Leaving Forster we drove through Booti Booti National Park (ha) and the Great Lakes which had some amazing scenery but it was a bit grey so difficult to appreciate fully. When you aren't on a bus you realise how many place names in Australia are just taken directly from home, Newcastle, Gloucester and, just for Grandad and Auntie Ruth, we even drove past a Stroud! Our aim was the Blue Mountains National Park which apparently shouldn't be missed, so doing as we were told we headed west into the unknown. The route was only about 250kms but we set off late and it got dark early so we only got about 3 quarters of the way and stayed in the world's creepiest rest stop. When we got the car we were given a map book which listed free and paid for campsites and rest stops, which ones included toilets, picnic benches, bbqs etc, and since there were no others listed in our near vicinity we didn't have much choice than to stay in Bilpin, a place that even sounds creepy. I'll set the scene, we'd been driving since about 11 that morning, and since it's winter down here it gets dark at about 5. Nina can't drive in the dark because of her glasses so I'd been driving for about 3hours and we were ready to stop, the roads were very twisty and mostly uphill as we were climbing towards the Blue Mountains, there was no lighting and the locals had a nasty habit of getting right up your backside if you weren't going over the speed limit, a limit DARPA struggles with uphill anyway! Imagine the road to Colne but about 5 times worse…Navigating these roads was doubly tricky when being blinded by oncoming cars and unable to see what was around the corner, so suffice to say we stopped. Apparently we were in a little village called Bilpin which appeared to consist of around ten houses that were about half a mile apart, a very odd little place indeed. Out of the darkness shone a sign for a rest stop with toilets so that was it, we decided to stop after having driven around for about 20 minutes back and forth to see if there was anywhere else. Which there wasn't. We drove into what appeared to be a deserted children's playground in a wooded area with the disembodied sound of children playing somewhere outside a nearby house, which should have made us feel less isolated but it just made it creepier…if you've seen The Others you'll understand why! So this was our home for the night…a cosier place you couldn't imagine I'm sure. As we were now over 1000m above sea level it was a cold and eerie night's sleep. Getting up in the morning and washing your face in ice cold water is a wake up and a half, I can recommend it if you're not one for coffee as I'm not.

Our third day in DARPA found us, firstly at the Mount Tomah botanic gardens for a play in the little spiral maze thing, then in Katoomba, one of the main towns in the Blue Mountains and where a lot of the main attractions of the area are found. We went straight to Echo Point which offers a lovely view of the Three Sisters, three stone pillars naturally formed from the weathering of the stone. The story goes that the three sisters were Aboriginal princesses who fell in love with three princes from another Aboriginal tribe which was against the tribal law. The three princes wanted to steal the princesses away so a war broke out and to protect them the three sisters were turned to stone by the tribal shaman/their father (versions vary) who died in the war so the sisters remain as stone. Just sounds like overprotective parenting to me! But then all Aboriginal legends are used as lessons to children as well so I suppose there is some moral to it.

From Echo Point you also got an amazing panoramic view of the Blue Mountains themselves. Now the name is pretty indicative of what you see, from a distance the vista does indeed seem a sapphire blue, which doesn't really come out in photos, but, come on, would I lie to you? Apparently it is due to light refraction off the oil in the air from the eucalyptus trees which gives off a bluish tinge; it looks pretty anyway. Katoomba also saw our first night in a campsite, with the glorious amenity of a shower. Hooray!! We had to check out of the campsite the next day so we took ourselves off to Scenic World, home of the world's steepest railway (52 degrees), the highest cable car in Australia (270m), biggest cable car in Australia (holding 84 people, most of them Japanese tourists) and the longest boardwalk in the Southern hemisphere (2.4kms). First we went on the railway which was surprisingly brilliant. It doesn't take long to get down but it is a bit like a rollercoaster…without any bars to hold you in so can be a little worrying. From the railway you get to wander through the rainforest on the boardwalk, checking out the historical mine whilst you're at it - I was thrilled to see that pit ponies were indeed an integral part of mining and am glad to share this news with Kim, that Flash the pit pony is likely based on a true pony! Now if I could only get that damn theme tune out of my head.

There were some nice views on the boardwalk, we saw a lyrebird which has a pretty impressive set of tail feathers, but that was about it for wildlife. The main attractions of scenic world are the railway, skyway and cable car so we decided next to get the cable car back up to the entrance and see some different views. These include the 'ruined castle' which isn't actually a castle at all but weathered pinnacles of stone which from a distance do look like a fallen down building. The cable car was a bit vertiginous but since heights aren't a big thing for me I quite enjoyed it. Once we'd gone up we decided to go straight back down and try the railway backwards, big kids that we are! So back down we went, standing right at the front of the car to get the best views. Clomping back along the boardwalk found us back at the train station and sneaking into the front car for premium views of the steep track. It was even better going backwards as you don't have a bar, as I've mentioned before, so could almost fall out, it makes it a lot more exciting. I would be remiss not to mention the skyway which was our last stop of the day. Now the skyway looks pretty much like a cable car and in all honesty I don't know what the difference is, apart from the skyway just goes straight across a valley over the Katoomba Falls, giving some amazing views. It was in the skyway that we discovered Japanese tourists appear to travel in packs. We kept getting trapped in a tidal wave of Japanese tourists of all ages, following a tour guide with a flag, and we were usually going the wrong way so fighting against the current, which I'm sure in a film would look hilarious but in real life is just frustrating as it takes you ten times longer to get anywhere! Nina was annoyed because they kept stepping in front of her photographs so we ended up waiting until they had moved onto the next point of interest. This was something we kept coming across, particularly on the Great Ocean Road, I had never realised that Australia was such a big attraction to the Japanese.

Now the worst part about the Blue Mountains was the temperature. In the sun it was OK but in the shade it was bitterly cold and there was a sharp wind that managed to find every gap in your clothing. It was definitely a hat and glove day, but foolishly I'd bough fingerless gloves so my poor little fingers were blue by the time we got back to the car and set off on route to Woollongong where we were meant to meet Jess, a girl we had met at ENP, but she was working so we ended up bypassing it altogether and staying nearer Canberra to minimise travel the following day.

We actually stayed in a free campsite in Moss Vale, and the driving was pretty interesting, even better than the drive up to the Blue Mountains. I was driving and really enjoyed it, despite being in the dark. It was like being in the Italian Job or something, crazy hairpin bends, u turns and massive rock faces raising up into the dark and down into pitch black valleys. Well it was fun for me but terrifying for Nina! The campsite wasn't as hideous as Bilpin so we were in high spirits for a good night's sleep after a busy day.

Becca