Searching for the Blue Mountains

With no swell anywhere, it was time to drag Sam kicking and screaming on some actual hikes in some actual mountains. So we headed off to the Blue Mountains, only to discover that Australia's idea of actual mountains is rather generous. See, according to the Lonely Planet, Australia is a very old continent with little volcanic or glacial action to renew mountains or topsoil. Which finally explains why candy is so expensive there! No corn for corn syrup! Though this did not deter me from trying every kind of Cadbury candy bar they have! And there's a lot!

Anyway we headed up to the so-called mountains and to the most famous view point, where we stared intently into the complete whiteout but failed to discern anything at all. We were going to take a picture to prove the complete lack of a view but figured we could just take a photo of a blank sheet of paper later and the time would be better spent fleeing in terror from the hordes of tour buses full of pissed off tourists. The guidebook said that Blackheath was a little mellower so we went there to find a caravan park for the night. Here we met our first unfriendly Australians (though maybe they were immigrants, not sure) who accused us of trespassing when we decided to drive through the caravan park to see it before paying, even though we'd checked in at the office first. We explained that we just wanted to check for any loud campers who had somehow wandered out of Byron Bay and this mollified them somewhat. Anyway it turned out to be a great caravan park, very clean and well-run, and we thoroughly enjoyed the hot showers, as well as the amusing commentary on the owners written by other campers on the shower doors.

The next day we drove back to the view point where we managed to see a little bit, and hung out in town waiting to see what the weather would do. Fortunately it cleared a bit, so we returned to Blackheath to do the "Grand Canyon" hike. We were a little afraid of what Australia's idea of a grand canyon would turn out to be, but it turned out to be totally awesome. We hiked through dense forests and winding canyons with verdant foliage, clear streams, and elaborate rock formations - caves, overhangs, cliffs, buttresses, and so forth. Despite being one of the best and most famous hikes in the area, the hordes of tourists were not in evidence - we only saw five other hikers the whole time. The hike was so nice Sam even enjoyed it and that is saying a lot. The bit where some older ladies kicked our butts on the way up was great too. Those Australians! Luckily we had hot showers to ease our aching muscles back at the caravan park. The park proprietors were getting friendlier by the minute as they realized that despite our scruffy appearances (well, Sam's scruffy appearance) we were not going to try to sneak in 10 friends without paying.

The day after that: whiteout again. So we drove back to Sydney, where it was raining also, and caught a movie at the pimp theater with huge sofa sized seats and side tables. Then it was back to the Wicked lot to finally, gratefully, ditch the titty van and get a nice 4WD van with relative mild artwork - some aborginal looking stick figures hunting, playing with kids, etc. We headed south at an amazing 110 kmh! Finally we could drive at the speed limit! Yay!