500km later we arrive in the mountains, skirting Sydney on the way past. These mountains are best known for their soaring sandstone ridges.

We travel through a lot of small towns, ancient Aborginal rock art, lush green valleys and a lot of craggy cliffs, we are so lucky the weather is perfect as often these mountains are shrouded in cloud, not today and the forecast for tomorrow is fab.

It is Derek’s (our tour guide) birthday, he doesn’t think we know, he had taken pics and videos on my phone when we were surfing and accidentally left the video recording when he was speaking to one of the instructors and told him, so I head off and get a card, cake, candles and party poppers 😉

He has booked a Thai restaurant and very uncharacteristically orders some fizz lol, still everyone acts stupid and after dinner out comes the cake, honestly his wee face he was made up 🙂

The food was great even though the place looked like nothing on earth and no I wasn’t brave enough to order or eat the below.

We travel deeper into the majestic Blue Mountains and oh my word they are magnificent (this was one of my favourite days). The natural beauty of this area is astounding, we explore Laura & Katoomba, view the Three Sisters and walk through the Jamison Valley.

Derek had us up early doors to avoid the queues and we were able to avoid crazy queues get on the cable car where we got a Birds Eye view of this incredible area and then took the Katoomba Scenic Railway, a very short train journey down an incredibly steep incline 52 degrees to be exact, it felt more like a roller coaster, an old coal track that the miners used to haul the coal to the top.

Some of us did the 900 step giant staircase to the valley floor at the foot of the iconic 3 sisters, this was a dodgy one, so worth it.

I will stop typing and let the pictures do the talking, I was blown away by the beauty of this place and so grateful it was such a clear day.

We then took a 3-4k trail walk over to meet Derek which was just gorgeous.

We had lunch at a a renowned Bakery which our guide knows very well. Kangaroo Pie! (which was absolutely delicious, so tender. I found out afterwards that most Kangaroo that is consumed is not farmed, they are deemed pests so often are just shot and left, in this case eaten!

We got back later afternoon, everywhere closes at 4pm on a Sunday so not much to do, we are booked at a Korean bbq place right beside our accommodation, ummmm my jury is out on this one, nice to get some veg………..and off to Sydney in the morning for my last 5 days of the trip.