After hiking the National Pass Trail, I headed back down the other side of the mountains to find a campsite 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 100ºF (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 neighbourhood with NO national parks or campsites in sight! Major GPS failure. Or maybe the map was wrong. I haven’t determined which one yet, but I was finally able to punch in some GPS coordinates from a book I have on campsites for a site that appears to be roughly in the same location as the one recommended to me. The only problem was that it was a good hour’s drive down the road, and the sun was setting fast.
The Drive from Blue Mountains National Park to Abercrombie Karst Conservation Reserve
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 flies in my tent.
In the morning, I heard my first lyrebird. The first time I heard about lyrebirds, I thought I was hearing an April Fool’s 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 it was what it was! In fact, it appears on the logos and badges of the New South Wales National Park Service.
