We took off from our campground in Norah Head ad about 9.30 and continued south along the Central Coast Highway, which later merged with the M1 motorway towards Sydney. That was problematic. We wanted to stay away from the city for two major reasons: first of all we had a bit of a drive ahead of us and didn't want to get stuck in traffic; second of all, we knew there would be toll roads there. We don't have those at home and we don't like them here. It made no matter in the end though, there were no good routes other than the motorways passing around Sydney and of course they had tolls. They're automatic ones, they apparently take a picture of the license plate and wait for a payment to be made either over the phone or by registering online. I hope we got it right, otherwise our rental place is going to charge us astronomical amounts of "processing fees".

We made it around the storm battered city (there had been a cyclone passing through just a few days earlier) and into the Blue Mountains region without any problems. We stopped at the visitor information center in Glenbrook to get some brochures and ask about available accommodations. They were very knowledgeable and even told us about a couple of places where you could camp for free, which suited us well. After a quick lunch we continued on towards Katoomba, the biggest city in the region and the most touristy. We tried to find a parking space to go look at the Three Sisters rock formation but couldn't find any free ones near the information center. They were charging $4 for the first hour and $4.80 for the following hours! That's insane! I mean, they don't have park entry fees here, but let's say you go and take a nice stroll around one of the 3.5 hour treks. If you end up paying for four full hours the end amount is $18.40 per car. We wouldn't have it. We had planned on camping for free but still we went to ask the nearest campsite, the Blue Mountains Holiday Park, about their prices to see if we could save on parking that way. Their normal non-powered sites went for $35 but there were none left because the storm had turned them to mud pools. They asked us $38 for a powered site and more to have access to the internet.

Coming here started to feel like a bad idea… Or at least an expensive one.

We skipped the Three Sisters and Katoomba for that matter and made our way to Blackheath. We stopped at the information center to ask about the tracks but the one person working there was preoccupied by a man who had more questions than Batman's Riddler. It was about three p.m. then and we only had time for a short walk so in the end we looked at the map on the wall and picked Fairfax Heritage Track which was supposed to take half an hour one way. It started from right behind the Heritage Center (the visitor information place) and failed to impress from the moment we set on it. It was wheelchair accessible, paved and boring. We quickly judged it to be the most uninteresting nature walk we had ever been on. Until we came to the lookout point in the end. Suddenly, out of nowhere at all, we were at the brink of the Grand Canyon of the southern hemisphere! It was definitely impressive, even awe-inspiring. A little further still we came to another lookout and saw a huge waterfall tumbling down towards the valley floor. Sadly we had neither the time nor the footwear to go see it from up close and had to return to the car through a marked shortcut. By then E. Nigma had returned to his lair to plot further mischief to Gotham City and the guy at the information center was free to help us. He told us what we should see the following day and also how to find the free campsite we had been planning. In return we told him how to get to Suomenlinna since he happened to be planning a trip to Finland in September.

After the two-way tourist information we headed towards the campsite in the Megalong Valley. I'm not kidding about the name by the way. We found it easily enough right where it was supposed to be, six kilometers from Blackheath on the narrow winding road. It was somewhat problematic though, since the tiny bridge to the main part of the rest area was flooded. Our rental place specifically banned us from going over flooded areas, which is understandable, and we weren't ready to risk going over even though it was only about ankle deep. So we stayed in the muddier area on the road side of the bride which was fine in all other respects, but the pit toilets were on the other side. We had to go barefoot in the cold water to reach them. The night was a little chilly but manageable, we had a dinner of spaghetti and Bolognese sauce made of canned beef to keep us warm.

The walks

The following day we got up nice and early, strapped on our hiking boots and went touring. We started with the Grand Canyon Tour in Blackheath, which supposedly takes three to four hours to complete and is rated as a medium. We parked at the spot designated for this loop and went first to the lookout which gave us a great view of the valley. After that it was down and down some more, through the forest that ranged from eucalyptus to rain. This was the wettest rainforest ever, but there was a reason for that. As soon as we got out of the car we saw some ice still lingering after the massive hail storm that had hit the national park a few days before. That ice was melting now and we were going into a gorge. There are plenty of waterfalls on the Grand Canyon Tour on any day but as we were doing the trek, there seemed to be no end to them. Water was trickling on us everywhere where the rocks stood above us, which felt like most of the time.

I'm not complaining though, since the tour was awesome and the immense number of waterfalls big and small just added to the experience. It was like nothing either of us had ever seen before. We got down to the valley floor where the cliffs stood high above us while the droplets of melting hail came together with the morning sun to create dozens of rainbows everywhere we looked. It was almost out of this world and we had it mostly to ourselves. During the entire track we only saw a couple of rock climbers getting ready for a descend, a group of rescue workers practicing and one surgeon consulting. We didn't see much of any wildlife either, apart from a few birds. A koala or two clinging on the eucalyptus trees would have been too much I guess, since everything else we saw was more than enough.

The trail is graded medium and I guess it is, though I wouldn't recommend it to an out of shape person. There are a few creek crossings, which were a little flooded but we made it through by tiptoeing in our boots, you really should wear some if you want to go check it out yourself. But the real strains are the descend to the valley floor and the ascend back to the car. There are stairs but they are steep and a little slippery at points since they're sometimes made from natural stones. There's no cellphone reception down there so one really should inform others about going, at least if going alone. We had no problems luckily and made it through in about 2.5 hours, which included a lot of stopping for pictures and water. We started out in raingear since it was cold, but quickly reduced to T-shirts even with all the water dripping on us. We did keep the rain covers on our backpacks and went through the rainier parts "turtle style".

After having completed the tour faster than expected we needed to get some lunch and what would be better after a nature walk in Australia than to go out to have some fish and chips? They're very popular around here, such as other originally British delicacies like meat pies. Ours were found from Blackheath Fish and Chips and cost us $8.70 per order, extra salt and lemon slices included. We ate them in the park next to the train track where I thought we might see some old steam engines, but there were just regular trains passing us. It was without a doubt the greasiest meal we've had on our trip, but it took us a long way since next we moved on to Wentworth Falls, a 20 minute drive back towards Sydney.

Parked and sun screened once more we took to following the signs to the National Pass, opened in 1908. Back then people did it in full skirts and suits, casually leaning on their canes and sneezing on ornate handkerchiefs. Nowadays it was rated as hard. This surprised us since both the tourist informations we'd been to had recommended this trail to us and said that it's the one everyone sees. Our fairly strenuous start in the morning had only been a medium… We were a little baffled. We went down towards the falls to check it out and ended up wondering why the place had been named after them. The water wasn't really falling, it was just sliding over the rocks. Wentworth Waterslides wouldn't sound as good though… We passed the "falls" and continued to the direction of the signs pointing towards the National Pass track. As we were doing this we were constantly confronted by people walking in flip-flops or even barefoot. The further down we went, though, the less there seemed to be of those. As a matter of fact, there were less and less people in general. When we finally reached the starting point of the track we were looking for, we got to a very steep staircase hammered to the side of the cliff. A little further down we got a good look of just why the place is named Wentworth Falls. Turns out the waterslide is just the beginning and a whole lot of people see just that. If you go deeper, you get to see the entire falls from below where the masses of water come crashing down. It may not be the biggest waterfall ever, but in the end it truly was magnificent still.

The National Pass follows the face of the cliff along a route that is partially carved into the softer part of the stone wall. We got some pretty amazing views of the valley and of the steep drop beside us. The sky was cloudless and the massive cliffs seemed to almost glow while basking in the sun. We passed some smaller waterfalls along the way and a number of different types of forest, but no more people. Why that was I could not say since it definitely couldn't have been because of the rough terrain. There were some stairs to be sure, and they were steep, but all in all the Grand Canyon Track in Blackheath was a lot harder, even though rated only medium. It seemed strange. While not exactly geared towards the ones with cardiovascular illnesses, the National Pass was in no means hard to pull off. We were told it would take three to four hours to complete, we did it in two hours fifteen minutes, all the way back to the carpark. After the National Pass, which apparently is just the route on the cliff, we took the Overcliff Track back to the carpark without going all the way to the Conservation Hut. To be honest, even that was harder than the National Pass, much due to storm damage, but also because the terrain was much more uneven.

Comparing the two major treks we did during the same day we ended up liking the Grand Canyon Tour better. We really enjoyed the rainforest and the endless waterfalls with the cliffs hanging high above us. The National Pass was definitely worth seeing though and we were glad we did. The scenery was great and we got that "can you believe we're actually in a place like this"-feeling there. We like roughing it a little and the Grand Canyon was a lot rougher, the National Pass we could have done in sandals and shorts, as some apparently do. As for wildlife, we didn't see much on either track. Maybe it was just bad luck.

And then what?

Having already spent one night on the free camping spot in Megalong Valley we felt quite comfortable with the idea of returning there for a second, even if that meant going without a shower after all the walking we'd done. There was just one problem though, we were returning the car to Sydney the following day and had to clean it up a little before that. To manage that we decided it best to go back to Katoomba and get a site at the Blue Mountain Tourist Park for a whopping $38. It was $10 more than the most expensive place before it but in the end we didn't have much of a choice. Sadly, as with many accommodations that are placed so close to attractions, it failed to be worth the money. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't particularly good either. The camp kitchen was open only from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. as opposed to most places' 7 to 10. There were no stoves, other the induction ones we could have borrowed from the office, but who really has induction pots and pans with them while camping? Also, they charged a stunning $3 per hour for the use of their wifi. Apparently the receptionist understood how ridiculous that was, since she quite happily told us to go to the local library for free wifi.

That we did and finally found out the name of my newest nephew, Eetu. His birth had been one of the many things we'd missed on this trip, along with that of his cousin's, the daughter of my brother, who is still without a name but getting one shortly. There are still plenty of family occasions to miss, at least three graduations and two weddings if my memory serves me right… That's a lot of major happenings in just seven months. Life is all about choices though, and this was the only time we could have hoped to do this trip in, so that's that.

After we were kicked out of the library at 5 p.m. we took a look at the local stores, by which I mean big chains such as Coles, Target, Woolworths and Big W. They also had an Aldi. Then it was time to see the thing we'd missed on the day before, the Three Sisters. One of the Tourist Informations had advised us to see them at night time when they're lit up, which was problematic for us. Our rental place didn't prohibit driving during the night but if we were to hit wildlife outside of residential areas between dusk and dawn we would be liable for all the damage to the car. We had been extra careful never to drive in the dark because of that, so much so that it had caused us quite a bit of worrying along the way, searching for places to stay at just before sundown. We were in the city now, so it was OK. We drove to the information center and parked the car there to take a peek from the lookout. The Sisters, three stone towers standing side by side some distance away, were lit up as promised and spectacular, but not quite as magnificent as we'd expected. I could see how they would be at their most impressive during the night, but would they really stand out from the rest of the scenery during the day? We never knew since we didn't return in the morning. We just used some more free wifi at the Telstra phone booth and headed back to the campground. And what do you know…

…we almost hit a kangaroo. It hopped to the side of the road, saw us and hopped back. So close, that had it decided to make a run for it, it would have ended up as a red smear on our windshield. This was our last night with the car and we almost did the unthinkable, not by killing a cute little skippy but by being financially responsible for the damages! We were in a residential area, in our opinion, but someone might have disagreed with this.

Needless to say, we drove the rest of the way at the speed of about ten kilometers per hour…