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Published: June 12th 2011
The Three Sisters
revered for centuries by the Aboriginal people...We left Sydney like we started... by incurring an unknown amount of toll fees while entering an unsigned toll highway with no chance of exiting. Apparently we went through some sort of 'express tunnel' through the city, even though the tourist map showed no such thing. However, we still haven't recieved the toll invoice so who knows if we'll ever be charged for such an 'express' tour!!
Driving out of Sydney is very beautiful drive. The Blue Mountains are a world heritage listed national park, about 2 hours directly West of Sydney. We exited the city on a freeway in great condition, past the Olympic Park (which we had attempted to visit but couldn't park for less than $20, so we gave up), and ended up on the steep climb into the 'mountains' at the abrupt end of the four-lane freeway. The road seemed to go vertical off in the distance. Quite the road!
On the way out to the Blue Mountains we stopped at one of the ubiquitous information kiosks and picked up yet another handful of maps (by now, both doorway holders and the glove box is filled with maps and pamphlets). A friendly informative information guy
Arms-up moment!
It was so cold I needed to ham it up to keep warm! gave us directions and marked on a map the most famous vantage points with which to see the blue mountains.
The blue mountains are blue because of the vast stretches of eucalyptus forest, which causes a blue haze to settle on the mountains, which aren't really mountains at all, but a large network of very deep canyons that crissscross the millions of acres the park encompasses. I imagine after having seen photos, the grand canyon is probably a similar comparison, but covered in a lush rainforest.
The road through is fairly interesting. According to one website or another, it took years to find a way through the canyons. Finally, one man found a continuous ridge that travels through the giant canyons, and now the highway winds its way up and down and around.
Eventually we made it to 'Echo Point' which is a great vantage point to see the most famous rock formation in the park, the Three Sisters. Its a looong looong way down the sheer rock faces to the bottom of the canyon, but we found some stairs that lead down to the base of one of the sisters. Its an awesome sight, and as the
sun set, the clouds broke and cast a perfect ray of sunlight on the sisters. A great way to end the day!
On the way out, we met a danish apple picker who was also driving a campervan. He told us about a great place to camp out for free, but after following his directions and getting lost once, we had driven down a one-lane, dirt path for about 1/2 hour longer than he said, and finally came out at a dark circle of parking area. Trung was creeped out and refused to sleep at the end of a dirt path in the dark, so we left, but not before I got out and walked around the top of the large hill we had just driven up. The millions of stars were amazing in the middle of the park.
Eventually we found a place to park on a side street in one of the dozens of small, quaint towns in the mountains and went to sleep.
In the morning we drove to another few lookout points on the list, and a couple that weren't on the list. The van got a good workout on the potholed, steep
roads, and so did my clutch foot! The valleys, waterfalls, cliffs and large forest were very beautiful. The trails were very steep, but well-worn. I've seen some amazing vistas in my life, climbing the tall hills around my house, and generally anything high up, but some of the views at the Blue Mountains were the best I've ever seen. One such was the Popes Pulpit (or something like that). After driving down a steep, trench-filled road, we came to a sandy parking area. After thinking we couldn't go down anymore, we ended up climbing down some stairs to a pretty impressive, 20 foot wide plateau with cliffs on three sides. I thought that was amazing, until I reached the edge of the plateau and saw VERY steep, metal stairs running down to a tiny outcrop of rock. The stairs were pretty old and creaky, but Trung and I made it down. What a view! You could see for miles in every direction!
At the end of our morning of clambering up and down steep rock faces, we had worked up quite an appetite and settled on an antique store and cafe for some great sandwitches. The blue mountains are
an antiquer paradise, with tons of these stores in each of the quaint old towns.
On the way out of the Blue Mountains that afternoon, we decided to drive out into the flat, dry, interior grasslands as much as possible and maybe see a little outback? We eventually figured out that the outback didn't start for another 1000km, so we ended up just doing a big loop through Wagga Wagga on our way back to Melbourne. It took two days to drive from the Blue Mountains to Melbourne. The grasslands were ok; very flat, lots of sheep. Some trees. That's about it! It was a classic drive, some of the views from the road looked like they'd be featured on a postcard for roadtrips. In all, a great way to end the trip!
Boy were we glad to finally drop off the van at the campervan shop! We were very fortunate with the van we picked, no flats, no problems (save for the one time the battery was dead). Another group who checked in ahead of us had three flat tires on their way back south. Something I thought might have happened to us, but we were fortunate
not to!
So begins our Melbourne Adventure and what I like to call: The Great Waiting Period for the Indian Visas!
xoxo
Andy
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John
non-member comment
Blue indeed.
They look more like teal mountains Andy. Is blue Australian for teal?