The three sisters - Katoomba

The first day of our road trip! We've picked up our campervan this morning in Sydney. A 9-year old with a mileage of over 480k... But a lot bigger than our spaceship, even though it's a mini campervan, especially for Australian standards.  

Loving the sunshine

We decided to start with an overnight trip to the Blue Mountains, and to take the scenic road there. We headed up to the Bells line of road. Whoa... That had some steep stretches. As Dutchies we're not used to anything but level roads; we were in for a change of terrain. 

View over Grose valley form Govetts Leap

We've downloaded a really good app: Campermate. It has all known campsites, including free sites, and shows prices, amenities and reviews. We can find a campsite near our current location, or on our route or add it as a destination in Google Maps. Really helpful. For this first day we picked Blackheath as our destination. According to Lonely Planet, 'the crowds and commercial frenzy fizzle considerably 10 km north of Katoomba in neat, petite Blackheath.' Well you can say that again...  That town was pretty dead, the most exiting thing we saw was the free wifi at an ATM. 

First 'home cooked' meal

Because it got quite chilly in the evening, we enjoyed the luxury of the table and benches insite our van, reading brochures and books while drinking coffee. The first thing we bought when we got this van was a French press coffee maker; coffee is super expensive here, and we've had too many instant coffees the last few weeks! Anyway, we went to bed early, since we didn't have much better to do. We were a little apprehensive whether Rodie would fit, but he did! (Well, his toes stuck out, but that would be nitpicking, right?) 

Grose valley

We woke up the next morning, and it was pretty windy. (But the reviews on Campermate had warned for that, too!)  After breakfast we drove to Govetts Leap Lookout. As is the habit in Australia we parked right at the lookout, very different from Europe where you usually park at the carpark and then walk the last couple of hundred metres. To make up for that lack of exercise we walked to the Burrow Lookout. And got a bit worried about our physical state, are we really in such a bad condition? Unfortunately our camera lens got overly tired too, and decided to break... No more auto zoom for now. Let's hope we can fix that problem once we get to Melbourne.

But we did have some gorgeous views over Grose Valley. Some panting and 40 minutes later we returned to the van. 

The three sisters and Jamieson valley

Our next stop was Katoomba, where the famous three sisters rock formations are. And all the tourists, Lonely Planet was right about that bit! Once there we decided we would stay the night, so we had time to do some leisurely walking, without worrying about parking fees and such. We got a site, and walked to Scenic World. Did a mention it was rather touristy? Here we could choose from several options: 

• The Scenic Skyway (a gondola) from one cliff to the next past Katoomba Falls.
• The Scenic Cable Car to go down to the Scenic Boardwalk.
• The Scenic Railway to go down to the Scenic Boardwalk.

As some of you might know, I have an utterly irrational, near phobic, fear of gondolas and the like. So no way I would voluntary get in the first two! So we chose to go down with the Railway (which cost $19, and a day pass for all rides was $39!), and walk back up to the cliff. We quickly grabbed some lunch, and got in the ride. They advertise it as the steepest railway in the world at 52'... And boy, was it steep!

Almost a minute later we had reached the bottom station and got on the boardwalk. There were signs that gave some info in the mining history of the place. When we finished the boardwalk circuit, it was time to commence our ascent. 

The start of our walk up

The walk up took us about an hour, with regular viewing stops on the way. We are very happy we walked up. Probably 80% of the walk were stairs, so it was pretty strenuous. But both the view and the nature were well worth it. We walked past some waterfalls, a little creek, and nice rocky and mossy alcoves. And we really felt how the climate changes from down in the valley, humid and warm, to the cliff top, dry and windy. 

Part of the trail

It took us about an hour to walk up, so not too bad. And the exit of the trail was opposite our campsite so that was really good. But we didn't feel like walking into town to buy dinner after that, so we drove the van there. And then decided that we wanted to watch the sunset from one of the lookouts. As Echo Point in Katoomba is really busy, we speeded to Sunblime Point in nearby Leura, and just missed it. But even then, what a view! And whoa...  We were almost blown off the lookout as the wind has really got strong.

Lush nature

Back at the campsite we cooked a complete dinner insite the van, we even have a microwave! (Quite handy since our pots and pans are so big, only one at a time will go at the stove). After the cooking, the van really cooled down. By the time we were ready to make our bed, we both sitting under a blanket. Since our previous night had been pretty cold too, we opted for sleeping both in a our own sleeping bag, underneath an extra blanket. 

And the wind seemed like to grow stronger by the hour... At a certain point I was actually afraid it would top us over... That didn't happen in the end, but it wasn't our most relaxed night, waking because of the rocking and the cold. 

The next morning we drove off in search of warmer, less windy places.... 

We made it!