Saturday 23 July 2016

The Blue Mountains

Learnt on the news tonight that the area of Australia that we've just driven through, has been experiencing the worst weather it's had in years. Luckily, we got through unscathed, although we did have to dodge plenty of fallen trees on the inside lanes of the freeway! Fields were flooded and we were constantly buffered by the winds. At least the rain washed the van a bit. As we arrived into the Blue Mountians, the skies began to clear. 


But the winds did not, and the higher up we drove, the lower the temperatures dropped. The bitterly cold wind was still blowing hard and as we approached 'Wentworth Falls' and there seemed to be smoke blowing out of the forest.


We soon realised that the falls were not falling at all - they were being blown high up into the sky!


And the mist was being carried about and causing a big rainbow.


There were some beautiful and long reaching views, but what the photos don't show is how savage the cold wind was. The wind chill put the temperature well into minus figures. After a while, we left the tourist hotspots and carried on uphill to the little town of Blackheath, near to where the rock climbing areas are. Climbing was out of the question today, so we found a cool little place to get out of the wind and warm up. 


Followed by a quick look around the tourist office.. 


Then, before the light faded, we wrapped back up and took a short hike to Bridal Veil Falls, which was another spectacular waterfall nearby our camp. 


We also went around to Horseshoe Fall, which was in an amazing curved cliff. At least with the sub zero temperatures we had the place to ourselves!


But boy was it cold!...


At camp, we had the heaters blasting out heat all evening and got the van super cosy. 



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