Blue Mountains & Northern Beaches

This weekend we decided to rent a car and explore the areas outside Sydney close by. 11 am Saturday morning I got picked up by the Finnish guys Marko and Mikko from Neutral Bay and my very first road trip in Australia was to begin.

Blue Mountains are located a little over 100 km from centre of Sydney. It consist of series of hills and impressive 250,000 hectares Blue Mountains National Park. The name comes from eucalyptus oil rising off of the trees and refracting the sun’s rays making the mountains really looking blue. The best way to explore the region is bushwalking, and without even planning the route we direct our selves among all the other tourists to the start point of 2,5 hours hiking trip.

Our trip started nearby the Three Sisters, which is the SPOT to take pictures. So did we as well ;) After way too many pictures we started our descending to the bottom of the valley (Giant Staircase) and I have to say that after 841 steps my legs were a bit shaky. The views were amazing, and we were lucky because the weather was sunny, warm and not windy (doesn’t happen very often during the winter). The valley is stuffed with eucalyptus trees and wollemi pines (what was thought to have been extinct for 150 million years). Even though, I tried really hard I didn’t see any koalas, but I heard there are some, well maybe next time. For a moment I was a bit worried that we would have to climb another stairs up to the hill (which would have been a suicide), but luckily in the end of the route there was a train, scenic railway (which is by the way the world’s steepest railway, at an angle of 52) which took us up in few minutes.
Pretty amazing experience!

After we survived up the sun had gone down and it was pretty cold and I had to dig out my winter jacket from my pack bag. From the top there was another 30 minutes walk (uphill walk to our car). After we left Blue Mountains we stopped to have a dinner in the Katoomba city. The whole centre was like a ghost town even it was Saturday evening, but we found one nice Italian restaurant, really popular one and it seemed the whole town was there trying to get a dish at the same time.

One thing about Australia. Most of the restaurants have this policy that you can take your own drinks with you, how great is that. The reason for that is that most of the restaurants don’t have licence for selling alcohol. I heard that it costs around 30 000AUD to get the permit, therefore most of the smaller places can’t afford it. Well, I think it is a great deal for consumers!

On Sunday we decided to experience some beach life and we planned our trips towards the northern beaches. From the place I live, Neutral Bay all the way to Palm Beach (1,5 hours by car) there are beaches and more beaches after another. At least now I know how I will spend my summer weekends ;) Here are some pictures (coming in few days) from Dee why, Palm Beach and Collaroy.

Oh, and just for the record, I got my internet today. So I can skype etc. from home now!!! Miss you all very incredibly much! And if you have time I would LOVE to hear from you! Enjoy the summer heat in Finland, soon it is gone…