Into the Wild

One of the places at my doorstep here in Sydney is the Blue Mountains - a place I only visited once with my mom on a day trip when we first arrived in Sydney to check out the university for my masters degree program. Surrounded by lush waterfalls, extensive hiking trails and open canyons as far as the eye can see, I was dying to go back and explore in a much greater depth than my first visit over two years ago. Most people I know here hug the coastline on their trips out of Sydney and either go north or south, but going west into the Blue Mountains was something I had been meaning to do for a while now.

Over the October long weekend, we booked a cosy little airbnb in the small town of Wentworth Falls, right next to one of the main hiking routes called the National Pass. There were beautiful outlooks around every corner and we couldn't wait to explore!

The airbnb was a converted shed and had so much thought and design put into it. The spot was perfect for our two night stay while we checked out local hiking spots!

We chose to do the National Pass walk first because it was so close to where we were staying. Our favorite was the Den Fella outlook which was more off the beaten track, as compared to the very touristy side trekking down to Wentworth Falls.

Scott found multiple little streams with fresh (and freezing cold!) water, which he claimed to be so pure and refreshing. I tried some, but I was probably put off by the moss and rocks. It was good, but I can say he definitely enjoyed it more than me.

The next morning we chose to wake up early and conquer the Grand Canyon trail. Australia's version of the Grand Canyon is very lush compared to the Grand Canyon I know. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip (but also the most challenging), we hiked for around 5 hours to complete the full loop, passing multiple waterfalls and pretty much gazing in awe around every corner.

It was hard to capture the shear scale of the place, I felt so small within the giant rock crevices! Parts of the walk were very dark, cool and dense with air - they had a more rainforest feel which was very different to more dry parts of the walk!

We underestimated the amount of stairs to be climbed at the end of the loop, but we smiled the whole way through despite our tired legs.

To balance out the amount of walking we did, we decided to enjoy sitting and watching the sunset over the mountains on our last night. It was an amazing outlook over a green valley that looked like a postcard.

The sunset was a perfect end to the day, and we had the view all to ourselves!

Our final morning in the Blue Mountains we spent doing one last walk to see a series of waterfalls on the way back into Sydney. It was a much shorter walk but had some cool bridges and areas we explored.

The walk probably took us much longer with how many times we stopped to take photos, but we couldn't help ourselves with the cool scenery.

We are definitely beach people, but appreciate a good trip to the mountains! Despite us being gone for only two nights, we were happy on our way home when we spotted the ocean. I will be back, maybe just in another two years haha. Until next time!