Runner with a photography problem

Alaskan {runner, swimmer, SUP'er, surfer, cyclist, hiker, backpacker, traveler, snowboarder} with a photography problem...

Tetons

Tetons

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Jenolan Caves, Australia

While in the Blue Mountains I did a day trip to Jenolan Caves, about 90 minutes from Katoomba. It was the most touristy thing I've "caved" for thus far (ha,ha) but I'd never really seen anything like it. I checked out Lucas and Orient caves which were both pretty spectacular! A little claustrophobic and eerie in there. Crazy stalactite formations. From driving by you would never guess from the terrain what lies underneath! I felt like I had jumped into the movie "the Goonies!"


















The Blue Mountains

A few weeks ago I checked out the Blue Mountains, which are about 2 hours from Sydney. It was nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and I stayed at an amazing hostel that had FREE laundry and internet which is a rarity here :)

My first day I woke up for an early morning run from Katoomba to the town of Leura, and from there on a loop around Wentworth Falls and back to Katoomba. This area has tons of trails connecting you to beautiful waterfalls, and I also took a shortcut through a golf course to avoid having to hop on a train. The maps aren't exactly to scale and I got lost several times so my "16"mile training run turned into about 24 miles (of hills and some serious stairs)! Oops! Needless to say I was pretty spent after that! Luckily I stumbled upon a cafe to refill my camelbak and buy a biscuit (the only thing I could afford) around the 4 hour mark. It was rainy and slippery but I still managed to catch some sweet views of Empress falls and Bridal veil falls, to name a few. I missed views of the famous "three sisters" which were fogged in, but saw pretty much everything else. This area is definitely worth checking out for a few days trip from Sydney!
























Friday, February 14, 2014

Royal National Park, Australia


hiking the Coast Track in Royal Nat'l Park
The other day, I decided to take an impromptu break from Sydney city life and my slightly obnoxious hostel and booked a 10 dollar campsite in Royal National park. To get there, I took a series of trains to Cronulla beach, and then a ferry from Cronulla to Bundeena. The trail goes from Bundeena to Otford, about 26km not including the distance to/from transportation. 
The day before, surfing at Manly beach, I bumped into a few Swedish girls out in the water. Amazingly, as fate would have it, they showed up for the small town ferry to Bundeena right when I did! It turns out Josephine and Elin were also doing the exact same backpacking trip and camping at the same spot as me! So they let me tag along. Elin lives in Manly and Joss came out from Sweden for a two week visit. They were awesome backpacking companions.
The trail was fairly easy to follow as it for the most part went along the coast. However, we weren't 30 minutes in when we had our first wildlife enounter. Elin, leading the way, started screaming, turned around and ran right into me, nearly plowing me over, shouting "RUN! RUN!" My first instinct was, "Bear!" but a few seconds later I remembered what continent I was on. It turns out she was a few feet away from a large brown snake on the trail! As she frantically ran uphill to call her boyfriend on her (out of reception) cell phone, Joss and I assessed the situation. I grabbed a large branch and Joss started stomping on the ground and after a little stare-off, the snake slithered away. Turns out it was Australia's "Brown Snake," the most deadly snake in the world! Yikes. After that, we carried a "snake stick" and watched our steps more closely. 
The trail was absolutely incredible and I could not believe that we ran into a just a small handful of people the whole time. Gorgeous clifftop views, completely deserted beaches, a range of desert to rainforest type landscape, and small seemingly deserted fishing villages dotted the route. I'll admit, it was more strenuous than I thought, especially on the first day since we had to carry in all our drinking water and food. Plus, the first day's hike was about 20km. We stopped several times for photos and to cool off in the waves. We camped at North Era beach, in a picturesque cove that reminded me of something right out of "Lost." Our only company that night was one older local backpacker and two British surfers who I enjoyed some drinks and stories with as the sun was setting. The second day was a lot shorter (6k) and equally stunning. I highly recommend this trail for anyone in the Sydney area! Definitely could be done as a day trip, with an early start, but it was nice to camp and wake up in this paradise.
Back in Sydney, exhausted and starving, we hit up this amazing restaurant in Chinatown before I parted ways with my new Swedish friends. 
ferry from Cronulla to Bundeena
lunch on the clifftops at the start of the hike
saw these little guys everywhere!



the first few hours of the hike looked like this...
...and this
watch out for snakes...
crossing the first of many deserted beaches - Marley Head


overlooking Garie Beach
near North Era Beach
home for the night (Thanks Jules and Heinz for lending me the tent!)
a little vino in tupperware with our camp dinner :-)
North Era Beach
South Era Beach

South Era Beach
Burning Palms Beach
Burning Palms Beach - my favorite swim spot

Palm Jungle - no filter! the water really looks like this!
Wollongong coastline
this iguana was about 4 feet long, tail included!
We made it! Waiting for the train to take us to FOOD

To download a more detailed track description:
http://www.wild.com.au/uploads/wild/general/Royal_National_Park.pdf