Two weeks in the Blue Mountains

After a little less than a week in Sydney we headed for the hills in our newly acquired van. Katoomba is the main town of the Blue Mountains and whilst the houses sprawl out for quite a distance, the town centre consists of one street which is home to a few dozen pubs, cafés, and restaurants and a handful of little boutiques selling antiques, bric-a-brac and books. The town is now entirely reliant on tourism, and so every shop-front boasts their most enticing wares gratuitously and the few tour groups which conduct daily excursions to the surrounding areas shamelessly promote themselves with large posters on all available surfaces in the town.

It was a shock after leaving the energy of Sydney to find a completely laid back way of life in the Mountains. Several of the pubs don't open at all Monday – Thursday and those that do are generally quiet even with the abundance of tourists as they are mostly getting early nights ready for the tiring days that lay ahead of them. Because that is the real attraction of the local mountainsides – exhausting yourself on walks through the valleys; climbs through the gorges; and abseils down vertical cliff-faces.

The mountains have created a truly beautiful environment of green rainforests and valleys, orange deserts and rock outcrops, and colourful bursts of flowers wherever the water springs from the ground. They are home to a plethora of bush wildlife so varied that every morning I woke to the sound of a different animal that I had never heard before. The way of life that you can so easily slip into is a peaceful and sedentary one consisting of waking casually to a view down the side of a mountain; an afternoon of walks and taking in the spectacular views; an evening of conversation and wine-drinking around a camp fire; and a long peaceful sleep out with the wildlife, separated from the elements by only a thin sheet of canvass.

When feeling energetic though, a whole day can easily be filled by rigorous adventures in the numerous local hills. One such day, a 7 O'clock start meant that we were able to spend a morning abseiling down the cliffs around Mt. York before tackling the canyon of Wentworth – a 2km gorge consisting of treacherous plunge-pools to dive into and rocky outcrops to climb over, ending in a 30m abseil down the very wet and slippery Wentworth Falls. Terrifying. Exhilarating. Exhausting.

Luckily, we were camping out the back of an excellent hostel, The Flying Fox, where it is commonplace to retire after an energetic day with a bottle of wine and sit by the campfire out the back talking to Ross, the owner, and watch the sun set – or curl up inside by the fire and watch the flames dance.

Another day took us into the area of Jenolan and the largest collection of open caverns in the known world. There are over 300 caves here, several of which have openings into the cliff sides which gave us the opportunity to explore! The first cave we went into was called the Orient – slightly imaginatively named because of the vague resemblance to far-eastern locations that some of the rock formations took on. The caves were filed with the most amazing calcite formations I had ever seen – and I had been told that there are no finer specimens in all the world. The different crystals were in the traditional stalactites and stalagmites that most people are aware of; but also helactite formations, ribbons of crystal creating sweeping 'shawls' across the cave roofs and walls; 'cave mysteries' which are strange angular growths jutting in random directions from any surface and have no proven explanation for their existence... and more formations besides these. The cave took over an hour to explore and left me with a great thirst for more!

The second cave I went into was called the Imperial Diamond Cave. The Imperial cave is the grandest of all the Jenolan caves. Massive in size, with many different aspects. An underground river still flows in its depths with water so deceptively clear that although it looks only 1 foot deep is actually over 6 feet from surface to river bed. There was a strong but thankfully controllable desire to test this information and prove to my eyes that what they reported was a lie! We came across a shaft above us, and were informed that after a 10m abseil, there is just over 100m of vertical pothole that can be clambered down. I will be returning to this cave to do just that, very soon!
I will also be returning to see a recital of some of Paganini's work in one of the caves just before Christmas, performed on guitar and violin by some Romany gypsies. I don't know what the acoustics in a mighty limestone cave will do to the already schizophrenic-sounding melodies of Paganini, but I'm prepared to pay to find out!

The Blue Mountains have a lot to offer, both aesthetically and spiritually. The place is so peaceful yet entertaining that I know I'll return there several times before I have to leave Australia. Once at Christmas, as I mentioned, and maybe again before that when we're next in New South Wales. Just to say 'Hi' to Ross, and chill by the campfire outside the Fox with a bottle of good wine.