Mountain Madness in May #Take12Trips

May saw us take two trips to the mountains - one trip was to the Blue Mountains in NSW, and the other was to the Stirling Ranges down south of WA.

I'll start with the Blue Mountains: 

Scotty had wanted to compete in The Northface 100 since we moved to Australia 3 years ago. Due to injury the first year and then our trip to the States last year it hadn't been possible... until now!

We scored super cheap flights with Jetstar, booked a trusty i20 through Europcar (can't pass up the Velocity points) and our friend hooked us up with a house 1.5km from the start line. 

Scotty had been to the Blue Mountains in April for two weeks to train for the race, but this was my first time there. 

Thursday rolled around and it was time for take off. We arrived in Sydney at about 5pm and were on the road by 5.30pm. The drive to the mountains went pretty quickly with not too much traffic. Scotty was able to point out some of the suburbs along the way which was cool, and less than 2 hours later we were arriving in Katoomba.

Welcome to the Blue Mountains

On Friday morning we went for a short run to check out the Three Sisters and the view out to Mt Solitary. I was instantly in love. There were trails leaving from the town, and not only trails, but amazing trails that had amazing views. I was in heaven! 

Running along the trails only minutes from the town centre of Katoomba

Friday morning run in Katoomba

My first sighting of The Three Sisters

Echo Point, Katoomba

After our run we went to a quaint wee cafe in Leura just five minutes up the road. Leura was my kind of town. Very bohemian with lots of arts/craft stores and fantastic healthy cafes. 

The rest of the weekend was spent exploring and of course crewing for Scotty's race on the Saturday. 

Mt Solitary

Such amazing scenery in Katoomba

For some crazy reason I had the urge to climb down (and then back up!) the Giant Staircase on Sunday morning. It was never ending! But the views from the top and on the way down were amazing, and it was really cool climbing down towards the valley floor. 

Just a few of the stairs going down the Giant Staircase

One of the incredible sights on the way down the Giant Staircase

I met one of the locals at the bottom of the Giant Staircase

If you're ever thinking of heading to Sydney, you must make the trip up to the Blue Mountains. There is so much to see and do! And if you don't have a car, the train line goes all the way there, stopping at each suburb along the way. 

I haven't gone into too much detail in this post because there will be more on the Blue Mountains another time, but for now... the Stirling Range National Park: 

Scotty has two big races coming up in Europe in the coming weeks so he needed to find some serious elevation for his training. The only place you're going to get anything remotely close to what he needed was down south of WA near Albany/Mt Barker in the Stirling Range National Park. He's been wanting to get down there for years but we'd always been busy doing other things or visiting other places. 

It was going to be a very quick trip, leaving Friday morning and getting back in time for work on Sunday afternoon. 

We packed up the car with our tent and sleeping bags and all the food and clothes we'd need for the weekend and we were off. 

It's usually about a 4.5 hour drive, but thanks to a lot of road works (and a nice picnic lunch along the way) it was closer to 5.5 hours by the time we got there. 

We'd booked a campsite at the Stirling Range Retreat and when we arrived it was exactly what we hoped it would be. The owners were lovely and very helpful, and we got a fantastic spot where we could watch the sun go down. 

Our home for the weekend

The view from our tent

The rest of the weekend was spent exploring and hiking. It was incredible. Scotty did the training he needed to do, and I hiked up three of the peaks. There's nothing we love more than being in the mountains together. 

On the Saturday I hiked up Toolbrunup Peak which was really cool. Scotty had run ahead but met me on his way back down to say it wasn't really what he was looking for for his training run. There were heaps of rocky screes and lots of scrambling required so although it was perfect for what I wanted, it wasn't so great for him. He hiked with me back to the top before we made our way back down together. It was a really fun hike, but time to head to the next mountain. 

The start of the hike up Toolbrunup Peak

Hiking up Toolbrunup Peak

The top of Toolbrunup Peak

Next up was Mount Hassel. From the description this sounded a lot more like what Scotty was after for his training. I stayed in the car while he did his first repeat to hear whether or not it would suit what he needed to do for his programme. He came running back down with a big smile on his face and said it was perfect. So as he ran off again I started hiking to the top. It's an unusual mountain with lots of bush/trees most of the way and then it becomes quite rocky at the top and looks very 'knobly'. 

Mt Hassel

I had the biggest smile on my face when I reached the top because as I was putting a rock on the cairn I could look across and see the mountain we'd climbed earlier! Pure bliss! (If you love being in the mountains you'll understand why this was such a cool feeling).

The view from the top of Mt Hassel looking out towards Toolbrunup Peak

We cooked our own meals both nights in the outdoor camp kitchen. They had a fantastic set up with a fridge, microwave, kettle, toaster and gas hobs with frying pans provided. 

The outdoor camp kitchen

If you don't want to cook yourself they also sell Lite n Easy freezer meals that you can heat up and eat which I thought was a great idea for people that didn't want to have to worry about bringing their own food.

The next morning we set our alarms for 4am. Scotty needed to get a long session in before packing up and heading back to Perth for work that afternoon. I had planned on waiting in the car until the sun came up and then hiking up Bluff Knoll.

Once we arrived in the carpark and saw a few people with head torches heading off up the mountain I decided I'd do the same and was hoping to see the sunrise from the top. Just a slight problem... I didn't bring a head torch. Nevermind, Scotty had a back up light in his pack - a tiny flash torch about the size of my finger! It did the job and before long I was making my way up the trail in the pitch black with a small light on the ground in front to guide me. 

This was incredible, it was such an amazing feeling not being able to see anything around me. I climbed further and further to the top and could start to feel the conditions changing. As it opened up and I came out from the shelter of the trees it was blowing a gail. And it was starting to get quite wet. I couldn't tell if it was rain or not and Scotty later told me that it was just moisture from being up in the clouds. Scotty had run ahead and met me on his way back down. He said the weather was really bad up the top and he didn't think it would really suit for him to do 5 repeats in those conditions. He hiked with me up to the top which was cool. I was glad he was there because he wasn't wrong about how bad the weather was. I was almost getting blown off my feet. We took a photo with the sign at the top and then started heading back down. There was definitely no chance of a sunrise from up there! 

The summit of Bluff Knoll before sunrise

On the way back down the weather started to become nicer as we got back into the shelter of the trees. And as we hiked down, like fate, the sunrise started to show. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to join The Topless Tour, a fun instagram challenge. 

Taking part in #TheToplessTour at Bluff Knoll

I'd highly recommend the Stirling Ranges to anyone that likes hiking. There are so many different mountains and hikes to choose from. We were given maps and descriptions of each of the hikes when we arrived at the campground which was really helpful. It said how long the hikes were and the estimated time it would take to complete them. They also had a mud map of where each of the mountains were which was great when we were planning our days. 

We loved it so much that we went back the following weekend so that Scotty could train some more and I could explore some of the other peaks (and climb Bluff Knoll in the day light)! 

Bluff Knoll

The summit of Bluff Knoll in daylight

Scotty doing repeats of Bluff Knoll

The view out the back of Bluff Knoll

Scotty getting in a couple of extra km on the road back to the campground

There you have it, my #Take12Trips adventure for May. Next up will be a June/July European Adventure - but you'll have to wait until the beginning of August to read that one! 

One of those 'pinch me' moments!

Growing up with five siblings and a single mum meant having the bare minimum, just enough to get by. But I never used to want for anything, and it made me the person I am today, which I wouldn't change for anything.

It also meant that I'm not the sort of person that always dreamt of traveling or visiting exotic places. I was happy living my life and was more than happy with what I had. 

In my late teens and early twenties I started thinking about other countries and wondered what it would be like to visit places I knew nothing about. I started seeing traveling in a whole new light. My passion for traveling was starting to grow and I soon wanted to go everywhere and see everything. 

Fast forward to January this year and Scotty and I were on a 5 week trip around Asia and had flown to Beijing to visit the Great Wall of China. Just booking the flight seemed surreal. We were traveling from Malaysia to Hong Kong but decided to add in a few days in Beijing on the way, just because! One of the many things I love about traveling, you can go wherever you want!

The day started with our private guide and driver picking us up from our hotel. Scotty was pleasantly surprised when he realised it was just the two of us doing the tour for the day. He thought we were going to be in a mini van with a whole lot of other tourists.

We traveled for about 2 hours out to the Jiankou section of the wall. This is one of the original sections of the wall that hasn't been restored. The funny thing about our 2 hour drive was that the first 40 minutes or so was spent just getting around the corner from our hotel. Sitting in the car and looking around after 40 minutes and realising we'd done a big circle and were only about 15 minutes walking distance from where we'd started made us laugh.

The beginning of our hike

When you think of the Great Wall of China you picture nicely manicured steps, amazing towers and a fully functioning wall that carries on for miles. But the true Great Wall of China, the section that really makes you feel like you've taken a trip back in time, is the unrestored section.

Our driver dropped us off in the middle of nowhere, a small village called Xizhazi. We started hiking along a trail up through the trees. Every now and then you would see remnants of what used to be. I kept stopping and looking around to take it all in. It was absolutely freezing which I think added to the whole experience. Poor Scotty was on camera duty and his fingers were starting to freeze each time he took them out of his pockets. And that was through the gloves he was wearing! 

We soon came to the first tower and climbed up the ladder to get to the top. Once we'd all climbed up we stopped to take some photos. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. I was looking out into the distance at the wall as it disappeared over the horizon and I suddenly had an overwhelming sense of happiness. Here I was hiking along the Great Wall of China with the love of my life. This is what dreams are made of!

At the top of one of the towers

At the top of one of the towers

Scotty standing in front of one of the towers

We continued along the wall climbing up to each new tower as we went. I should clarify that when I say 'tower' you must remember that this is on the original part of the wall where no restoration work has been done. We were climbing up the remains of towers that were built many centuries ago, sometimes using ladders, other times clambering up the bricks!

Hiking along some of the original parts of the wall

I loved seeing the wall making its way out to the horizon

It was amazing to see the contrast once we arrived at Mutianyu, the restored section of the wall. It's so commercialised and 'perfect' looking. But as I said earlier, that's the way I had pictured it would be, until we arrived and realised the true beauty of the wall was in fact where there had been no restoration work done at all. 

Just a few more steps until we reach our destination

Hiking along the wall

Hiking along the wall

One of the most magical views I've ever seen

I couldn't wipe the smile off my face - although my face
found it difficult smiling in the cold!

After completing the hike we were given the option of either catching the gondola down to the carpark (which is what our guide did) or walking further along to the toboggan and riding down that way. Of course we chose to spend the extra time walking on the wall and then getting the toboggan down to the car park.

Our ride back down to the carpark

There's always time for photos with guys dressed in random costumes

Once at the bottom, and after having our picture taken with the funny characters in the carpark our driver and guide took us to a local restaurant down the road for lunch.

This was the perfect way to end our tour. And we'd certainly worked up an appetite after hiking over 10km on the wall. Our guide ordered lots of local dishes for us to try which were delicious! And all of which was included in the price of our tour. 

If you're planning on visiting Beijing I would highly recommend hiking along the Great Wall, and booking a private tour through Wild Great Wall Adventure Tours so that you can experience the difference between both sections. It also means you get to experience the wall without hundreds of tourists around and gives you the opportunity to really soak up your surroundings. 

Our hike along the Great Wall of China is definitely something we will never forget. Next stop... Hong Kong!