The Blue Mountains.

The Cathedral
The Three Sisters

Hi All !

Last week saw us finally make it to the Blue Mountains ! And what a trip it was too.

We set off on Monday afternoon, destination Blackheath, the national park centre to be exact. Our plan was to make it to the Janolan caves area by evening, but as we only arrived in Blackheath at 4.30pm and there would have been another one and a half hour drive, we decided to stay nearby. In the Megalong valley to be exact. We stayed at a free campsite which was more like a rest area. A few benches and a beautifull pit toilet! Mmmm…. In the morning we visited an historic burial ground briefly nearby then set off to the Janolan caves. ( we visited a view point, some of the photos from here show the extent of the recent bush fire!)

The Janolan caves were amazing. The drive to them was fantastic, a windey mountain road which dropped in to the valley with some truly spectacular views! On arrival the janolan coach house building greets you – a real alpine resort look to it.

We did a tour of the supposed extreme caves, (which weren’t very extreme) known as the lucas caves, and my word were they spectacular (see photos) the high point being the cathedral, where they actually host concerts, the acoustics were amazing, and the cave was enhanced by ingeious lighting. The ticket for this tour also included a self guided tour around the nettle cave and the Devils Coach House.

In the evening we headed to a campsite in the Kanangra Boyd national park nearby. This was the true gem of all the sites. A 20km dirt track led to it, and when we arrived we had the whole site to ourselves, with the exception of a couple of nutters from the Netherland, who were cycling around Australia! Mad! But very cool, and gave us two books they had finished to lighten their loads a little.. We lit a fire in a hut and cooked dinner. Our evening was cut short by a monster spider! Turns out it was a Huntsman, not deadly and quite timid, but we didn’t know that at the time and didn’t want to risk it so returned to the van.

In the morning we drove 7km further down the dirt track to do a short walk, firstly to see the Kanangra walls – incredible sandstone cliffs 140m high drop in to forest covered valleys! Then to the Kananga falls. A short steep walk to a 40ft fall and pool than a scramble down to the point it falls 140m in to the valley! Awesome, really remote and so stunning!!!

We then went to see the three sisters, and the Wentworth falls, both spectacular but tourist-tastic, so we snapped them left and spent our final night at a busy little site called Ingra way, the plus to this place was a really nice waterfall fed lake, so our first wash for a few days!!!!! The next morning we set off back to Sydney via Windsor!! To visit the oldest pub in australia – The Macquarie Arms!!! Built in 1815…. And that was the Blue Mountain… (Little fact:- Called the blue mountains due to the blue hue created by the evaporated menthol from the gum trees!)

Xxj&j