The Blue Mountains

Kilometer 65-500

Two hours from downtown Sydney, these Blue Mountain National Park affords tremendous vistas, well-maintained trails, huge waterfalls, and some excellent out-of-the-city nightlife. There are plenty of adventure tour companies operating there -- check out canyoning if you get a chance -- I went for a full day and it was tremendous fun. The highlight of the canyoning experience was rapelling down the middle of a 30meter high waterfall over a sheer cliff face! I was happy to swim in the pool of water below the falls -- I needed to clean out my pants...

The Blue Mountains
The slight blue tint (and the name of the range) is due to the concentration of eucalyptus trees -- when it gets hot, the trees secrete an oil that looks blue in direct sunlight

An outting at the Jenolan Caves
These caves are some of the most impressive I've seen anywhere in the world