The Blue Mountains

After heading back to Sydney with Erica and Stefania (a couple of Italian girls that we met in Adelaide) we decided to head up to the Blue Mountains for a couple of days of bushwalking.  After a two hour train ride from Sydney, we departed the train in Katoomba, our jumping off point.

After dropping our bags off at our hostel (as I’m now starting to resent every single item in my backpack), we headed down to the information centre to get some guidance on what walks we could do, and what sites we couldn’t miss.  Needless to say, the walks and sites are endless – which means I may have to make a return visit before I depart Australia because we couldn’t see it all.

The most photographed site in all of the Blue Mountains is the “Three Sisters”, a rock formation easily viewed from Echo Point.  The local legend is that the Three Sisters was created when a sorcerer turned three beautiful sisters into stone to protect them from the advances of three men.  Unfortunately the sorcerer died before he could reverse the spell, and there they rest.  Luckily it was sunny and clear, and I was able to get some decent pictures.

We did a quick walk in along the cliff face to the Katoomba Falls.  What was supposed to be an easy walk was turned quite challenging by the rain that had fallen the day before, turning parts of the path into a puddled, muddy mess.  Made even more challenging by the wearing of flip flops rather than actual walking shoes.  Lesson learned, and it was a good thing.

As an aside, that isn’t a smoky haze covering the mountain range.  The Blue Mountains are named the Blue Mountains because of the blue haze that is given off by the oils in the abundant eucalypt trees in the gorges.

The next day, we set out on our really long hike, consisting of the Prince Henry Cliff walk, to the waterfalls, then down from very narrow and treacherous steps (a lot of very narrow and treacherous steps), along the bottom of the cliff face for 4km through a temperate rain forest, complete with ferns bigger than me, and rocks turned completely green with moss and lichen, until we came to the Furber Stairs – 1000+ stairs of pure torture back up to the top.  Silly me – I didn’t charge my camera the night before, and as a result it died about 1/3 of the way through our voyage, so I’m going to have to go back and get some pictures – in particular of the leeches that live in the forest.  They’re particularly adept at climbing up shoes and latching onto the first piece of skin they can find.  Gross.

Megan’s Most Favorite Day So Far aka The Barossa Valley Wine Tour

As many people will attest, I enjoy the occasional glass of wine (or bottle).  White primarily.  I’ve never been able to develop a taste for Red.  So, when Chrystal and I settled in Adelaide for a spell, the number one thing on my list of things to do was a tour of one of the wine regions that surround Adelaide.  So, even though poor Chrystal is not a fan of the wine, she gamely agreed to come with me on a wine tour.

We boarded the bus in the morning, not really knowing what to expect, given that neither of us have ever been on a wine tour before.  We booked through a company called Taste of Barossa, which is a small operation, with incredibly personal service.  The plan was to stop at four Cellar Doors – McGuigan, Peter Lehmann, Langmeil, and Murray Street, with lunch included on the patio at Peter Lehmann.

As we made our way up through the Adelaide hills, I finally saw a Kangaroo in the wild!  We were going too fast to take a picture, but I now believe that they do exist in the wild, and are not in fact a mythical creature like a unicorn.

As we were driving through the valley, I couldn’t help but notice the number of rose bushes planted.  It turns out that this is actually for practicality as well as aesthetics.  Roses are more susceptible to diseases than grape vines, and as a result, the rose bushes were planted as an early detection system for disease. 

The Barossa Valley is known for the red wine that it produces, so consequently, 75% of the wine that we sampled was red.  And I think I’m a convert.  Particularly to the Sparkling Shiraz – which I’m told is an excellent breakfast wine.  (Note to self – bring a bottle home).

I'm finding it hard to put into words what we saw, so here is a sampling of the pictures.

The Whispering Wall - you can stand on one end and have a whispered conversation with the person on the other side.

McGuigan - pretty impressive for a cellar door.

Mmmmmm - so tasty.

A nice walk after lunch to the next Winery.

Ahh - a well cultivated grape vine.

These Grape Vines are the oldest in the world - over 160 years old and originated from Germany.  The 3 acres of vines produce 2 tonnes of fruit, from which comes some very excellent (and pricey) red wine.

Finally mastering the self portrait.

Rose bushes everywhere!

The Great Ocean Road

As one of the people that I recently met in Australia put it “Australians aren’t the most creative at naming things.  We have an ocean road, and it’s a really great ocean road, hence we call it The Great Ocean Road”.  And let me tell you – it’s a really great road.

The Great Ocean Road starts about 400 km east of Adelaide, and winds its way along the southern coast of Australia towards Melbourne.  It’s touted as one of the most beautiful drives in the world, and they’re not lying.  We started early in the morning and made our way along the coast, pulling over at each and every look-out point we came to.  It’s hard to describe the roar of the surf, and the constant mist that hangs in the air.  At the end of the day, you’re covered in salt.  The cliffs are primarily limestone, and the constant pounding of the surf, and the wind, leads to some amazing rock formations.  Sadly, the majority of places where we were able to access the surf, it was too dangerous to swim – not that you’d want to anyway, the water is really cold.

The one rock formation that everyone talks about along the Great Ocean Road is the Twelve Apostles – twelve limestone pillars that stand in the surf.  Except now there are only eight Apostles.  The constant action of the surf has toppled four.  It’s interesting to stop at – every other named rock formation has a small parking area, and some gravel paths for you to access the viewing area.  The Twelve Apostles has its own visitor centre, and the paths are paved.  The viewing platform is grandiose.  And I personally found them to be some of the most over rated formations.  They’re pretty, but I found that some of the lesser visited sites to be more pristine and picturesque.

We continued on up the long and windy road – think right angle turns and switchbacks that make you white knuckled as you manoeuvre your very unresponsive campervan through them.  We decided to camp about halfway through our journey in the Otway National Park at a wonderful caravan park called Bimbi’s.  It is here that we finally saw the fabled Koala.  This resulted in my tramping through the fields and bushes, quite forgetting that everything in Australia is apparently able to kill you.  But I got some pretty good pictures.  And I can’t even begin to describe the growling noise that they make (apparently it’s mating season).

After a chilly night, we continued on down the road to the Otway Lighthouse, which has preserved all of the old buildings and homes used when the Lighthouse was the primary means of guiding the ships around the rocky shore towards Melbourne.  You are able to climb the lighthouse to see the view, which we did.  It was a little disconcerting to climb out and look down and see nothing but the rocky shore below. 

We made a couple of hikes out to some waterfalls, seeing another fabled Australian animal, the Echidna.  They’re primarily nocturnal, and very shy, so it was quite a surprise to see one.

Afterwards, it was a white knuckled ride along the rest of the Great Ocean Road.  The cliffs were on the left side, the long drop down to the open ocean was on the other side.  All I can say is thank god for slow driver turn out lanes, or else there would have been a riot by all of the faster cars behind me.   Next up – wine, wine and more wine.