The Blue Mountains is the national park just outside of Sydney, given its name due to the fine mist of oil exuded by the eucalyptus trees. Despite being sceptical at first, it really is a pretty special area. The view points are pretty amazing. We checked out a couple of view points, Wentworth Falls, before hitting the most known attraction, the Three Sisters. We camped in the middle of all the trees that night, before setting off the next morning to check out some more of the views. We did a walk to a look out...which all started very nicely until the dopey flies decided to take a liking to Phil! They were really slow and just stuck on you. They must be high like the kolas on the eucalyptus leaves. With one hit Shane killed about 5! (well that's what he told Phil anyway after he hit her!!) Luckily Phil realised if she walked right next to Shane they split between the 2 of them!!! Let's just say we were very happy when we made it back to the van and we could shut them all out!

From there we skirted around Sydney and made for the north. We decided not to take the main roads but go the scenic way. This involved us catching a free car ferry in Wisemans Ferry, which was fun for the novelty value! Then we wove through mangroves and national parks. That evening we camped in Watagans National Park and after getting very sweaty collecting fire wood Shane decided to make the most of the swimming hole nearby having his shower there....cold does not even come close to describing it!!...it was a very quick wash! That evening there was a storm which is the first we had come across here. We timed it just perfectly though as we had been in the van about 2 minutes after dinner when the heavens opened and poured! Was different listening to it in the van...our main concern was being able to drive out the next morning! Luckily we had some spare firewood so we used that to bridge the gaps in the track.....