Adventure Chronicles™

06.11.01 - Road Trip!
Sydney, Australia
Blue Mountains & North of Sydney

We returned to Sydney last night after a fun week on the road. Our first stop was the Blue Mountains, just west of Sydney. After a few days there we drove north and explored several seaside cities and towns. Australia has a really spectacular coast! There are beautiful beaches all the way up the coast, and we enjoyed making our way through the quiet and friendly towns along the coastal highway.

The Blue Mountains aren't large mountains (relative to what we have in the US), but the scenery through the national park was amazing. Large sandstone cliffs and deep river gorges packed with thick forests of eucalyptus trees and ferns. We spent the first day of the road trip making our way to Katoomba, which is the hub for most mountain activities. Along the way, we stopped and walked to several viewpoints, as well as Wentworth Falls. The air in the mountains was invigorating - crisp - like fall in the Northwest. We found a nice little hotel in Katoomba and indulged in television for the first time in months. Katoomba town shut down shortly after sunset, due to it being the low season, but that wasn't a problem. We were quite content to take walks, order takeout and catch up on our sitcoms.

We spent the next day exploring the highpoints of the national park, including several nice waterfalls, the famous "Three Sisters" rock formation, and the Jamison River Valley. We took the scenic railway down into the valley, which meant a short ride on a roller-coaster type train down an incredibly steep wall. Not scary, but definitely a ride where you hang on tight. We spent a few hours hiking around the valley floor before we took the train back up to the top of the valley wall.

I've never been much of a birdwatcher, but Australia has changed that. We saw colorful and exotic birds during our trip to the zoo, but unlike home, we've spotted most of them in the wild as well. It is a little strange to be walking along a mountain path and see rainbow colored parrots and large white cockatoos overhead, but a nice change from robins and crows. Kookaburras abound as well (noisy little buggers, though).

We spent our last day in the mountains visiting the Megalong Valley. It was a nice drive down the mountain and through the forests and farms of the valley. I even spotted a wallaby hopping along. Looking for a little adventure, we decided to stop at one of the farms and do some horseback riding. After checking out the farm animals and eating lunch with some geese, we headed out on Banjo and Socks, with our guide, Amber. She took us through some beautiful country - golden grass fields, forests, and finally to a hill with 360 degree views of the surrounding mountains. We felt like we were the only people alive, it was so quiet and private. For beginners, we had pretty good luck with the horses. They got a little stubborn at times, because (I think) they sensed that we didn't know what we were doing. Jay was anxious to run, so Amber led us in cantering several times. She told us to give them a kick to get them started, but I must not have kicked hard enough the first time, for which I was rewarded with a butt-numbing trot. I got the hang of it after that, though, and it was exhillerating to run the horses through such nice surroundings. We even spotted a group of wild kangoroos! They hopped away before we could catch up, but we got a nice look at them leaping along.

After our riding trip, we headed up the coast to Newcastle. We spent a day exploring the waterfront and visiting the Blackbutt Wildlife Reserve, which was a good place to see native Australian animals in their naturnal surroundings. We had an especially good time with the koala bears. The koala bears in the zoo didn't even move for us, but this group was very active. We sat for a long time and watched them climb about, eat, and even scoot along the ground from tree to tree. We also saw a kangaroo with a joey! We didn't notice it at first, but as Mom hopped away from us, we could tell her pouch was bulging. We waited for a while and were finally rewarded with a little head poking out. We were pleased with that, but before we knew it, Junior tumbled out and hopped with Mom. Once he was out, I couldn't believe he ever fit in her pouch - his feet were huge!

After Newcastle, it was on to Port Stephens and Nelson Bay, which had some great beaches to explore. It was a little too cool for swimming, but we enjoyed having the beaches largely to ourselves, and Jay got to torment a few crabs along the way. While in Nelson Bay, we decided to take a whale watching cruise, since the humpback whales were just starting their annual migration up the coast. It turned out much better than I ever expected. We saw humpbacks on our honeymoon in Hawaii, but the views we got on the cruise were 100 times better. We found seven whales in all, and I couldn't believe how close we got to them. Our first group of whales was a male, female and calf. The male was really active - lots of tail slapping, partial flips and even a breach! Yep - we saw him jump completely out of the water. It was one of the most spectacular things I've seen. We hope we got some good photos, but photographing whales is a tricky business. You never know when something is going to happen, and when it does, you are so entranced that you don't even think about the camera. We found another group of two whales shortly after the first group and were rewarded with another breach. Really amazing. We stayed for a while and watched, but the captain came on to tell us that we had to start heading back to the harbor. We were a little bummed, but happy with what we'd seen, so we started to settle in for the ride back. But, the whales weren't quite through with us. They swam under the boat and surfaced less than ten feet from our bow! It was incredible - I could see the bumps on their noses they were so close. Along the way, we also saw bottlenose dolphins, penguins and a large turtle, so the trip was an overwhelming success.

After Port Stephens, we drove to Forster, in the Great Lakes region, before heading back to Sydney. More great landscape. Before we returned the car today, we drove out to the Eastern suburbs of Sydney and to Bondi beach. It is so strange to drive minutes out of a major metropolitan area to a great white sand beach. I am more than a little jealous!

We leave for New Zealand tomorrow. There is a lot we want to do and see there, but I am a little sad to be leaving Australia. This is a wonderful country to visit - we didn't find one place we didn't like (and usually love). It is easy to forget how big it is, though. We only visited a fraction of it in two weeks, so I definitely want to come back someday.

Want to contact Jay and Lisa?

william.gibson@airtreks.com