Now this road trip was frickin' COOL. I love anything to do with walking/hiking, adventure expeditions, seeing something inspiring and natural with sh*t loads of fresh air! A group of five really bloody good people from around the world jumped in a Scot's Aunt's car and hit the 2 hour drive for Katoomba. Katoomba is the small town near the Blue Mountains on the edge of Sydney. Blue due to bearing an abundance of oil-heaving Eucalyptus trees that reflect this beautiful blue sheen with the light, in this vast, open, hilly range.
The Three Sisters were our first port of call. We then headed along a stoney, debatable path along a mountain side for a 2 hour walk and saw some marvellous spider webs, trees and views over the edge, to where we encountered the waterfalls (my decision). It was utterly refreshing being around streams of fresh flowing water and cooler temperatures within the forestry, treading carefully along wet rocks and getting in further. We journeyed deeper down the edge of the mountain in order to catch the last train up. This was no ordinary train- it has the steepest gradient in the world, shoots up at god knows how many miles per hour, you sit backwards (WTF?!) AND you don't get a seatbelt (WTF2?!). It was like being at Thorpe park again for less than a minute, but worth the $14 single, avoidance of an hour trek of 80232389 miniature stairs and buckets of sweat back up the mountain.
Me the Scot decided it would be fun to run back along the mountain edge with our backpacks to get to the car quicker in the 34 degree heat. It was fun(ish) and moist... Then we all decided to play frisbee in an open green field after reconvening and to sweat out some more before sun down.
We hit the road back short of two hours, and bobs your uncle back in time for a late tea. Ps. I thoroughly recommend doing this trip in a car/ private transport, if you can- it only cost us $11 each fuel for 5 of us both ways, we could take supplies, and you could manage our own route and time, stinking out the car with no regrets. Make some hostel friends with aunts who have jeeps. Peace.
Blue Mountain shots with my Canon DSLR:
AND NOW for some underwater scenes and Clovelly beach.
GoPro image 1:
These next 6 are video stills I then edited:
The Site, iPhone taken:
This was only a bus ride away from the city centre, give or take 30 minutes. It costs a measly $3.50 single ride for a whole day of aquatic, sand-laden, sun-smouldering entertainment. I have now made it my new lifestyle resolution to ensure I visit this and other new beaches around Syders regularly to snorkel. It was awesome! The sea is so much fun when you take the time to bask in it and appreciate its wonders- you realise how small you are when you are in so much depth. In my element.
The beach was uncrowded and mostly populated with families, the sand was clear and OH SO HOT- TAKE FLIP FLOPS- and the ocean was calm but undulating with dark turquoise colours. A friend and I took a rucksack for the day, 50+ suncream and got our swim on. Thanks to his GoPro camera we documented every bit of our experience in and out the water! We also encountered ol' Bluey- the long-lasting resident fish that Clovelly houses- whose face looks like an unamused African woman. It was 'large, friendly and soft,' as described by my friend Harry after copping a feel.
