Victorian building, has been welcoming travellers for well over a century.
The history here is the history of getting across the mountains. In the early 1830s, Major Thomas Mitchell built Victoria Pass, a steep descent into the Hartley Valley, using convict labour. The road still follows his line, with the stone retaining walls worn by almost two centuries of traffic, though the modern highway uses a wider alignment. Below lies the Hartley Historic Site, a tiny village of sandstone buildings in a grassy valley, with a courthouse and old inns, now preserved by the state.
For a rider, the village is a rest stop, a place to stop for coffee and cake after the grind of the highway. The stretch from Blackheath up to Mount Victoria is a mix of fast curves and some traffic, the Great Western Highway being a busy road with heavy trucks. The descent of Victoria Pass is steep, with tight bends and trucks on the way down, so approach it carefully, and in wet weather watch the surface. Quieter roads lead off toward the Megalong Valley and the Jenolan Caves, and they are among the best in the district.
At nearly a thousand metres above sea level, Mount Victoria can be cold even when Sydney sweats. Mornings in winter are frosty, and in summer afternoon storms roll in over the ridge. Clouds can fill the valleys below, and it is quite a sight when they do.
Cafes and bakeries are plentiful, and a pie and a coffee on a cold day is hard to beat. Fuel is limited in the village, with Blackheath, six kilometres away, and Lithgow, fifteen, the safer options.