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Day 86 (Wednesday 10th January 2007)
We were up early to get out of this god forsaken hell hole they call Sydney. Suprise, suprise we encountered yet another toll before finally getting out on the Great Western Highway towards to the Blue Mountains.
By lunchtime we were in the mountains. After picking up a bit of advise at the visitor information centre, we carried on up to the main tourist hub, Katoomba. Whilst here we visted 'Echo Point' and along with 8.5-billion Asians we marvalled at the spectacular 'Three Sisters' and surrounding mountains.
The views were pretty impressive, but it was way too crowded for our liking. Before leaving Katoomba we took a peek at its falls and cascades...smart, but not magnificent this time of the year.
It was well into the afternoon now, so we back-tracked a little down to Wentworth. We stopped briefly to admire the Wentworth falls (even less dramatic - but ice-cream 10/10), before we slogged poor 'Fran' down 10km of yet more dirt track to a lovely little spot called Ingar Campsite where we could pitch our tent for the night.
We cooled off in the beautiful waterhole down by the camp before toasting marshmellows over the campfire (well...gas stove)!
Day 87 (Thursday 11th January 2007)
We ate Nesquick cereal for brekkie on a nice bench by the waterhole, before Marc jumped in for a morning swim. Over by the side of us an old hippy woman strummed her gitar...very surreal!
We packed up our tent and headed deeper into the mountains to a town called Blackheath. 10km south-west from there we found a great little spot to camp for the night at the 'Old Ford Reserve', right beside the Cox's River.
It wasn't a deep or fast flowing river, as is the case for much of Australia's river systems right now, but it had intermittant pools between the rocks. We found one of a descent size where we could spend the day and as we lounged and frolicked about, so too did the skinks, waterdragons and colourful lorikeets.
We'd seen many skinks on our travels through Oz, but this was our first encounter with wild waterdragons. One rather large, spectacular male even swam the bredth of the pool right infront of us...great sight! Neither of us however, expected to see a skink motoring across the surface shortly after too.
It was so peaceful. The sun glistened upon the still water, reflecting the gum trees all around. Life by the river was great and if only this site had showers - we'd have stayed for days.
That night, as the sun fell behind the trees, we lit a campfire beside our tent. When the last flames peitered out, we climbed into our tent, opened up the doors and gazed at the countless stars above. In the words of Lou Reed...'Just a perfect day'!
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