Undercliff-Overcliff

Tag 59: 18.10.2018 - Blue Mountains, Wentworth Falls

At 6 o'clock, the alarm clock rang and woke us up. It was already bright and the morning air was damp and cold. Still a bit sleepy, we realized that we had been spared from patrolling rangers during the night. 'We did everything right!' we thought relieved and went to the toilets to freshen up. We didn't want to risk a penalty, so we left the rest area shortly before 7 o'clock.
20 minutes later we reached a hiking parking lot, from where our hike should start today. At this early hour, we were the third car in the big parking lot. A beautiful view greeted us on a lookout platform. The wooded Blue Mountains lay far and calm in front of us, a blue-white cloud band ran through the mountains below us, so that only the highest rocks peeked out. With a bit of imagination, we could see the blue haze directly above the treetops, which gave the over 267,000-hectare mountain range its name.
We got our breakfast stuff out of the car and sat down at a picnic table near the parking lot. Except for the awakening nature, there was silence all around us. Birds of all kinds flew and chirped around us, as always we had fun watching them and wondered what their behavior meant.

After eating, we packed our backpack and started walking. Actually, we wanted to walk along a pass on the rocks, but it was closed due to rockfall, so we spontaneously changed our route. Nevertheless, it would be the most beautiful hike we had done in Australia so far.
It started with a view of the Wentworth Falls and at the beginning went steeply downhill for a long time. We walked through eucalyptus forest with sandy-red soil and every few hundred meters we passed viewpoints where we looked into the distance, at cliffs and rocks and waterfalls. We took many photos and stopped for a few minutes each time, because we couldn't get enough of the view, which actually showed a similar scenery every time. Our path led along the lower edge of a rock wall that arched like a half-circle above us. Juli often had to duck her head and we both enjoyed hiking on these paths. The rainwater from the previous day kept dripping on us from the cliffs. Various flowers bloomed in splendid colors along the wayside- I will have to try to determine which exactly.

After 1.5 hours we reached the so-called Conservation Hut, which housed a café. On the terrace overlooking the gorge, we treated ourselves to a large pot of coffee first, as we were twice as fast as indicated on the hiking maps. We chatted about this and that and enjoyed being on the road without hurry again in finally good weather.
After an hour, we continued our hike and extended it by the 'Natural Track' to not immediately return to the car. A steep descent was followed by a beautiful waterfall, the 'Empress Falls'. On our way, we looked out for sleepy koalas in the crowns of the eucalyptus trees as best we could. We had another short picnic break in the sun on a large rock of red sandstone. Some small geckos kept us company and the white cockatoos flew their circles as always, screeching. We already agreed that it was a really great day and would still be!
We were back at the car around 1:30 pm and were considering where to go next. It was only noon and we had already experienced so much!

So we drove a slightly longer distance back to Currimal Beach on the coast. At a campground just a few meters from the beach, we unpacked and immediately took care of dinner. Juli conjured up the Hesse family dish 'Noodles + Mashed Potatoes'. We enjoyed a delicious cool Oktoberfest beer from the Australian Aldi. After our morning sports program, it should be 'low carb' tonight! :)
Thanks to the time difference, it doesn't get dark until around 7:30 pm now, so after dinner, we took a detour to the beach. The twilight, as always, turned the water into a glassy, violet light. When I splashed around a little with my feet in the water, an unexpected high wave came at the otherwise shallow spot. Of course, my pants were soaked up to my calves because Julian's warning shout didn't help anymore. We had a few funny minutes in and with the waves before we went to the showers and then to bed after the long day.

Love,

Juli and Dschäneina 💕