Light at the end of the road

Day 22: Home, sweet home

We woke up to a nice big breakfast at our hotel (yay for free food!) and ate to our belly’s delight before getting back on the road to finish up our Blue Mountains drive. We visited some beautiful spots that overlooked mountainous rainforests as far as the eye could see – lush rolling hills teeming with eucalyptus trees all around us. We did a couple of hikes, once again through quite a bit of sludge and rainwater, and saw some more memorable views of the endless mountains.

Then, we made our way down very windy and treacherous cliffside roads to an end-of-the-road valley (we like those end-of-the-road towns!). There, we took an extensive tour through awe-inspiring limestone caves full of stalagtites and stalagmites, helictites and “shawls” made of pure crystal. We could not believe that the original explorers discovered and mapped these caves in the 1800s solely by the light of a candle. It was spectacular! Yay again for nature!

Since it was getting close to evening, we opted out of more cave tours and made our way to Canberra, the capital of Australia, to visit some of Rachna’s family who lives there. 

Arriving “home” after three weeks of being constantly on the go was such a great feeling. There is something to be said about just being able to sit down at a dinner table with a yummy home-cooked meal and have a regular conversation that doesn’t involve trying to figure out our next move! Not to mention hanging out with family and having little kids drape over you with smiles, hugs, and lots of love! There really is no place like home – no matter where it is. 

Rolling mountains

Cave formations

Blue Mountains (well, not exactly)

Day 21: Blue Mountains

This morning, we decided to rent a car for the rest of our Sydney trip and visit a few places out of town. We’re not city people for this trip! So we walked around looking for a car, settled on a fairly reasonably priced one, and made our way to the Blue Mountains – about an hour’s drive outside of the Sydney.

The Blue Mountains are not actually blue, but they are named as such because of the blue haze that rests over them, caused by scattered rays of light coming in contact with fine dust particles and droplets of oils from the eucalyptus forests. The Blue Mountains are actually not even mountains, but a dissected sandstone plateau. It’s all very confusing!

When we reached the first town, we breathed in some nice, crisp mountain air, had a nice breakfast, and made our way onto the scenic mountain drive. We did a few hikes in the rainforest, through some parts of wet mud and large pools of leftover rainwater, saw huge waterfalls amidst the sandstone mountains, stopped at some breathtaking lookouts, and just generally enjoyed being in nature again. One trek that took us under the cliff’s edge as the rainwater flowed down over us was particularly beautiful.

We ended our day in a small town, where we drove around looking for a hotel. We came upon a woman who lived in the town and she asked us for a ride home (it was a bit of an odd situation, but it was our good karma deed, I guess)! We found a hotel, and went into town for some dinner. 

Since our original Tasmania return flight was supposed to be tomorrow, we had to cancel it and incur the exorbitant penalty (because they are no longer cancelling Tasmania flights and the logic of: “we didn’t make it to Tasmania so how could we leave Tasmania” didn’t really get through to them). It all evens out in the grand ledger in the sky, I guess. No point getting upset about something we can’t change! (Look at us being all zen!) 

Waterfall in the mountains

The Three Sisters formation (of spiritual significance to the tribespeople here) 

Sunset at Echo Point

More beautiful colours at sunset at Echo Point