Trek to the Blue Mountains

A close friend from back in blighty, well actually he's moved to Switzerland now, "popped over" (well his wife works for BA, you can do that sort of thing) for a couple of weeks in Janurary.

For part of this we decided to embark into the Blue mountains for 3 days of treking, camping, living off the land, fending for our lives with no water oh and avoiding dangerous snakes....
Blue Mountains Trip

The original plan, and it was well planned, was for 3 days in a large loop around the southeast corner of the Blues. Having gone to the camping store, got maps and advice and certain essential equipment like the self heating ceramic tea mug and ultra-lightweight camping mat that's also a floatation device, we planned our trip out based on advice from those more experienced and also let the rangers know of our plans. Additionally, and as nerves started to set in, we borrowed an EPURB from a sailing friend (These are basically a distress beckon normally used out to sea, but given our distance from civilisation and risks out in the bush, a good safety precaution).

I should say at this point that the entire world thought we were mad, what with summer heat, snake season, lack of water etc. etc. Well the rangers said we'd have a great time, and that was enough for us. Little did we know...

The biggest issue on these types of trips, especially in this heat is water. So we took purifying tables and planned the trip around rivers 'n' streams that could enable us to replenish. Imagine our rather worried annoyance when the first "stream" we came too was completely try. bone. we kept going to the main river, but only to find that the river, although flowing, was only barely. It wasn't stagnent, but we'd need to boil off everything we drank. Rats!

At this point we'd been walking through most of the heat of the day, and poor dave, only aclimatised for 2 days from the northern hemisphere winter (europe, via Narita), was starting to suffer. We made camp, Dave rested (mostly in the river to cool off!) and I set about food and new water. In all we boiled up 7 liters of water for food that night and to get us back to the car the next day. The decision had been made that it wasn't worth risking more excursions to find less water. Despite these woahs, oh and the fact that we ran out of camping gas (leak, carelessness, miscalculation - we're not sure), the scenery was pretty spectactular, especially as the sun set! The widelife also, despite the snakes had been fascinating, and as dusk settled, the number of lizards (almost dinosaurs I might add, one was over 1.5m long) grew.

I should add, that although we may look absolutely rediculous in our fly protector nets over our hats (
Me in stupid fly net), where we were was about the most fly invested place you've ever been, not since King's Canyon in the outback, have I been pestered by so many flies. So glad we brought them along, the only issue was getting used to taking a drink, but forgetting the fly net was there - doh!

The overnight stay, although incredibly welcome, was just a tad freaky - noises and such that you can't quite get your imagination around (i think we were invaded by a large group of Kangaroos at one point, but it could have been a hopping axe-murderer for all we knew).

The day started better, the morning coolness a definite advantage over the previous day much later start. Some great porridge, okay some dodgy burnt bits, but delicious all the same. So after a large aamount of cleaning off the burnt bits from the trangier we set off back teh way we came. A much more pleasant walk, with the thought of fresh water back in the car certainly enough to keep us going! We saw loads more snakes out, which was slightly disconcerting. We made it back after a mammouth up hill out of the valley which did almost kill us, but god the sight of the car was a sight to behold!

The day started to heat up after our midday arrival, but there was nothing more welcoming on the trip home, than the over airconditioned Macdonald's restaurant!

Next time - we're going in autumn.... not mid summer!