Beth and Mark's Gap Year 2014: Around Sydney 5-15 February

We are currently sitting in our little trailer at Katoomba with the rain tumbling down and our plans for a big walk not looking very good, so probably a good opportunity to put together a bit of an update.

We had intended spending 5 nights at Royal National Park right on Sydney’s doorstep and a short ferry trip to Cronulla where Beth’s brother Kelvin lives (not to be confused with our son Kelvin), but we did not account for the popularity of the park and could not secure a booking during the weekend. Instead we booked 3 nights at a State Conservation Reserve called Bent’s Basin just west of Sydney, and followed that up with 3 nights at Royal NP.

First impressions were that we got it wrong with Bent’s Basin as it seemed to be a reasonably well appointed (by National Parks standards), but rather dull camping area whose one claim to fame was a rather impressive and well frequented swimming hole. These impressions were reinforced by the Parks Officer who told us that there really wasn’t any good walking in the park. I was not necessarily distressed by this, but Beth was visibly shaken.

Upon further investigation we found that there were actually some decent walks to be had, and Beth also decided that there must be some interesting (albeit unmapped) walking to be done clambering over rocks along the Nepean River which passed through the park and provided the water for the swimming hole. We didn’t expect the walks to be much good, but it turns out they were actually quite nice – and despite dire warnings regarding snakes and wild deer (I didn’t quite understand what we had to fear from wild deer either), we only encountered friendly wildlife. All up it was a very pleasant stay, made all the better by Kelvin spending the weekend with us.

We used Bent’s Basin as a testing ground for our full camp setup which involved erecting an annexe, attaching an awning, and installing a second bedroom – all of which gave us luxurious accommodation on three levels, but also increased our setup and tear down time markedly.

On Sunday morning after Kelvin’s 10 minute camp pack up, he helped us with our deconstruction exercise and agreed to accompany us to Royal NP via Camden for a lunch stopover. Camden is a lovely little historic town which we were informed was the birthplace of the wealth of the nation (whatever that means – we think sheep may have been involved).

Success at Bent’s Basin in using all our annexes encouraged us to do likewise on our beachfront allotment at Royal NP. Another miscalculation unfortunately, as we hadn’t considered that it gets quite windy on the beach. A sleepless night listening to flapping canvas and progressively taking it down was our penance. To be fair, we did find out later that the wind that night was unusually fierce and we were not alone in having a sleepless night.

Royal NP is an absolutely delight and a Mecca for casual bushwalkers like Beth and I. During our 3 day stay we did about 50km of walking, and Beth is already planning our next (and longer) stay here to cover the many miles of trail that we missed. The coastal scenery is amazing, and although spring is the best time for the wildflowers, the vegetation was nonetheless beautiful and wonderfully varied. Sydneysiders are very lucky to have this treasure on their doorstep and should be very proud of it. Unfortunately some treat it very shabbily, and the spread and volumes of garbage, particularly following a weekend of day visitors was really disappointing.

We are gradually starting to develop an efficient routine as our travels progress and each of us is taking on distinct responsibilities. Beth has taken on the role of chief spotter. Apart from my eyesight being poor, my hearing being shot and my appalling sense of direction I am not entirely sure why she didn’t allow me that responsibility, but I am happy enough to leave it to Beth. You would be amazed at how many things need to be spotted. Bushfire spotting involves a check of the news and local fire authority web sites each morning before we set out and frequent scans of the horizon for smoke as we progress. Wildlife spotting has two forms. There is potential road kill spotting, which happens whilst we are driving (we are still working on the alert protocols and driver reaction times for this one), and photo opportunity spotting, which happens whilst we are on the trail. Beth is pretty good at this one, and her speciality is Lyrebirds which she has found at every destination so far. She is not quite so good with lizards and snakes, and even missed a 5 ft long goanna which came to visit our toilet block at Royal NP. There is also landmark spotting, waymark spotting, trail branch spotting…. And the list goes on. There is one spotting discipline which is occasionally assigned to me. On-trail toilet break privacy spotting involves standing guard on the track whilst the toilet break is taken and sounding an alarm should intruders approach. I have a good record so far, but it is a bit tricky watching both ways on the track and I am not really confident of retaining that record.

Another lesser spotting role which Beth excels at and is probably worthy of reporting is bucket spotting. Our wild windy weather at Royal NP caused our sullage bucket (which normally sits under the trailer drain point) to be taken from us. I was prepared to concede that it had gone to bucket heaven, but not so Beth, who set out following the course of the wind to find the bucket, which she did some 300 metres down the beach. More recently our emergency night time toilet (aka an ice cream bucket) was also taken by the wind during and stormy night at Katoomba and was also successfully recovered by Beth some distance away.

We are currently at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, which is one of my favourite places on earth to walk. Although many gung-ho bushwalkers would disagree, to me the perfect walk is one where human endeavour in laying down tracks, installing lookouts etc. has opened up areas of great natural beauty to anybody who has the energy and ability to put one foot in front of the other, and there are plenty of these walks in the Blue Mountains. A walk that we did yesterday around and down (and then up again) the valley wall at Wentworth Falls was spectacularly beautiful, but only accessible to us through a series tracks and steps cut into the valley walls more than 100 years ago. This human endeavour stuff was marvellous and beautiful in its own right.

Needless to say our walking theme persists, and although the weather is conspiring against us at the moment we are still managing to get in at least one good walk a day, but to my delight the walks are interspersed during bad weather with coffee and cakes. It is still raining so I may make some gentle coffee hints to Beth, but I suspect they will go unheeded and I will be given the “too much of a good thing” lecture. Will update again in the next couple of weeks, by which stage we will have made our way in a zig-zag fashion a little further up the coast.