Blue Mountains

For the past two and a half weeks we have been staying at our buddy Ken’s place who invited us to move in and make ourselves at home…and we did just that. We enjoyed the indoors for a change and took full advantage by watching movies, cooking in a kitchen, taking a shower regularly, and playing poker without headlamps or candles.
Ken was not only a great host but a fabulous tour guide. He showed us around a few climbing crags in the Blue Mountains and gave some recommendations for later. The Blue Mountains offered beautiful views of rocky, treed valleys, and featured, varied sport climbing on sandstone. Each crag offered something new and once again we enjoyed the multi-starred classics of each area. We had great climbing days that included flashing 25’s and sending a few 26’s and 27’s second go.
The routes were usually long and pumpy with short cruxes, decent rests, and superb movements.
Due to the textured, sometimes sharp rock and the harder climbing we took a few more rest days for our bodies to heal. However, one rest day included canyoning at Claustral Canyon which tired us out more than our usual day of climbing. The canyon was filled with beautiful ferns, dark caverns, and cold water. We hiked an hour to get down into the canyon and then began jumping into pools of water, abseiling three pitches into waterfalls and more pools of water, swimming down tunnels and chambers sometimes over 30m, and scrambling over rocks, boulders and logs. Even though we wore wetsuits we were still very cold by the end of the canyon and looked forward to the hour and a half hike out to warm up. It was an awesome experience and adventure that will be remembered as a highlight. Thanks Kenno! Just before we left the Blue Mountains we toured a smaller canyon with a short hike, water slides, a 3m jump into a water hole, and a 30m abseil into a waterfall and pool. Because this canyon was short and sweet we are planning to take Jen and Tony down this canyon when they arrive in Australia. We hope they enjoy the adventure as much as we did.
Right now we’re in Newport, Sydney at our buddy Oli’s house, a good bloke we met in the Arapiles at the start of our trip.
As our first introduction to Oli he played a good Aussie joke on us. Oli and his mates planted a rubber snake near our campsite and upon our approach to this snake we freaked out. The Aussie blokes watching the gag broke out into laughter, signaling something was up.
Today, Oli showed us around Manly (beaches and market), and took us climbing and bouldering in Palm Beach. For our second day here in the Sydney area we have already sampled a handful of great restaurants and pub life and are looking forward to more tours with Oli.
The selling of our van is looking good. We have had some interest and have showed it to some potential buyers. I think “Puff” will be off our hands in a few days and hopefully will give someone else a great road trip through Australia.