Day 3 - 9/12/13 - Sydney NSW –> Hampton NSW

Our first real day on the road! After our last real shower for we don’t know how long, we took off from Ally’s around 9am to miss peak hour traffic – then we remembered we were in Sydney! I think the road engineers in Sydney have a different ruler than everywhere else as the lanes, even on the highways, seemed incredibly narrow and nerve wracking!

We headed west towards the Blue Mountains. One of the main drivers for me wanting to go this trip was the awesome memories I had of a trip my family did when I was 7 years old. I remember visiting the three sisters, the vertical train and Jenolan caves like it was yesterday. The Blue Mountains did not disappoint! We had a quick look at Wentworth Falls from the viewing area then headed to Mini Ha Ha falls for lunch and swim.

Well let me tell you this wasn’t no North Queensland water fall! The water was soooo cold it wasn’t funny. But amazingly enough De, who usually won’t swim at the Gold Coast in summer because it’s too cold, was first in! I think it was about the 10^th or 11^th count down by the boys but she dove in head first! The rest of us followed and beat a hasty retreat to the warmth of Izzy for the short drive to the Echo Point and the Three Sisters.

 

I am no literary genius but I am positive no matter how much I tried to explain the wonder of the view from Echo Point I would fail miserably – even more so than I failed year 12 physics! There is a massive paved open area, resembling Federation Square, leading up to the top lookout. As you get closer the valley below opens up more and more until you finally reach the edge of Echo Point where you have a 230 degree view of the valley. To the left proudly watching over are the Three Sisters, to the right the scenic skyway and other tourist attractions and in front of you are shear walls of a Blue Mountains climbing hundreds of meters vertically from the valley floor below.  The view was amazing but there was another lookout about 10 meters below that we agreed would have a better view. I usually don’t suffer from vertigo at all, but standing on a cement ledge sticking 3 or so meters out from a cliff that drops at least 100m made my legs turn into jelly! The Queen Elizabeth Lookout was sensational and horrifying all wrapped into one – a place that should be on everybodies bucklist.

 

Talking of lists, our good friends, The Hudson’s, gave Jack and Sam a book titled “Are we there yet” by Alison Lester for Christmas a couple of years back when they learnt of our plans. Alison documents the true story of her family’s trip around Australia especially when her youngest Billy asks “Are we there yet”. Needless to say I can now recite the book and the list of Australian Landmarks like the Sydney and the Three Sister they visit. So after we climbed down the almost vertical steps to the first sister we could tick that one of the list.

 

Time had snuck away on us so we headed for our first free camp of the trip just outside of Hampton on the road into the Jenolan Caves. If scenery was what we were looking for the Mars Explorer may have been excited. About million acres surrounding the site have been planted as lush pine forests, unfortunately this area had been completely cleared and burnt back about a year ago and reminded me of the lanscapes from “The Day After” (the nuclear bomb) movie. The boys had a ball as the loggers tracks were well graded and awesome to tear down on their bike and skid on. As we set up camp the winds stated to blow like no tomorrow with gusts up to 100km/hr – but at least we were safe as there were no trees to fall on us!!