Endless valley views, waterfalls, impressive canyons, houndreds of lookouts and hiking trails – that´s the Blue Mountains. They got their name because of the blue haze that hovers over them.
When we left Sydney from our one night visit, we had three days left until we returned our car. We planned two full days of hikes and lookouts in the Blue Mountains and we were really looking forward to it. But there would be some obstacles on the way. It all started with an empty car battery because we left the light on over night. Luckily there was a mechanic right next door who helped us start the car. We reached the Blue Mountains in the afternoon and enjoyed a few really nice lookouts in beautiful hot weather.
The area got a few nice free campsites, so we drove down to the valley and set up our camp in one of them. We went to bed early. In the middle of the night it started raining. When we woke up the next morning, it didn´t stop. We got from sunny 35 degrees the day before to rainy and foggy 20 degrees this morning!
No more views, no chance of hiking. The weather forecast was rainy, foggy and cold for the next two days! In the afternoon it stopped raining for a while, so at least we have been able to do the Grand Canyon three hour hike and got only a little wet. The hike is even supposed to be more beautiful in this weather because the fog gives the area a kind of mystic atmosphere.
Later we tried to find a dry spot to cook our dinner, and finally found shelter in a small cave. Again we went to bed early because there was not much to do and crossed our fingers for the weather to improve the next day.
We were not lucky! The next day was even worse and it didn´t stop raining all day. There was nothing we could do, so we spent most of the day in our camper, cleaning and packing our stuff. When we got too bored, we put our rain jackets on and at least visited the Leura Falls.
We were very disappointed that we couldn´t really explore the area. What we saw on the first day was beautiful and we were really looking forward to these days. On the next day we unfortunately had to return the car, so we couldn´t stay longer. We decided to get up early to at least do the National Pass hike. We are glad we did that! The three hour hike was beautiful, with gorgeous valley views, Wentworth Falls and walking along the cliff.
Afterwards we had to hurry because we still had to clean the car and drive back to Sydney before 3pm. So we quickly got into our car – and found out we left the light on again – empty battery! This time there was no mechanic around, and we had to find some people to push us out of the car park 😉