Into the Blue

Again, honey, you've forsaken me

It's always in the stormy nights that you go looking for loose kites...

I play, play, play and sing while driving Rowena Wise's songs, again and again...

And look, there's a video for the song shot at Woodford! Makes me miss it already. And it's only March now :D

I'm in the Blue Mountains! As you know. Well, the festival was over and it was definitely time to go out and take a much closer look at this gorgeous piece of nature - a World Heritage Site.

From Yona, a fellow volunteer at Wanderlust Festival, I had heard that Perrys Lookdown was a very nice spot. So I drove there, very slowly over a dirt road where kangaroos where sitting, eyeing Laurie approaching and then bouncing off into the shrub.

I found the place in the middle of bush and right on the edge of a high cliff, going down some 600m into the Grose Valley. My plan was to climb down a big stairway, walk to the Blue Gum Forest in the valley and then climb up again. It was rated as a hard walk, taking about 5 hours of which 3 should be allowed for climbing back up. But my knee has been fine for a long time and I am absolutely STOKED about the fact that I can do physically challenging things like this again!

So, I knew it was gonna be hard, but I was looking for the challenge and ready to push to my limits.

But, as things go, I never did that walk. For right next to me were 2 Swedish couples camping, and they spontaneously invited me to sit and share dinner and a chat with them. Marielle, Anton, Timmy and Michelle. We had a really good conversation and right from the start I had the feeling to be among like-minded traveller friends. And the next morning, Anton and Marielle invited me to come and join them on their hike for the day, which was a 3 hour medium walk to Pulpit Rock and back.

The choice wasn't hard. Social contact - oh yeah, too tempting!

And the walk was very beautiful, on narrow paths along the cliff top, sometimes rocky, sometimes swampy, with waterfalls and more amazing lookouts than I could ever post photos of.

The three of us enjoyed the day so much, that I got invited again - to just tag along, meet up with Timmy and Michelle in Blackheath and then drive down into the Megalong Valley where apparently the world's best apple cake was made.
So we went! The apple cake was expensive, but I have to say, truly yummy and worth it!! And after a good hike one deserves a little treat, right?

We camped the night in a free campsite nearby and parted ways in the morning, for they were going to leave the mountains and head north while I wanted to stay longer before I'd go south. Still, what lovely encounter! You're awesome, Thanks guys, big hugs!

The next day I went to do the Grand Canyon walk, which my Swedish friends had done before and highly recommended. The weather was summerly hot, perfect blue sky, and what can I say - sooooooo gorgeous! There is no way I could describe it -
you climb a steep stairway down into a narrow gorge where a creek flows, and then you follow it along as it winds its way deeper and deeper into the rock, until the path takes you only along the side of a cliff because the little creek is rushing and bubbling far down below in a even narrower, deeper gorge, just a black chasm you look into from the railings where it drops vertically down into the dark...

I had my ipod in my pocket and my little speakers stuffed in my hair, so I could play Lord of the Rings Soundtrack while walking. Fit perfectly!

And I met lots of dragons! Australian Water Dragons, the biggest lizard to be found in Australia.
This one wasn't scared at all. For some 1 minutes I sat on the rocks next to him - I could have touched him without stretching my arm. I shared bits of my apple with him which he chewed with his toothless jaws and he just kept eyeing me with those actually really smart-looking eyes. Maybe there's my imagination taking me for a ride, but there's a sort of expression of wisdom in them. As if he knew everything about me and about his valley and about deeper things in nature that I can't even comprehend.... okay it must be my imagination :)
Still, very pretty he is!

At the end of the walk you have to climb up and out of the gorge again, but up top you reach Evan's Lookout over Her Majesty the Grose Valley....

I felt like I wasn't quite exhausted enough to call it a day, so I followed the cliff for another three hour walk (but this time an "easy" rated one) that took me to a sweet little waterfall and back to my car. On this path, I met Guido for the first time, a young Dutch backpacker, also travelling on his own.


Overhanging cliff walls, overgrown with plants all in green...

Colourful gum tree bark and bush flowers.

The next day I wanted to climb down into the Grose Valley after all. I just didn't feel like I had reached my physical limit yet - I didn't even have sore muscles in my legs or sore feet, and my knee was awesome despite all the stairs - so I decided to really push it this day.

I went down the stairs into the Grand Canyon again, from Evan's Lookout coming, but then turned off not into the Canyon but over the Rodriguez Pass in direction of the open valley.

That was a decent adventure! It's obvious that the masses of tourists usually don't go that way because the "path" was not well maintained - well, if you could call it a path at some points at all! More than once I lost the track and just fought myself a way through the shrub, hoping to find it again. Sliding down screes, climbing over rocks, jumping from stone to stone to cross the creek, ducking under trees and crawling over logs... later I found the path again and it sent me rock climbing down into the valley next to the creek that had turned into lots of little waterfalls, jumping from step to step and rushing around massive boulders that lay splintered at the bottom. Obviously they had fallen down from the cliff that was towering hundreds of metres high above my head! Better not think about what might happen if another one would fall just now...

Well there was the challenge I had asked for.

But the weather was absolutely gorgeous and the path got a lot better once I was over the pass, and I just couldn't resist walking further and further, down and down, along the creek, despite the menacing thought of climbing all the way back up again...

There at the bottom of the valley, I met Guido the Dutch backpacker a second time.
We decided that this coincidence for sure meant that we should just go hiking together the following day. We had a chat, exchanged numbers and said See Ya, because he had come from the opposite direction.

Someone build a little shelter and a campsite next to the creek down there in the valley! What an awesome little get away....

I walked until I reached Junction Rock which marked where my creek united with another creek coming from the Horseshoe Falls, then I turned around and because the is was already way later than I thought, I tried to stride steadily and without delay up, up, up the valley, over the pass and up the stairs back to Evan's Lookout.

Descended and ascended maybe 600m metres - I was sooo tired then!

I reached Laurie when it was soon going to be sunset time, ate some leftovers and got ready for bed, but then those guys came along: Chris with his two girls Belinda and Amber!
And they are now seriously interesting characters, and sitting under the bright stars for hours with Chris on our camping chairs I heard their story.

WOW! Since two years, they are living on the road, travelling laps around the continent. Chris is working as a photographer and does jobs that come up along the way (for example mustering cattle in Western Australia!), he is home schooling his 11 and 10 year old daughters, and for sure they are getting the best education when it comes to life skills and knowledge about culture, nature and landscape of their home country! Minimalistic, family orientated, social, far away from internet and phones and tablets to waste time away with. Only a caravan and a station wagon to pull it - but the frickin best backyard in the whole world!
HOW AWESOME IS THAT?
I think they are leading the million-dollar life of ultimate freedom.

The next day I picked up Guido in Blackheath and we went to hike the overcliff and undercliff walk at Wentworth Falls.

My camera is far to crappy to capture it well, but the falls were truly mesmerising. For maybe half an hour Guido and me stood underneath and couldn't stop gazing up at the water that got blown off the rocks by the wind, millions of drops sparkling in mid air with the sun rays coming from above. It was like a flowing curtain of water mist was forever gliding around the rocks, from here to there, slowly and gracefully hovering and floating to the ground... I swear I could see galloping horses and love hearts taking shape in it!

There, Guido as a hobby photographer had a quite good camera and this looks a lot better!

Once again, steep steep stairways...

And again, first my photo

then Guido's

We walked the three hour walk really slowly, trying to make the most of it, stopping for breaks filled with taking photos and talking every now and then. Guido is for sure also an interesting traveller (well, most travellers are!) and we both had a great day hiking together. We'll stay in touch! One never knows where we might meet again... 

If you like, check out his facebook page and his blog (and his PHOTOS!)

Look at all those fancy clothes

But these can keep us warm just like those

And what about your soul?

Is it cold?

Is it straight from the mold and ready to be sold?

Cars and phones and diamond rings, bling bling

Those are only removable things

What about your mind, does it shine?

Or are there things that concern you more than your time?

Gone, going, gone, everything, gone, give a damn

Gone be the birds if they don't wanna sing

Gone people, all awkward with their things, gone

Look at you, out to make a deal

You try to be appealing but you lose your appeal

And what about those shoes you're in today?

They'll do no good on the bridges you burned along the way

Are you willing to sell anything, gone with your head

Leave your  footprints, well shame them with our words

Gone people, all careless and consumed, gone

The Blue Mountains Music Festival

Hello friends.
I'm one month into my trip. Driven almost 2000km, been to two festivals, seen stunning nature, made a few wonderful friends and learned how to be cold again. Now

I'm having another Public-Library-Day in the wonderfully small and friendly mountain town Katoomba. From where I sit, I have a good view over the town and the gorgeous Jamison Valley in the background. A while ago a scary EMERGENCY! alarm went off and we had to evacuate... but nothing had happened at all and after a while of shivering outside, everyone was allowed back in. A little action for bored librarian ladies.

Hmm be prepared I feel talkative today. I'm coming from the Blue Mountains Music Festival! There are so many stories to tell! But I will casually start with John Butler and Mama Kin!

Prologue:
Last year I was volunteering at the Bluesfest in Byron with the most mindblowing line up, as an attentive blog reader might remember. John Butler Trio was one of the headliners and I was SO looking forward to see them, but alas, on the day they played I had the inevitable late shift and so I spent the evening chopping up vegies in the kitchen behind the stage while faintly hearing the Trio rocking away their show. That day I promised to myself to see John Butler before I leave Australia.

9 months forward....
in January I'm sitting in Buddina, Sunshine Coast, trying my best to come up with a murderous masterplan for the future that will make everyone longterm happy and give me what I want...
And look what's there on top of the "I want" list!
... the world wide web soon informed me that John Butler was actually playing the Blue Mountains Music Festival (near Sydney) in March, which perfectly suited my wish to go to ConFest in April (near Canberra) on my way south. BESIDES, We Two Thieves were also in the line up - We Two Thieves, Emily Lubitz and Mama Kin, John Butler's wife, whose shows we enjoyed so much at Woodford... since then I am almost a bigger fan of her than of John Butler....
Out goes the volunteer application!

...which comes back a few weeks later with a positive reply...
... things start to get rolling simultaneously with the wheels of my Laurie car...
...anticipation is building up and then I'm on the way from the Southern Highlands to the Blue Mountains...

The Blue Mountains that welcome Laurie and me with our first hailstorm! Parked under a few trees somewhere off a mountain road, I watched golfball sized hailstones drop from the sky, hitting Laurie's roof, bonnet and windscreen with a deafening noise, booming and bursting over the face of a slightly scared girl... too many stories I heard about hail smashing windscreens! And that car is all I own, so I was praying for my windscreen to win the battle.
Luckily it did. Even my heartfelt girly paintjob didn't have one single scratch; I was amazed.

The festival is super small, compact and well-organized, and my "bosses" Imelda, Dee and Rachel were the most adorable ones! Seven venues from very sweet and little to reasonably big, market stalls with colourful clothing, food stalls with the most tasty-smelling food... (Govinda's!!!! Vegeratrian Hare Krishna, favourite Woodford&Brisbane City food).
And a parking/streetcamping spot right around the corner under a sheltering tree that matched Laurie's colour. Apart from the weather, everything was great.
It was spray-raining, foggy so you couldn't see 100 m far, and COLD. I put on five layers of my thickest jumpers and jackets and while doing my job at the back gate, jumped around on the street to keep myself warm. I even bought some gloves. Goosebumps on skin that is still tanned from happy days on a beach far away...

WHY am I even here?
Because of that!

Of course, as I'd been secretly hoping, Mama Kin Danielle joined him on stage. And they played THIS song! What a happy happy moment. They are both sooooo awesome.

I hadn't given much thought to the fact that it was John Butler SOLO perfoming, and not the Trio. It didn't really matter to me. So only while I was sitting on the ground in front of the stage between crowds of other people, I realized how really special it is to see him play solo.

He played "Better than", a song that feels like an old friend of mine, telling the story of what he called a "mental disorder" that seems to get more and more a problem for people in our modern world. The problem that the grass always seems greener on the other side. The problem that we're never satisfied and entirely content because there's always something more that we want, stopping us from enjoying and appreciating what we already have.
All the time there had been an explosive atmosphere because there were chairs right to the front of the stage and the people sitting yelled out at the people standing in the front and aisles "SIT DOWN!!!" because they couldn't see. Most of the people sat down, but there are always some dickheads. While he was playing this song "Better Than", right next to me it escalated and two guys started fistfighting, so I was almost trampled over and John Butler had to interrupt his performance.

Just during this song. He said "That's it people.. they're always like that... 'I got the music, but now I wanna dance. I can dance, but now I can't see him.' " ...

He finished his gig playing "Ocean". The first song I heard of him. The song he played when he was still busking in the streets, that made him famous. He rarely plays it now, and I feel so lucky. Most of you may know it already! If not, give it a listen,  you may understand how special it was.

I watched quite a few of the performances at the festival and I have to say that there was NOT ONE that I didn't like. Quite a few times actually, my mind got unexpectedly blown.

On Friday night, I treated my freezing self to an excellent Chai and watched Rowena Wise. She's as old as me, but SHE knows exactly what she wants, and she's good at it.  Bought her CD and don't regret it. Can't get it out of my head!

Fiona Boyes! The happiness on her face when she plays and sings her bluesy songs is contagious.

The Spooky Men's Choral! They are men! And they are a group! But they are not a men's group! But spooky...

And theeem! Geordie MacKeeman&His Rhythm Boys! They are soo awesome! Another crazy happy fiddling step dancing band from Prince Edward Island!

Steve Poltz?! Just as well a comedian as a musician! About medical careers.

And this one - Daniel Champagne. Seen him before, known that he's awesome, but once again, it is sick what he's doing with his guitar. His whole body is twitching and stomping with rhythm, he sings as if no one's there and his hands move so quick... I mean it, seriously looks like time lapse.

Alanna&Alicia

Saturday brought, thank goodness, beautiful weather that allowed me to walk around in a T-shirt. As the fog had gone away and now one could actually SEE something, I went to see the "Three Sisters", the rock formation Katoomba and the Blue Mountains are famous for.



There you have some decent cliffs... walked the stairs halfway down and then back up and it was such a workout, I could feel it inmy legs for two days..

Majestic Jamison Valley.

The Tantric Turtle Tent with the best Chai evaa...

Here I reunited with Graham.
I met him one morning in sydney some weeks ago, when I was street camping and it happened that I parked Laurie right next to his car (without knowing he was sleeping in there at all). As it's pretty obvious that someone is sleeping in MY car, he knocked at my door in the morning, friendly asking if I knew some more good street camping spots. He was just about to cycle to his work, so we had a very sleepy funny 5 minutes talk, exchanged numbers and parted ways.

Because I thought he might be interested, I told him about the blue mountains music festival and he organized himself a volunteer position, then fell sick, bought a ticket anyway and met me in the tantric turtle tent.

We sat and walked and shared a chat and a chai - skipped the smalltalk and rather exchanged some real talk, making the special weekend a bit more special.
I know you're reading this -thanks Graham!

Southern Highlands

There is a crow moon coming in well you keep looking out

It is the hollow month of March now sweeping in....

Hello people!

Maybe you've seen enough photos of trees and rivers and oceans and mountains and stuff like that. 

Maybe you will be over it and longing for something a bit more exciting on those photos on my blog. 

Maybe you are like me an can never get enough of naure and landscapes.

However, bear with me, for this post will be filled with photos of the beautiful Southern Highlands, where I spent some time first with Chris in Bowral and then wwoofing with Penny, Sahlan, Hunter and Ivy in Kangaloon.

They have this cute, soo scared, and soooo curious calf

Sunday was a little local festival/fair/show on in the neighbour village Bundanoon. Penny did a demonstration of her willow weaving there and I came along to see what there is to see. Roses, Mama!

In the afternoon of the same day I went to visit the Sunnataram Forest Monastery. It's Thai Buddhism, but the noble traquility and peacefulness are the same as in the Sri Lankan Buddhist temples. Also, there has a lot of work been put into the Monastery to make it attractive for all sorts of visitors. An outdoor museum surrounding a huge world map for example.

Overdimensional presents scattered over the grass...

To finish that day of sight seeing I went to the Fitzroy Falls. I was almost a bit grumpy about the small fee I had to pay for parking (I never had to pay in Queensland), but then I walked out on that platform and was knocked off my socks by such a stunning view.

Cliffs falling vertically down into a big majestic valley covered in rainforest. Clouds hanging all the way down in the distance.. the sleepy creek suddenly stumbling over the edge and falling free for almost 90 metres.... one can hear the roar of the falling water and a distant splashing of where it hits the rocks down below. Up on the viewing platforms blows a fresh breeze and a walk leads along the cliffs, revealing more waterfalls, more cliffs, more views, even a grotto...

On the following days, I did things that, when completed, looked like this: :D




Then, on my last afternoon: More waterfalls! Be prepared!
Those are called Carrington Falls and in the morning I had been sweating planting garlic in the hot sun, so I wanted to go for a swim.
Too bad that there was a storm just when I was about to leave! Nevertheless I jumped into "Nellies Glen", bravely swam two rounds with hectic movements and got out again, shaking and gasping and heart pounding because.... well it was damn cold!

Everyone knows staying on the tracks can get boring, so I waded through the shallow creek right before it dropped over the edge of another massive cliff and into a deep gorge...

It started to rain again, but I really wanted to go a bit further so I ended up jogging through the plashing rain and sat on a high lookout, wrapped in the raincape I found in Woodford and watching the storm chase away the blue sky over my head and over the valley.

When the storm was over, I had reached the creek again, now in the sunshine, busily rushing and flowing, with slippery rocks, dense bushland around and a thousand dripping water drops with the sun sparking in them

Laurie protested and demanded to feature more in my blog.

Another lookout tip Penny gave me - isn't it breathtaking!? My camera with the eternal dirt on the lense does not do it justice, but there in the distance even Illawarra lake near Wollongong can be seen. Such a vast space. How awesome would a sunrise be from that point?

And there they are! Snatched a quick shot of Penny and Sahlan, who appointed me their "best wwoofer so far".  Good gracious! :))) Thank you!