Blue Mountains

The closest nature escape from Sydney is the famous Blue Mountains and it was here we planned our first practice run with the car before the real adventure starts. The Blue Mountains are about one and a half hours away from Sydney CBD. The big tourist attraction is the amazing views from the cliffs into the valley below. It's hard to describe or to really show in photos how amazing the views are! In addition the tree sisters, which is a stone formation along the cliffs, is a must see sight. The first day we went on a really nice hike. First along the top of the cliff edge, then down along a waterfall to the bottom where the rainforest is. From there we walked trough the rainforst back the same way and then up the cliff to the top. The way up was incredible with stone steps carved into the cliff wall. I have no idea how they even found out where to put the steps or that no one died while making it. In total there was 894 steps. Along the way we had lunch at a nice yet very expensive cafe.

Since we didn't want to pay for a camping site we decided to try and wild camp. We found a nice resting area in town and parked the car, but not long after a grumpy old man came driving and threatened to call he police if we didn't move. Wild camping is illegal in Australia and apparently he was the local old man that likes to drive around and chase people off. We had to pack up our stuff and look for another good place. Luckily we found a small dirt road that just went into the bushes out of site from the main road. There we parked the car, ate dinner and slept. It turned out we parked less than a meter from a small pool of water filled with frogs that were quacking loudly. In addition the next morning unknown birds were "singing", although it sounded more like somebody laughing insanely. Even with the charm of the nature I had a good nights sleep and I felt refreshed the next day.

The next day we went for another hike. This time we went down the steps we came up the previous day, then we walked further in the rainforst and back up another place in the cliffs. It was another stream that came down from the top, but instead of a big waterfall, there were many small ones along the trail. It was not as steep as the previous decent. but equally fascinating. On the way back we drove along a scenic highway that went trough the mountains. It had some amazing views and crazy twists and turns. It reminded me of the roads in western Norway. We took tons of photos and I have included some of the best ones, but there are so many more that I can't show.