Made a beeline for the famous Blue Mountains National Park just west of Sydney. After a cruisey drive down from Myrall lakes and into metropolitan Sydney, I encountered my first toll roads in Australia. Oddly enough they didn’t have cash lanes, so I opted to set my GPS to avoid them. Sydney is a great city, but like most – better seen without a car or gear in the back to worry about. I headed up into the mountains to see what I’ve often head people talk about and what I regularly see out of my plane window when flying to Perth from Sydney.
There had been fired in the area and there was still a bit of lingering smoke, but the Blue Mountains lived up to their reputation. There are a number of lookout points you can drive to at the top, but there are also a variety of trails that drop down to different levels of the cliffs, passing by rivers and waterfalls along the way. I took one trail recommended to me by the park staff that dropped you half way down the side of the cliff and along a ridge past waterfalls and amazing overlooks until you get to a very steep staircase up the other side. The National Pass trail it was called. A really amazing hike!
Afterwards I headed back down the other side of the mountains to find a campsite that was also recommended to me by the Blue Mountains staff. They gave me a map and showed me the best scenic route, so I logged a few of the towns into my GPS to route me and give me an ETA. Seeing as it was only about an hour and 15 minutes, and the temperature back down in the valley was hovering around 100F (again), I decided to goof off a bit in the first historic town I came to – even grabbing dinner from a local cafe. When I hopped back into my car to drive what was supposed to be the last 15 minutes I ended up in a suburban neighborhood with NO national parks or campsites in sight! Major GPS failure. Or maybe the map was wrong. I haven’t determined which yet, but I was finally able to punch in some GPS coordinated from a book I have on campsites for a campsite that appearing to be roughly in the same location as what was recommended to me. Only problem was that it was a good hour of driving down the road and the sun was setting fast.
It was a beautiful drive and the kangaroos were starting to come out (major road hazard), but after an hour of driving I came across one of the places the park staff had recommended – just as the sun was setting. It was down a long switchback road a few kms off the main road I came in on at a caving park. I arrived at the bottom to find no one around except one camper. Good enough for me, I pitched my tent and headed to bed soon afterwards.
What an amazing little find this turned out to be. As the light was getting low I saw my first mainland wombat scurry across the field next to me. There was lots of activity overnight with all kinds of big strange sounds (the hopping kangaroos being the easiest to figure out). Nothing to worry about in Australia as the mammals are rarely a problem for humans here. The stars were also amazing to see with no fly on my tent. In the morning I heard my first lyrebird. The first time I head about lyrebirds I though I was hearing an April Fools joke, but they really exist and can mimic any sound they hear. This one kept imitating the sound of a machine gun, so perhaps it had been hanging out at a local military training ground. I checked with the ranger in the morning and he confirmed that is what it was! It happens to be on the logo/badges of the New South Wales National Park Service.
