The Blue Mountains

We had left the tropical climate of Queensland behind and were treated to a spectacular fly-by view of Sydney as our early afternoon flight came in to land. From the air it truly is a remarkable city - as if a city had been build around a more extensive and convoluted Knysna lagoon.

One of the beautiful "blue" valleys covered with eucalypt forest

We picked up our hire car, but not before falling for the acerbic Sydney humour which preys heavily on the perceived flaws of any australians living outside of New South Wales. They were kind enough to leave us with a Sydney map book which became invaluable as we navigated the afternoon traffic.

The busy-ness of the city upset us so we were very glad to be on the road out of town. We were heading to the Blue Mountains to spend a few days exploring this incredibly photogenic part of Australia only an hour's drive outside Sydney. Rolling clouds meant we could only catch snatches of the fantastic views we'd heard about, and as the road into the mountains follows a gradual ridge we were oddly oblivious of the altitude we'd gained, or the dramatic and precipitous drops sometimes only a few hundred meters from us. The incredible thing about the Blue Mountains is that they don't so much 'rise up' as 'fall away'.  The weather looked inclement so we spoilt ourselves by checking into a quaint old hotel in the town of Blackheath. We were grateful for the warm and dry bed as the thermometer hit 3 deg C that evening. The next morning however we were met by bright sunshine and wasted no time heading out to explore a hike we'd read about called the Grand Canyon. It is a 4-hour loop that would expose us to the escarpment, cascading waterfalls, and eucalypt forests that the Blue mountains are known for. 

The blue mountains are well known for the kloofing. Geoff is very keen to explore this more if he gets the chance to come back.

Our path through the Grand Canyon took advantage of weaker rock layers through which the path could run.

Lucy had learnt about a National Trust property in the town of Leura with a historical garden of particular interest. The Everglades property was acquired by a Belgian-born industrialist in the 1930's who was particularly interested in creating a modern garden on his property in which to relax on weekends and entertain a steady train of important guests. The garden was similar in style to many of the old gardens that we'd seen in England, but with a quirky Australian twist.  It supported a living theatre stage with a grass floor and the wings formed by hedges and they apparently host ballet productions here in the summer.  We really enjoyed the customised wrought iron work in the gates, 'windows in walls' and around the lookout over the Blue Mountains.  These depicted local flora, figures and even a whole series on the adventures of the family dog!  There was also a spectacular grotto with a waterfall flowing into a big swimming pool and we were pretty impressed until we found out that it was man-made and a closed water system!

The landscape architecture used terracing to create platforms each with its own character.

The spring daffodils and bluebells were in bloom on one of the terraces.

Katoomba is the centre of the Blue Mountain tourism industry. Amongst others you could explore Scenic World (still not sure what they were thinking when they named this), ride the worlds steepest train (haven't they been to Switzerland?) or take the sky ride (a tram ride between two escarpments). We were both quite appalled by this tourist chic and even more so by being compelled to pay $4 just to park to see the views - so we decided to come back after hours - like any sensible person - when parking was free and the other tourists were safely ensconced elsewhere. We made the most of the sunset and hiked down to a photogenic formation called the Three Sisters from which could sit in silence and enjoy dusk over the valley.

Lucy backed by the Three Sisters

The origin of the distinctive blue of the mountains is still debated. All objects tend to look more blue the further in the distance they are due to the refraction of light through the atmosphere. Some suggest that the gums release an oil into the atmosphere which accentuates this... the jury remains out.

Gum trees in the evening light - truly marvellous

We walked down to the Three Sisters to find solitude from the tourist masses.

We rose early the next morning to catch the sunrise over the valleys. Our overriding impression of the Blue Mountains was of being in the Cederberg, only with a thick covering of eucalyptus forest.  In the morning we got a lovely show of the changing colours.

Sunrise over Katoomba. The Three Sisters are on the right.

The morning mist and maiden

We were determined to find wilderness in the Blue Mountains so started driving north towards the Wollemi National Park. A tourist office had recommended the park as being pristene and difficult to access due to its gravel road. We were in a rental car so the gravel road posed no problems. We were heading to the national park campsite at Newnes.  We must have been on a charmed mission because we caught a Lyre-bird crossing our path early on in the journey.

A friendly lyre-bird

Soon we left the main roads and started dropping off the escarpment into a beautiful and remote valley. The further we drove, the more the cliffs on either side closed in on us. We were both terribly excited - this was the terrain we both love. This area forms the Stone Garden National Park and the Wollemi National Park.  We arrived at last to an old weather-board hotel which was clearly being retrofitted. The proprietor told us that the area had once been a industrial coal processing settlement. At the time it was cheaper to mine the coal and process it on site and then take the value added products direct to market. Approximately 1500 people lived in the settlement of Newnes up until it closed in around 1936, after 25 years of production. It was almost impossible to imagine that anything of such a scale could have existed there considering how beautifully the forest had reclaimed the settlement. In passing the proprietor mentioned that his record up to a particular view point on the escarpment was a paltry 26 minutes - throwing the gauntlet squarely at Geoff's feet. We headed off and set up camp in a stunning clearing full of wallabies and surrounded by forest and cliffs. Thereafter Geoff set off to climb the nearest face and beat the 26 minute challenge, while Lucy went in search of the ruins of the industrial settlement.

Wollemi National Park is accessed via a long gravel road into a beautiful valley

Our neighbours at the wilderness campsite

The campsite was so vast we barely noticed the other campers - can you see them?

Geoff made the ascent of the peak two photos above in 24 minutes (he only counted because there is a record of 22 minutes)

The rock is very reminiscent of the Cederberg

The Wollemi Park was a definate highlight for us. We also had our first wild sighting of a beautiful wombat, which allowed us to get quite close. The following morning we could have gone for an adventurous hike, but settled on just resting at our camp and savouring the spectacular scenery surrounding us, and enjoying the company of wallabies.

Mr Wombat was very agreeable to having his photo taken.

Our camping set up

We were due in Sydney that evening, but not before visiting the botanical gardens in Mt Toomah.  Linked to the famous Botanical Gardens in Sydney this reserve has a distinctly different climate than that of the city and thus could allow very different habitats to develop. One of the most interesting displays was the explorers garden wherein great "plant hunters" were commemorated with biographical plaques, and plantings of plants they had discovered. It was highly informative and exposed a world of adventure and suffering, espionage and discovery that we had only had an inkling to before.

We always seemed to be drawn to the spectacular beds of South African plants!

Some of the trees in the forest part of the garden were really old - this one was totally hollowed out inside.

More tree ferns - the more of them that we saw, the more we loved them.

A tree circle - shoots from an old tree that had been cut down.

After a long search, we eventually found a flowering waratah plant.    They're almost as good looking as the model!

The floral emblem of New South Wales, the waratah is a distinctive and impressive flower.

Daintree National Park

The Daintree National Park lies just north from Cairns and forms a significant part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.  It is one of the most significant living records of the evolution of Australia's plants and animals.  In the past, as the climate changed, much of Australia's rainforest retreated into refuges within deep valleys and on cloudy mountain tops.  Many of these relics remain today throughout the park and the Daintree represents one of the world's oldest living rainforests.

We explored two areas of the national park - the Mossman Gorge and the area around Cape Tribulation.  Mossman Gorge is characterised by an old forest with many trees with very impressive buttress roots and by beautiful boulder strewn rivers - not unlike our mountain streams at in the Cape.  We really enjoyed the quiet of the forest before the mid-morning crowds descended and even spotted some green-winged parrots or wompoo's (as they are known).  

Lovely boardwalks through the lush forest.

This suspension bridge crossed a lovely little stream.

The Strangler Fig trees were HUGE! (spot Geoff on the left)

Lunch at a beautiful boulder-strewn river

The buttress roots on many of the trees in Mossman were some of the biggest that we'd  ever seen. 

Lucy may not be the tallest of people, but these buttress roots were seriously impressive!

A lovely 'calendar-perfect' pool in the forest.

We looked hard for cassowaries, a flightless bird which stands 1,5m tall, has black plumage with a featherless neck and head which is bright red and blue and they have a large boney crest on the top of their head.  They sound rather unreal, and despite there being numerous roadsigns warning us of them, we didn't see any and still don't quite believe that they exist. 

This "speed humps ahead, warning cassowaries" sign was artfully modified - it still achieves the same effect though!

Up near Cape Tribulation we stayed in a lovely National Park campsite right on the beach and we really enjoyed walking the long white stretches of sand.  Unfortunately there's no swimming in the National Park as there is a (remote) danger of being eaten by a "salty", their estuarine crocodiles and we weren't going to chance it.  

The mouth of the Daintree River - what a lovely veiw!

We were the only people on this beautiful wide white beach.

A lovely sunrise

Another classic Australian sign - this time complete with a bottle of vinegar for stinger stings!

Up in this part of the world, the beaches and estuaries are dominated by mangroves and we thoroughly enjoyed exploring and learning about them through a network of signposted boardwalks.  We were surprised to learn that 'mangroves' are not necessarily a few closely related species, but rather a range of plants that all survive in the same habitat - thick anaerobic mud with daily varying water depths (tidal) and salinities.  It was really interesting to see all the different types of prop roots and breathing roots, how some seeds germinate on the parent plant and drop off ready to hit the ground growing.  Others have seedcases which burst open - shooting their seeds into the receding tide.  While others have seeds that survive months at sea before being washed up on remote beaches.

The host tree for this strangler fig had died and completely rotted away, leaving a lovely lattice pattern in the roots/trunk of the fig.

These aren't called Fan Palms for nothing!

This tree had a great example of an epiphytic basket fern in it.  The tide was out, showing the black mud commonly found in these mangroves. 

Many of the roots formed intricate patterns in an effort to hold their tree up and to absorb oxygen.

The Cannon Ball Mangrove tree.  These balls were approximately 15cm in diameter and when ripe would burst open explosively, scattering their seeds.

Looking out onto the Noah River through the mangroves.

We were interested to see how the rainforest changes as you gain altitude, and so opted for a semi-gruelling hike from the beach up to a lookout 680m above sea level (the hike was only 7km return), but much of it was through steamy forest and the path was often near vertical and very muddy.

Really, some of the signs are hilarious.  Geoff couldn't resist doing the necessary at this one :)

The lower reaches of the forest were characterised by fan palms and tall tropical forest

Orange fungi - oh yeah!

We slipped and slid up and down this ridiculously steep slope, hanging onto roots, moss covered rocks and the odd tree trunk. 

We'd been warned about the Aussie definition of a 'view point' but didn't take heed and were horrified when we got to the top/lookout of this tricky hike only to find a tiny window between the trees through which you could peer to glimpse some further away forest. *sigh*.

A small amount of view from the 'lookout'.

At least the lookout was slightly raised off the ground (about 30cm high) so we were out of the mud and above the leeches.  Lunch = vegemite, cheese and crackers. 

Our hike had taken us halfway up Mount Sorrow, and back down at the coast is a rocky headland named Cape Tribulation.  Both were named by Captain (well, Lieutenant at that stage) Cook when his ship was holed on a coral reef there and they had to effect emergency repairs a little further up the coast at what is now known as Cooktown.  Nowadays Cape Tribulation is famous as the only place in the world where two World Heritage Areas meet - the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area and the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

Cape Tribulation - peeping out of the sea is some fringe coral reef which comes right  up to the tropical forest which spills onto the beach.

Low tide exposed the fantastic root structures of the mangroves growing on the  beach.

The beautiful Cape Trib beach has this pretty self-explanatory sign - we decided not to risk it.

One of only 2 designated croc-free swimming holes in Daintree National Park.

 Our time up north was fast coming to an end and we headed south to fly to Sydney for the next leg.

The trees in Queensland were really fantastic.  This oak tree had not yet got its spring leaves, but was furry with epiphytic ferns.