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.
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| 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!
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| Running along the trails only minutes from the town centre of Katoomba |
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| Friday morning run in Katoomba |
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| My first sighting of The Three Sisters |
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| 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.
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| Mt Solitary |
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| 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.
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| Just a few of the stairs going down the Giant Staircase |
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| One of the incredible sights on the way down the Giant Staircase |
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| 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.
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| Our home for the weekend |
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| 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.
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| The start of the hike up Toolbrunup Peak |
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| Hiking up Toolbrunup Peak |
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| 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'.
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| 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).
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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)!
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| Bluff Knoll |
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| The summit of Bluff Knoll in daylight |
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| Scotty doing repeats of Bluff Knoll |
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| The view out the back of Bluff Knoll |
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| 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!
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