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Into the Bush: The Blue Mountains
Another beautiful morning in Sydney, which I started off with my usual walk
across the Domain and up to the Opera House. I walked back through the heart
of central Sydney and up to William Street, where there are numerous car
rental agencies. I avoided all of the big international agencies, because
they will not allow their cars to be driven to the Northern Territory, which
was going to be an important part of my road trip. I thought this regulation
was rather strange, because there are modern sealed roads all the way from
Sydney to Alice Springs and beyond, and Northern Territory has some of the
top attractions in the country, such as Ayers Rock and Kings Canyon.
So I stopped in at a small, local car rental agency, and picked up a beat up
old Holden Commodore, that looked like it had seen its share of the Outback.
It had a huge crack across the windshield, the left side mirror was broken
off, and it had more than 314,000 kilometers on the odometer. I was a bit
apprehensive about taking a car like this on a long road trip, but it proved
to be tough as nails, and the only maintenance I needed to give it was to
check the oil and coolant on a daily basis.
Even more frightening than the condition of the car was the experience of
driving on the left-hand side of the road. A Holden Commodore is a big car,
an Australian-made version of a General Motors station wagon, and I
continually found myself underestimating how much I was hanging over the
shoulder of the road, or bumping up onto the curb. The loud horns of Sydney
drivers reminded me constantly to keep in mind: Stay to the left, Stay to
the left.
I decided to start out slowly with the car, and took it for a day trip to
the Blue Mountains, about 100 kilometers west of Sydney. Finding my way out
of Sydney was the first challenge, and I proceeded to get lost immediately.
I suddenly found myself in a tunnel going under the Harbour, which gave me
the serendipitous opportunity to drive back across the Harbour Bridge. I
finally found my way onto the Great Western Highway, which eventually turned
into a freeway, and then the rest was easy.
The air became cooler as I drove inland and higher in elevation, and soon I
found myself out of the city and in the forested mountains. I arrived in
Blackheath, a small town where I made a turn off the highway and up to the
Govett's Leap trailhead. From there I had my first real view of the beauty
of the Blue Mountains. This is not your average range of mountains, but more
a series of deep canyons, with steep, precipitous cliffs rising above
endless forests of gum trees.
The canyon walls are so steep that long stairways have been built to descend
down into them. Numerous waterfalls spill over the edges of the cliffs,
including Govett's Leap Falls, also known as Bridalveil Falls for the long
white misty trail of water that falls hundreds of feet into the canyon
below. I made my way slowly down the stairways, the warm sun being tempered
by the mist from the waterfalls, and soon found myself entering into the
magically serene world of the gum forest. There were streams gushing
everywhere, the trees were full of birds, and it seemed like I was the only
human being for miles around. A sense of peaceful isolation came over me,
quite a contrast from the hectic pace of Sydney.
Down at the bottom of the canyon, I followed the trail along Govett's Leap Brook to Junction Rock, then up to Beauchamp Falls, resting here and there in the quiet forest or beside the rushing creek. After Beauchamp Falls, the trail began to climb up out of the canyon again, and I felt myself tiring as the steep trail seemed to be without end. I reached the top of the canyon at Evans Lookout and realized that the effort had been worth it. From there, it was easy to complete the loop back to Govett's Leap, going along the Clifftop Walk, with spectacular views at every turn.
It was late afternoon when I got back to Govett's Leap and the gum trees were now filled with hundreds of squawking parrots. I had never seen so many parrots in one place before, flying from tree to tree, and creating a beautiful soundtrack to the vistas of mountains, canyons, and waterfalls. I found an outcrop of rock to sit on and watch the show, finding it to be a fitting way to end a long, but exilirating 10-kilometre hike.
On the way back to Sydney, I stopped in Katoomba, a picturesque village that sits on the edge of another canyon, similar to the one I had hiked in, although not quite as isolated. The most famous landmark in the Blue Mountains is here, a series of jutting pinnacles of rock known as the Three Sisters. The Jamison Valley is below, with ridges of mountains on the other side lining the horizon like a picture frame.
Next up: Canberra, the nation's capital.
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