How I, a Sydney snob, learned to love the Blue Mountains

If you haven't seen the Blue Mountains like this, you haven't seen it at all. 

Confession: I forgot this part of Sydney exists. Image: supplied

I just completed an overnight hike in the Blue Mountains, and I now feel like Sir Edmund Hillary. 

I'm one of those insufferable people. My entire identity is built around travel. Constantly waiting for questions from friends and family (and other travellers) about my heroic adventures (which never come), I instead, unasked, unleash my eons of knowledge and worldliness upon the Internet.

From the pueblos blancos of Spain and hole-in-the-floor-toilets on trains in Morocco to floating breakfasts in Nusa Dua, I've travel writed everywhere and everything. A veritable phenomenon of culture and sophistication and "did you know I once had a private butler who I could message on Whatsapp?", I thought I'd seen and knew it all. 

I even thought I'd grown out of Sydney - a city I thought of as a place of pathetic nightlife, real estate agents, bankers, consultants, celebrity vets, repetitive drill rap and personal trainers. Oh and did I mention personal trainers? And more personal trainers. 

I'd drunk the milk of paradise. The stingily poured cocktails of Sydney would never taste the same again. I no longer saw it as a place to travel around or explore - let alone live in. It was just a place to see family. But then...

In 2018, I came back to Australia after a few years in Spain (a place where I learned important things like how to drink wine from a casket in the living room), saddened for having to do things like "work" and pining to once again, at every opportunity, launch adventures into fields foreign and bright and unknown (read: go to Bali). 

Instead, over the last 5 years, I've slowly shed my snobbishness, and come to love Sydney and surrounds again, despite my best efforts to get out of here every time I take a holiday (sometimes you've only got time for a quick weekender). 

Not only have I discovered that nightlife being 'good' or 'pathetic' depends more than I realised on who you are going out with (rather than what city you're in) and that there is more to Sydney than ordering Thai takeaway and Counting Your Steps (you just have to get out of the Northern Beaches), I have also, if I say so myself, found one of the most underrated places in Australia. 

In fact, given how harshly I've dismissed it in the past, for me, it's the most underrated place in Australia, no question. That place? Drumroll please: The Blue Mountains. 

My unexpected Blue Mountains find recently put Bondi to shame... Image: supplied

Now, I know what you're thinking: the Blue Mountains are not new. And I didn't 'discover' them. But they are incredibly underrated.

I, for instance (and I know many others who hold the same prejudices tightly in their minds), previously thought of them as a cringe place where you can sit in traffic for two hours to get to, only to eat some animal fat enhanced chocolate fudge and sherbert lemons, and a pie, and jostle for your place in front of a boring lookout with dozens of DSLR-toting tour bus tourists.

If you're lucky you might do a pretty average day hike. And - and - sometimes a restaurant might get your order wrong (my old housemate once embarrassed a group of my friends by sending her dish back multiple times and loudly complaining this would never fly in Sydney).

All in all, I used to see the Blue Mountains as daggy and boring. It didn't fit with my desire to see myself as a traveller, not a tourist. It reminded me of school camp. It sucked. 

But then. Inspired by the phogenic ramblings of Instagram accounts (like this one, one of whose images you can see below, and this one) which show their followers how to get off the beaten track and find secret waterfalls, clifftop cold springs, infinity pools and canyons - and emboldened by the fact that camping is now the hottest luxury lifestyle goal of 2023 - I decided to go do a couple of overnight hikes. 

After trying (and failing) to hike the Mount Solitary loop earlier this year and trying and completing (yay) the Pierces Pass to Acacia Flat hike last weekend, I now consider myself an expert on all things Ultralight.

Not only do I now have an online shopping cart full of water filter drinking straws and 'single wall' tents and collapsible kettles, but I'm now planning multiple missions back as we speak. 

This in mind, here's everything I learned on last weekend's hike in the Blue Mountains - and why the rest of you jetsetting Sydneysiders should give Skyscanner a rest and give it a shot.  

There's beaches in the mountains 

How's the serenity? Image: supplied

Who needs Bondi when you've got a sandy embankment? Yes, a fine coating of slippery, algaeic mud might be covering each rock (which once dispersed, will quickly ruin the 'crystal clear' water quality), but - if you go in winter, like me, you'll have the river bank entirely to yourself. Some previous "million star hotel" guest might have been so kind as to leave some firewood prepared for you, too.   

'One day' hikes can easily take two days

Especially if you load yourself up with a full size saucepan, sieve, lid, 4.7kg tent, four litres of water, a glass bottle of pasta sauce, two tins of tuna, spaghetti and a raincoat. So much for having plenty of time to 'chill at the campsite.' Though Pierces Pass to Blue Gum Forest/Acacia Flats isn't that far in distance, the steep descent (and then ascent on the way home) means you need to allow for plenty of time, especially if you have packed as if you were car camping, not hiking (hence my now overladen ultralight shopping cart, and sore back).

The water is freezing 

I've swum in rivers fed by glaciers in New Zealand, and I swear this wasn't far off... Image: supplied

There are also mysterious holes in the sand in the river banks, which you will imagine belong to snakes, but which (probably, hopefully), belong to rodents.

The scenery can be spectacular 

It's also a lot more fun to look at, when you're out in the wild, not getting rushed by the lines of tourists behind you at The Three Sisters. I'd almost go as far as to argue none of the main 'big ticket' attractions are worth seeing. If you've only got one day, don't bother with the paved, drive-up lookouts - book an adventure tour. If I could sum it up in one sentence it would be this: don't stand on the edge of the city, looking down at the mountains - stand down in the mountains looking back at the city.

I'm very white 

Morning tea break at Ruined Castle feat. soggy Spanish omelette and supermarket tuna pasta cups. Image: supplied

I've also become everything I used to hate. I now love rocking the sort of flappy trucker hats my teachers forced me to wear in primary school, and - even sadder - have come to recognise the utility of gaters and hiking poles - the very ones I used to mock my dad for. 

People can still drive you insane

I thought going to the mountains would be a great way to get away from my next door neighbour, whose TV (and phone calls) often keep me awake until 1am (don't you love apartments). So after driving two hours from Sydney to Pierces Pass, hiking down into a valley, crossing a river, and trekking to Acacia Flats (a total door to tent journey of about 8 hours), and immersing myself in the wilderness, I thought I would finally be able to leave all the problems, loud voiced idiots, and Saturday morning leaf blowers behind.

Alas, at about 7pm, a group of backpackers rocked up in the dark, and proceeded to spend the next 3 hours playing loud music, yelling at each other over said loud music, and - the audacity - laughing. Fortunately at about 10pm, another aggrieved camper yelled out through the melee: "Oy! I'm trying to sleep!" Thank god for that (they didn't stop, but they did at least turn the music down).

Not every campsite is as dramatic as the ones you see on social media

If you don't want to risk your life by sleeping on the edge of a cliff or in a river bed, then your "I slept here" shots probably won't be as cool as the ones you saw online, from Instagram accounts like the @bluemtns_explore. But that's ok. 

Bladders are essential 

Not only the ones in your navel. If you want to do any kind of multi day hike, especially one which doesn't run along a river the whole way, then metal water bottles (or, in my case, a 10L car camping, thick as heck, plastic drum) are not going to cut it in your backpack (or, even if they 'cut it,' will take up a stupid amount of space and weight). Unless you want to make friends with your local pharmacy (and chiro) upon your return, invest in a bladder (they are much lighter). As a bonus: you can drink while you walk, and don't have to take your pack off every time you're thirsty.

Pasta is a terrible dinner choice 

Walking along Blue Gum Forest, every step reminding me why I should have packed more efficiently... Image: supplied

The supermarket 'peel and eat' ones are ok, but cooking pasta on a hike is a terrible idea. Not only do you have the weight of the glass jar sauce, but you'll need a saucepan, lid, sieve, stove, gas canister, extra water, bowls and forks. That is a lot to pack, when instead you could just bring a baguette and some tins of tuna.

You need to download your AllTrails map before you arrive

Otherwise you may have no reception at the carpark at the bottom of the firetrail, and have to drive back up to the main road. Also, if you're going on an adventure, you'll want to borrow or buy a personal locator beam, and to know how to read a topographic map (your phone battery might die).

When you jump in the water, you will feel the pathological urge to imagine a crocodile behind you, even though you know you are in NSW...

@jimjam1112

It was cold ok? #bluemountains #bluegumforest #piercespass #hiking #coldwaterswimming #icebath #nsw #australia

♬ Jaws Theme - Jaws

It is what it is...

When keen hikers talk about 'caves' what they really mean is an overhang

It might also smell like piss. On the bright side you might find some historic bottle tops from the early 1900s. 

The orchards of Bilpin are a delight we've been sleeping on for way too long

After eating these apples, going back to Woolies just won't be the same.

Previous trips to the Blue Mountains I've always had lunch in town. But driving home from Pierces Pass I went through Bilpin and discovered a side of the Blue Mountains I'd never seen before. If you like apple pie and apple cider, it's a must.

The myth of the Leura Lynx, or the Lithgow Panther, will plague you throughout

That rustling outside your tent? It's definitely not a possum... It's a mythical beast no one has ever seen.

Originally published as How I, a Sydney snob, learned to love the Blue Mountains