We got up and
cooked our oatmeal with raisins and dates and met a nice Kiwi/Aussie
family with three blonde daughters, 4,2, and 7 months. The four year
old was zooming around the campground on a little push scooter with
her helmet on, making stops at our breakfast picnic table to chat
with us. Reminded us of how we met the Kiwi bikers in North Carolina
some 25 years ago when Kelly and Ryan roamed over to their camp site
and made friends. And now here we are in Australia looking forward
to seeing them in November or December.
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| Grey Gum Trees at Campground |
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| A Galah, a pink and grey cockatoo, in the campground |
After cleaning up
dishes and packing up we drove over to Echo Point, the main tourist
spot for viewing the Blue Mountains, but upon discovering that we'd
be paying $4/hr to park drove a couple miles to the Prince Henry
Cliffside walk, found a street side parking spot, and made a nice
hike back to Echo Point.
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| Cockatoo flying over valley |
Along the walk we saw tree ferns and impressive gum trees with their
brown bark pealing back like thin strips of dried muscle from bleached
bones.
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| Tree Ferns |
Once we got to Echo Point, we saw the much photographed Three
Sisters formation and observed the circulating crowd of mostly
Chinese tourists, smoking and posing for photos in the
over-concreted, securely guard-railed, gift shop provided Tourist
Mecca. We were glad to make a fairly quick return trip to our LC and
head out.
Camping
in Megalong Valley
Our Camping6 guide promised a good free camp spot down the Megalong
Valley below the cliffs. The drive descended through a zone of
vines, tree ferns, and gum trees and came out into a brown valley
with small cattle and horse ranches, scenic with the towering orange
cliffs as backdrop.
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| Free Camping in Megalong Valley |
The campground was sited next to a small stream in an opening in a
gumtree wood. Surprisingly, a half dozen other campers had
found their way to the semi-isolated spot. We were there early
enough to cook our dinner of penne and veggies with grated Tasty
Cheese before dark.
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