The Blue Mountains

March 12, 2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

Everything about yesterday was wonderful.

I spent the day at the Blue Mountains National Park, which is located about a two hour train journey west of Sydney.

I caught the train to a town called Katoomba where I purchased a hop on/hop off bus pass with a company called Blue Mountain Explorer Bus. Let me just tell you, this was an amazing way to see the area! There are a lot of companies who run guided tours, even picking you up from your hotel/hostel in Sydney, but I wanted to go it alone and do the day at my own pace, which is why I chose to catch the train.

When I bought the ticket, I was given an amazing little guidebook, which actually is the ticket – you just wave that at the bus driver when you hop on. The book had a map of the bus circuit, an full index of all 31 stops, an example itinerary for getting the most out of your day, detailed information about all the stops and attractions, and smaller maps of each area which could be used for the walks. Furthermore, the drivers was so friendly and informative; I can’t say enough, how awesome this service was!

Anyway, the first place I hopped off was Katoomba Cascades. The whole area is full of waterfalls and streams, so this was the first of many that I came across. I walked for an hour or so, through to ‘Scenic World’, where I stopped for a sandwich. Scenic World is an amalgamation of the Skyway, Cableway, Railway and Walkway. I didn’t go on any of these due to the price and the fact that I wanted to see as much as possible rather than linger over one area, but it’s definitely one I’ll add to the list for next time.

Here, I hopped back on the bus to Echo Point. This is where you can get the best views of the Three Sisters, the main attraction of the Blue Mountains.

First glimpse of the Three Sisters from the Prince Henry Cliff Walk

From the Honeymoon Bridge, Three Sisters on the right hand side

Having walked down to the bridge where you can actually touch the Three Sisters, I got back to the bus stop to find that a bus had left about 5 minutes before. (This was admittedly my own fault for not keeping an eye on the time or checking the timetable which was literally in my hand…). The buses run every 30 minutes, so rather than sit twiddling my thumbs for 25 minutes, I decided to walk round the escarpment to the next stop. Somewhere along the way I must’ve misread the map, because two hours later, I’d walked all the way down into the valley, and back up again…oops! Though to be fair, it was a beautiful walk and it didn’t take long for me to realise my mistake, at which point I chose to just carry on, rather than walk back on myself. For anyone who’s familiar with the area, I walked from the Three Sisters to the Leura cascades, and for anyone who’s not, I walked a bloody long way!

All the steps, first down to the valley, then back up to the top, we’re this steep! Some like this, and some cut into the cliff

When I eventually got back to civilisation, around 4pm, it was nearing the time of the last buses and it looked like I wouldn’t have time to do much else without missing the last bus. I asked one of the drivers what he’d suggest and without a second thought he recommended Wentworth Falls. This is a little further out from Katoomba and Leura, and the explorer company run a shuttle there; you get off the bus at Stop 21, and immediately get on another, which takes you to Wentworth Falls at Stop 31. Pretty nifty. This was the last shuttle out there, but the Wentworth Falls train station was a short walk away and on the same line as Katoomba. I was sold.

Off I went to Wentworth Falls and it was so worth it. If I’d admitted defeat and finished the day at Leura, it would still have been awesome, but Wentworth Falls was a perfect round-off.

I put my bathers on and went for a swim at the Fletchers Lookout, before heading back. I had two options here; either walk in a straight line down the main road until I reached the train station, or take the Charles Darwin Trail through the forest. Since I had no time limit, I obviously chose the scenic route! The Charles Darwin trail follows the stream back up and was a nice easy, mostly flat walk, unlike the many many steps of my earlier hike. What turned out to be a major ego boost is that the official estimated time for this trail is 1 hour and 15 minutes – I managed it in 40! *muscle flex emoji*

Back in Wentworth Falls, I got on the train back to Sydney, and after a shower and some dinner, I crashed out for a good 12 hours! (Note: my legs are definitely feeling it this morning!)

Charles Darwin walk – at times I felt like I was in the English countryside!

The Contiki Tour – Part 3: Champagne Sunset

March 1, 2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

So far you know that I overslept, watched the sunrise, walked around the base of Uluru and spent some time in the Cultural Centre – all before 10am!

On our return to the hotel, I took a nice long nap, and followed this with a swim before getting dressed up to head back to Uluru for a Champagne Sunset, organised by Tom, our lovely trip manager, and Dave, our driver.

Don’t ask which I preferred between the sunrise and the sunset ’cause I honestly couldn’t decide. Tom and Dave kept the champagne flowing and provided us with chips and dips and various other nibbles – the whole evening was just lovely. As it was the last night we’d all be together, we said our thank yous to Tom and Dave, and everyone posed for photos with everyone else in front of Uluru! Even in the four short days that I’d been with these people, I’d had such a wonderful time, made some lovely friends and shared such a unique experience with them. I said this in the caption of one of the photos I posted on Instagram and it’s true: I will never forget those moments or the people I shared them with.

The sun went down and I left feeling happy and calm and positive. It’s amazing how a beautiful place like that can make you feel.

The evening’s fun only continued when we got back to the hotel, as there was live music in the outdoor bar, which we stayed up listening and subsequently dancing to into the night.

I’m so grateful to have been on that tour; Uluru itself wouldn’t have been any less amazing if I was on my own, but the people I shared it with just made it!

Thank you to my very first Contiki Family, I’m sure that won’t be my last Contiki tour.

The Contiki Tour – Part 2: Uluru

March 1, 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

Hey, that rhymes! Simple things please simple minds, eh?

So, when I left off, I was on the coach on the way to Yulara. Yulara is the only town in the vicinity of Uluru/Ayers Rock. Previously, there was nothing there in the way of civilisation, but due to people illegally camping close to the rock, disrupting the wildlife, disrespecting this sacred Aboriginal site, and causing danger to themselves.

Heard of the ‘dingo ate my baby’ story? No, neither had I until I got to this country – but it turns out it was quite famous, and a completely true story. In August 1980, a family were camping at Uluru when a dingo snuck into the tent, took and killed their two month old baby. The body was never found. Situations like this one led the Northern Territory government to build the town of Yulara so that people had a safe and regulated selection of places to stay. It was owned by the government at first and then later privatised, and the whole town, save for the bank and the post office in owed by the same company!

We arrived in Yulara and checked into The Outback Pioneer resort, with three or four of us to a dorm room. The first thing any of us wanted to do was go for a swim, but just our luck, the pool was closed for 24 hours for cleaning. After we spent half an hour whinging about the lack of pool, I suddenly realised: the whole town is owned by the same people. Surely, this meant we could just go into one of the other hotels and use their pool! I was right. Naturally, myself and a couple of others chose the most expensive hotel to go and crash, and preceded to spend the afternoon here. Five stars an’ all!

It was another early start on Thursday to go and see the sunrise at Uluru. Though not as early for me, given that I didn’t wake up until about 6 minutes before the coach left, and even then only woke up because one of the others phoned me to find out where I’d got to. (Thanks Cam!) I was a little miffed that my room mates hadn’t woken me up, but when I spoke to them later, it turns out they had tried…multiple times! They turned on the lights, told me it was time to get up, told me we were leaving soon… at one point I even responded, but alas was dead to the world, until 05:24. I got out of bed and threw some clothes on simultaneously, and hotfooted it to the coach, where I collapsed into a seat and practically fell back to sleep for the half hour ride to Uluru!

And then, finally, the main event! Everyone knows how big and beautiful and impressive Uluru is, but you never quite appreciate it until you’re there. I have no words to describe it, but I did take plenty of pictures.

After the sun rose, we walked around the base, taking in the sheer size and beauty of this giant red rock. There were some parts which are considered sacred sites by the aboriginals and therefore you’re not allowed to take photos of them. The parts that I could take photos though, I mostly did, except for those moments when I just stood there and soaked it all in. It really was bloody beautiful.

By the time we’d done this, I was starving, having missed breakfast, so I grabbed a ham’n’cheese toastie in the café a few kms away (bizarre thing to eat in 40 degree weather, let me tell you!) and then had a wander around the Cultural Centre; a museum of sorts which has lots of information on the meaning of Uluru to the indigenous people and some of their traditions and customs. I’ll write about what I learned there in a separate post, as there was so much interesting stuff that this one might turn into a novel!

Next up: the Champagne Sunset…

The Contiki Tour – Part 1: King’s Canyon

February 27, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

First off – apologies, it has been a little while since I updated. What follows will be updates on the last week or so!

Having made it to Alice Springs (I was able to get a bus straight there from Katherine, without having to go to Darwin first) and joined my Contiki tour a day late rather than having to cancel it, I then had a wonderful four days in the Outback!

On Tuesday we went to Kings Creek, where we camped for the night.

The intention was to sleep in ‘swags’; one-person, tent type contraptions. The night started out with mine open, quite literally sleeping under the stars. When it started to drizzle I closed it up and nodded off to sleep. Next thing I knew, the others were waking me up, cause it was pouring torrentially and a full on thunderstorm had hit. We were moving inside!

I must say, I was a little irked because I was actually warm and dry inside my swag and getting out of it meant I was then exposed to the rain and pretty soon was drenched. We all had to frantically gather our belongings, chuck the swags in the trailer and then traipse to the other side of the campsite where we took shelter in reinforced-tent-cabin-rooms (I honestly don’t know what else to call them!).

Thinking this was the end of the night’s drama, I dried off and went back to sleep. Only for the smoke alarm to go off two hours later..!

Don’t get me wrong, low battery warnings are great, and they do save lives, but they’re not fun in the middle of the night. I got up and took the battery out, and it took all my self control not to open the door and toss the thing into the rain!

Come 5am, it was time to actually get up for real. The early start was so that we could do the hike around the rim of King’s Canyon before the sun got too strong and the temperature too hot.

This was a pretty easy hike, save for the very first leg, known appropriately as ‘heartbreak hill’! This was the steep uphill that was necessary to actually get to the rim of the Canyon. Once we were up there though, it was worth it for the beautiful views and the early morning walk. And though this makes me hated by the majority, that is exactly the kind of thing I enjoy!

The bottom of heartbreak hill – I like to think I’m pretty fit and healthy, but I was ready for a nap and a gallon of water after 15 minutes of this!

Inside the Canyon, there’s a gorgeous microclimate. Over the top, the sun in so strong it just bakes everything to death, but down here, where the sun only hits for a few hours a day, wildlife is allowed to thrive, creating a little jungle inside the Canyon!

After the walk, we headed back to the campsite for a cooked breakfast and then set off on the coach for the town of Yulara.

Adventures in Exmouth

February 13, 2018.Reading time 1 minute.

Quick summary of today:

I got up at 5am to go to a yoga class which turned out to be cancelled.
I went back to bed until midday.
I drove into the Cape Range National Park.
Here, I walked through the Mandu Mandu Gorge, went for a swim at Turquoise Bay and watched the sunset from Vlamingh Lighthouse.

Enjoy some photos!

Turns out the 10 second timer on the iPhone camera is pretty useful for solo adventurers like me. Special thanks to the rock that I perched my phone against to take this.

Red-faced and sweaty after the hike – so worth it!

This was the view over the Ningaloo Reef from the site of the WW2 interpreter, just near the lighthouse. Learned a lot of interesting history up here.

I think I’ve fallen in love…

February 8, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

On Wednesday 31st January, I arrived in a beautiful part of the world known as Monkey Mia…it’s now Thursday 8th February and I’m still here. I’ve fallen completely in love with this place.

I thought I’d only be here for a couple of days but on my first day here I discovered the opportunity to volunteer at the Monkey Mia Dolphin Experience centre. The lack of volunteers (it’s the quietest month of the year now) meant I could start the very next day and I’m so glad I did!My hours are from 7:30am to 12 midday, so I still have plenty of time in the afternoon to go off and do other things here, it’s the perfect balance. Though it has to be said, the first two days I slept all afternoon AND still managed a full night’s sleep both nights. Turns out travelling is tiresome work!Volunteering involves recording dolphin data: which dolphins have come into shore at what time; how many fish they’re taking from us and the weight of those fish; what they’re up to behaviour-wise in the water. And the best bit of all, is the feeding! Each morning up to three times a day before midday, we run a ‘dolphin experience’ where the public are invited down to the shore, told a bit about the dolphins by one of the rangers, and then us volunteers bring the fish down and pick out random members of the crowd to come out and feed them a fish. We have 5 dolphins on the feeding programme and each of those is allowed no more than 10% of their daily requirement. This is to encourage them to forage for the rest of their food and carry on with normal dolphin behaviours. Nobody is allowed to touch the dolphins, not even the rangers, and there’s a law preventing people from swimming with 30m of them. If a dolphin approaches you in the water you’re asked to just remain still and let them do their thing. It’s a perfect way to get to see wild dolphins close up without effecting their natural lifestyles.When I was a child, dolphins were my favourite animals, mostly just cause they seemed cool. Now having got up close and personal with them, that view has been reinforced and I have a newfound appreciation for these beautiful beautiful animals!

I’m leaving Monkey tomorrow but I already know I’ll be back – I’ve even been asking around about jobs here..! Definitely got a new favourite place in the world.

Francois Peron National Park with the Vollie fam!

February 7, 2018.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Some photos from the 4-wheel-drive trip that I took on Wednesday afternoon with Georgia, Ryan, Alex and Ben; 4 other volunteers who I met at Monkey Mia!

Splashing around at Herald Bight, photo creds to Georgia

Stunning sand tracks through the National Park

Beautiful Rottnest Island

February 2, 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

Beth had hyped this place up so much, and it certainly lived up to its reputation.

Rottnest Island is a beautiful little island off the coast of Perth. We got the ferry over there at 8:30am on Sunday 21st Jan, leaving plenty of time to explore the island during the day. We picked up the bikes that Beth’s Aunt had kindly left on the Island for us to borrow (Thank you Sally!), and set off to find our accommodation. Having not ridden a bike myself in about five years and having to take all our bags and whatnot with us, this was an interesting ride! But I got the hang of it eventually and actually kind of fell in love with cycling..! Rottnest is so small and protected that the only vehicles are essential delivery vans and tour buses. It’s too big to walk everywhere though, so everyone cycles. It sort of felt like being in Amsterdam!

We spent a fair bit of time at the beach and mooching about the island, but these were my two highlights…

Highlight #1: The 22km bike ride! On the Monday, we cycled all the way around Rottnest, stopping off at most of the beaches along the way. This was hard work but I can honestly say, one of my favourite days so far. I always feel really good after a great workout, but what made this even better was the stunning scenery, the bright sunshine, and the breeze blowing on my face to cool me down.

We both decided we didn’t have the energy left to cook dinner when we returned to our hostel, so we went to a restaurant on the Island and had dinner there, which for me meant fish and chips – fresh, locally caught, grilled fish. Delicious! And full of protein after the exercise so that was a bonus.

Highlight #2: On Tuesday morning I decided to jump out of an aeroplane, because why not?! I discovered the service on the ferry ride over and as soon as I saw the poster, I knew I had to do it. I jumped from 14,000 feet over the island, and the views were beyond incredible.

The last time I did a skydive was about two years and while I’d sort of forgotten what it felt like, when people kept asking me if I was nervous this second time round, I wasn’t because I knew I’d done it before. That is of course, right up until the moment when I was just about to leave the plane and then my brain sort of went “fuuuuu*k, what am I about to do?!”

As soon as I was freefalling though, that all went away and all I could focus on was the exhilaration and adrenaline coursing through me! Cruising down over the Island after the canopy opened and taking in the views of Rottnest below, Perth in the distance and the vast expanse of Indian Ocean all around was something I will never forget.

Below is a collection of photos from our time on Rottnest.

Quick rest from the bike ride, stopping at the lookout at the West End of Rottnest Island

Turned my back for a second and this cheeky guy started trying to nibble away at my bike!

Freefalling over this magnificent island

What a week!

January 27, 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

My apologies for the lack of activity here on the blog, but there certainly hasn’t been a lack of activity in real life!

I will do some individual posts with pictures, but for now, here’s a summary of the last week and a bit. You’ll remember we returned from Kalgoorlie on Tuesday 16th Jan.

Wednesday 17th: Drove to Yanchep National Park – about a 40 minute drive up north. We spent the morning here and I saw MY FIRST KANGAROO! I was so excited, and they’re so goddamn cute!! If you have a look at my Instragram, there’s a photo on there, and I’ll put some more up here in the next couple of days.

Thursday 18th: We drove to Yallingup – this one was a 3 hour drive down south. Yallingup is a beautiful little beach town with some lovely walks and gorgeous views. Having inadvertently driven past our campsite, we decided to just keep going and have a look around. This led to us finding a nice 4km walking trail, the Yallingup Caves, and of course the beach! This was also where we trialled our $12 (about £7) tent for the first time, and let me tell you, it was a darn sight better than the $70 tent we’d bought the week before and promptly returned when it broke on first use!

Friday 19th: We were on the beach by 8:30am! Now this is why I came to Australia..! After a couple of hours there, we started making our way back home but with a few more stops this time. We had another swim and sunbathe break at Eagle Bay, and after that, drove to Busselton. This town is the home of the longest wood pile jetty in the Southern Hemisphere, as well as 1 of only 6 natural underwater observatories in the world. Basically, Busselton was pretty cool! We got the tourist train down to the end of the 1.841km jetty, went down the steps at the end and were met with beautiful views out of the underwater windows. Again, pictures to follow.

Saturday 20th: Today, Beth worked all day so I mooched about Perth by myself, and we went to the beach after she finished. (Again, how cool is that! “Oh hey do you wanna go to the beach after work?” I love it!)

Sunday 21st – Wednesday 24th: Rottnest Island! I’ll write a separate post about this one because frankly, Rottnest deserves it. The last night of this particular adventure is where the drama kicked in hard and fast. We rode back to our hostel after an evening on the beach with some people we’d met earlier in the day, and just we arrived back, Beth managed to fall off her bike and break her wrist. So ensued a rather traumatic night for the both of us, involving a ambulance call out, a nurse who I didn’t get on with, a night in the island clinic for Beth, and a night of worrying for me. In the end though, we both got about 2 hours of sleep, and things calmed down. I can happily report that Beth’s wrist is ‘the best of a bad situation’ – it’s her left hand and a good clean break, nothing nasty and no surgery required. On Wednesday morning, we made our way back to the mainland on the ferry. Beth had to go to the hospital to have her wrist double checked, but I got home, had a shower and fell straight to sleep for the next 7 hours!

Thursday 25th: A rest day! At this point we both needed another day of doing nothing. It’s been a full on three weeks since I got here and I’ve loved (almost!) every moment of it. But sometimes even the adventurous traveller needs a rest. And Beth was on strong painkillers so that pretty much made her unable to do anything but sleep!

Friday 26th was Australia Day, which we spent with friends by the beach. And that brings us up to now…

Saturday 27th. Today’s my last full day in Perth and my last full day with Beth. A broken wrist tends to put a spanner in the works so where Beth was going to accompany me to my next destination, I’ll now be going on my own. So really, this is where the proper travelling begins. I’ve put all my worldly possessions into a rucksack and tomorrow I’ll jump on a coach and see where it takes me! Wish me luck!

Kalgoorlie-Boulder & The Super Pit

January 17, 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

16 hours travelling for 33 hours in a destination – that’s what Australia’s all about, I’ve learned! It’s such a whopping great country that everything is miles away from everything else!

We hopped on a train at 2pm on Sunday afternoon and arrived in Kalgoorlie at 10 o’clock that night. Kalgoorlie and Boulder (two towns amalgamated into the district of Kalgoorlie-Boulder) cover the area which used to be known as the Golden Mile, where the Australian Gold Rush occurred in the 1890s. Three men were travelling through the area when they stopped to shoe their horse and accidentally discovered signs of gold. Three days later, the area was filled with hundreds of prospectors mining for gold. Over time, gold drew more people to the area and the population increased, and thus the towns of Kalgoorlie and Boulder were born. In the 1980s, businessman Alan Bond started buying out individual leases with a view to combining them all into one big mine. He didn’t finish the job, but shortly after he left the picture, two big mining companies formed a joint venture organisation called Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM), who took over the management of this project. They created what is known today as the Super Pit – one big giant gold mine, spanning 3.5km across, 1km wide and 600m deep.

All of this history and more, we learned in our one short day in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. We started by with a walking tour up the main street in Kalgoorlie. Stumbling upon the WA Museum was a happy coincidence, where we saw an exhibition of aboriginal history, a collection of the different forms in which gold was found in the area, and a lift up to a lookout platform, giving a birds eye view over the landscape.

The view from 33 metres up over The Golden Mile. Check out those clouds!

Not realising quite how far Boulder and the Super Pit were from Kalgoorlie, we set off on foot, and ended up walking about 8km in each direction. And what’s more – it rained! Australia must’ve decided I was getting homesick and to make it feel like I was back in England!

As we came into Boulder, the buildings started to look less rustic, with more car dealerships than Churchfields Industrial Estate and numerous fast food outlets. I spotted the most bizarrely situated Nando’s restaurant and also a Church which really didn’t look like a Church..!

Doesn’t it look odd in such a fancy looking building!

With all due respect, this church looks more like a KwikFit…

Our walking tour headsets instructed us to “saddle up our vehicle,” but since we were without said vehicle, but still wanted to see the Super Pit, our walk continued. We made the (smart) decision not to walk alongside the highway and eventually managed to navigate our way round some side roads that allowed us to cross the highway safely. We were actually feeling pretty good as we trudged up the hill in the rain, with our steadfast British spirit keeping us going! The term ‘character building’ comes to mind!

Let’s play a game – Australia 2018 or DofE 2015?!

Anyway – we got there. And boy oh boy it was worth it! Unfortunately the weather meant that there were no tours of the inside of the Super Pit running, but from the lookout point we had some amazing views and were able to read some more information on the history and the current operations of the mine. Honestly, I never thought I’d find a big hole in the ground so interesting!

This is a scoop used to load the rock into the transport trucks to be taken for processing – each truck carries around 200 tonnes of rock. 1 in 7 trucks of rock may contain about 500g of gold, the rest being ore or waste rock. KCGM spends about $11millionAUD a year on mining equipment. Seems like the input-output ratio doesn’t quite match up!

Having earlier said we’d get a bus or taxi back down to our hotel in Kalgoorlie, we actually decided we couldn’t do ourselves such an injustice, so walked all the way back too! 25,000 steps all in all *muscle flex emoji*

Awaiting us at the end was some souvenir shopping, dinner in a restaurant opposite the hotel and a glass of crisp white wine… well deserved!

Pages Of My Passport

Tag: hiking