Weekend in Wolgan Valley

After two entire weeks of dreary rain in Sydney, we could not wait to escape to Wolgan Valley in the Blue Mountains. Sure, the forecast still seemed plenty gloomy, but we weren’t camping this time, but staying at the comfy Wolgan Valley Resort, courtesy of Jeff’s company. We figured we would have a blast come rain or shine. 😉

As it turned out, the rains stayed away. The skies even parted for a few hours on late Friday night when we arrived, revealing the stars behind.

Kangaroo galore at Wolgan Valley

It was a most relaxing weekend. We spent it mostly eating, enjoying the culinary delights the restaurant served up, and trying to work off the meals in between by checking out the trails surrounding the property. For the first time in a couple of years since moving to Australia, we went biking, and our rustiness showed, since we both wobbled on the muddy trails. But it was a great way to explore the valley, and we delighted in riding alongside hopping kangaroos.

Exploring Wolgan Valley by bike
We went looking for wombats at dusk, and found one lumbering literally outside our cottage

Gallery

Camping in the Blue Mountains

Since we’d planned to meet our friends at the Three Sisters Lookout at Echo Point in the Blue Mountains bright and early Sunday, we decided to make a weekend camping trip out of it. The extra time allowed us to make the drive to check out the glow worm tunnel over in Lithgow. It’s a short trek, or at least we chose the short route, but we didn’t realize that the 30km drive to the start of the trail was over a dirt track, so by the time we arrived, it was close to sunset already. No matter, we were armed and ready with our headlamps.

Woot. Happy to have finally shot the glow worms. They’re quite a bit smaller than the species in New Zealand though.

Perrymans Lookdown Astrophotography-5252
It had been raining and overcast most of the day, but the stars finally came out to play at night. The lookout at the start of the Perrymans Lookdown trail
Perrymans Lookdown Camping-5268
Our campsite at Perrymans Lookdown. Brr, we’re no longer used to the cold. It went down to 1 deg C at night. In our previous life in Chicago, that would have been positively balmy!

 

Wentworth Falls
We met up with two of our friends bright and early at Echo Point, then decided to do the short trek down to Wentworth Falls.

Exploring the trails of Blackheath in the Blue Mountains

Sunday was the perfect day to check out a couple trails out in the Blue Mountains. It was hot down in Sydney – at least according to friends who were complaining. And the trails we did passed under waterfalls, where the mist was most welcome.

DSC08389-Pano

DSC08417

DSC08405

DSC08403

DSC08395

DSC08430

DSC08448

Weekend in Mt Victoria, Blue Mountains

Mount Victoria Sunrise

We spent this weekend up in Mount Victoria with my cousin, her bf, and two friends. My cousin had rented this beautiful light-filled three-storey cabin on Mount Victoria that overlooks the sprawling valley below, and we used this as a base to go hiking during the day, and whip up a storm of cooking at mealtimes. It was also, our delayed Thanksgiving celebration – complete with turkey and ham!

The huge deck gave us unobstructed views all around, so it was easy in the morning to slip off the covers, watch the sun slowly rise over the valley, then pop back into bed to catch another hour or two’s sleep. In the evening, we sipped wine on the verandah and watched the sun cast its waning glow while we waited for the turkey to cool.

Mount Victoria Sunset

What bliss.

Gallery

Weekend in the Blue Mountains

Three Sisters Evans Lookout Stars Blue Mountains (1 of 1)

This past weekend, I did a girls’ trip with two old friends to the Blue Mountains for a spot of hiking and just plain old good times together. We hiked the gorgeous Grand Canyon route and the crowded Three Sisters lookout.

In the evening, they indulged me in some astro photography, and patiently posed for over an hour as I struggled to get the composition just so. 😀

Evans Lookout Stars Blue Mountains (1 of 1)

River Walk Blue Mountains (1 of 1)

On Sunday, we also made the drive out to Jenolan Caves where we did a 1.5 hour tour of the Orient system, and then a stroll along the river where we chanced by a wallaby and its joey calming munching on grass by the banks.

I loved every bit of the trip. Thank you for all the memories.

Climbing in Blue Mountains

untitled (8 of 82)-1
We’ve friends visiting from the States, so Saturday, we packed up our bags and some warm clothes and headed out to the Blue Mountains for a spot of climbing.

What a beautiful, beautiful day. A little crisp, but it felt glorious to be back up on the wall, climbing against the stunning backdrop that is the Blue Mountains.

untitled (19 of 82)-2

DSC07064-6

Gallery

Exploring Mt Wilson in Blue Mountains

Blue Mountains Mt Wilson (1 of 1)

We joined a photography meetup group to explore Mt Wilson in Blue Mountains National Park today. I was most excited because I’ve been wanting to check out the walks in Blue Mountains for a while now (ok, three months, since we moved here), and the timing worked out because the kayaking/camping trip we’d originally scheduled with another meetup group this weekend got cancelled because of rain. On a side note, why is Sydney so rainy???

Anyway, we ended up with the bulk of the meetup group for only a while; there were too many people and it seemed like we spent more time waiting around for people to gather than to take photos, and we were antsy to walk. So we peeled off from the main group when they went to explore one of many gardens of Mt Wilson and ended with two others and wandered around the nearby Waterfall Reserves. It was a good short stroll.

On the books – a longer walk next weekend!

Blue Mountains Mt Wilson-1