I knew I had picked the right place to study abroad as soon as I found out we could take a short train ride to the mountains and public camping grounds! A huge reason I chose Sydney as my final destination, and Australia in general, was to have a more nature-focused/outdoorsy experience. Australia, for me, has offered not just cultural enrichment through old buildings and city features but also through landscapes and outdoor adventures.
Being from Montana, my favorite things are those I can do outdoors, like hiking and camping. Sydney is about a two-and-a-half-hour train ride from the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are known to have the second largest canyon in the world (behind the USA’s Grand Canyon). You’ll find tons of bushwalking trails and hikes into deep valleys and high peaks with stunning views, plus some ancient rock formations with aboriginal stories to showcase history.
Right after learning about this stunning National Park and how easily we could get there, a few of my roomies and a couple of other friends we met through TEAN’s orientation started planning a camping trip!
Getting the Show Started
When you get seven girls together and start planning a camping trip, everything is planned efficiently. The next thing we knew, we were going camping that weekend!
Friday rolled around, and we split up into groups. Two of them went to pick up the car, and then three of us headed to the grocery store to grab the goods. The last two of our group of seven had class and planned to take the train and meet us later that afternoon.
After shopping for hot dogs, chips, fruit, and sandwich supplies, we loaded up the final goods and got our camping show on the road!
Vroom Vroom! On the Left Side?!
We made sandwiches for lunch on the way out to the mountains, listened to all kinds of music, and sang our little hearts out. The vibes were awesome, and the scenery in and out of the city was stunning!
Tent Time
After our fun drive up there, we found a nice spot to set up our tents at The Old Ford Reserve Campsite. Being a Montana gal gave me the skill set to ensure we had a sturdy tent to sleep in! I was excited to take some of the girls on their first hike and camping experience.
After the tents were put up and hammered into the ground (with a large rock I found), we decided to get back in the car—hoping no Aussies would steal our tent—and head out to find our first adventure!
Hike the Grand Canyon (Aussie Style)
This hike was a little over 4 miles up and down through the canyon! It was a spectacular hike with an amazing rainforest landscape. When we were in the depths of the canyon by streams, it was pouring rain; then, we would walk five short minutes above the trees, and the rain disappeared, and we were in the sunshine again!
We did the Grand Canyon hike backward from most hikers do, but I am glad we did. Even though we had an intense final 15 minutes up what felt like a million staircases, the view right before sunset overlooking the mountains was amazing! There was a beautiful glow on top of the trees from the evening sun. It was the most rewarding sight after a long hike.
We finished the hike just in time to drive to the train station during sunset to pick up Athlyn and Molly! After picking them up, we drove to a pretty lookout and enjoyed the sunset together at Lincoln’s Point. It was a very wholesome moment with all the girls together.
Pyro & Deliciousness
We drove back to our campsite to see our two tents still completely intact and not stolen—YAY! It was now time to do dinner over the fire, so as the Aussies say, “Let’s fire up the barbie!” On the menu for dinner were grilled hot dogs on sandwich bread—real Australian—and pink and white marshmallow smores! Thankfully, we had firewood. Unfortunately, we didn’t think about getting a flame. Thank goodness we had some neighbors camping that could lend us a lighter.
It had rained earlier, so we lacked dry sticks to add to our fire and it took us a while to get a strong fire going. Thank gosh for my and Ellie’s unmatched teamwork, expertise in the pyramid fire-starter method, and plenty of napkins. We finally got her going! There was this handy grill on top of our fire pit at the campgrounds, so I decided to throw some hot dogs on there and slow-cook them beauties.
Other gals were a bit hungrier and tried a quicker process. which led them to stick a hot dog through a sharp stick and stick that bad boy in the flames. That day, we lost three hot dogs due to that faulty method. Their ashes did help our fire burn, though, so I’d call it a win, especially after about 20 minutes when everyone had at least one glizzy in their stomach. After our delicious dinner, we got our sweets out and cooked up some yummy dessert!
Slumber Party!
After the fire was burning out, we were all pretty tired from a full day of giggles and had some sore legs, so we decided to head to the tents. This is always my favorite part of camping. You have a little sugar high after the s’mores and are all cuddled up together in tiny tents telling scary stories and laughing for a good two hours before anyone takes the idea of sleeping seriously!
I was in the “bigger” tent with three other girls—Molly, Maya, and Ellie—and we all snuggled close together. A moment from this night I will never forget that made me laugh so hard I almost peed my pants was when Maya asked me while I zipped up the tent how she was supposed to breathe in there. Silly girl thought we were going to run out of oxygen! Later, when I found out she was dead serious I started rolling laughing again. Silly little goose! Happy I was there for her on her first camping trip.
The Next Day
Drip, drip, drip, drop. This was the lovely melody we woke up to on Saturday morning. A little rain. Luckily, it wasn’t too bad, just a light sprinkle. So in the morning, we packed up the tents, loaded back into the Toyota, and headed off to see the Three Sisters rock formation near Leura, the small town near Blue Mountains National Park. Unfortunately, it was a foggy day in the Mountains of Blue, and no one was able to see the Three Sisters. But, we used our imagination and looked at the pictures of it in the gift shop to get the idea.
In Leura, we headed into some cute local shops and thrift stores to look around and wait for the rain to clear up. Later that afternoon, we headed out to catch a view of the stunning Wentworth Falls and took another short hike: about two and a half miles. Even with the fog and rain, the sights were fabulous, and being in nature with some amazing sheilas was great!
Peace Out, BM
After we finished that track, we got ready for the drive back to our newfound home in Sydney. It was a great bonding moment for all of us girls to get together and live like real troopers in the wild. We got to see amazing rainforests, killer waterfalls, and breathtaking cliffs. We even drove past a kangaroo farm outside of Leura, which was so crazy cool! With how close the mountains are, I hope we all can find time as school picks up to hit some more hikes and get the tent out again because it was rad.
I am very thankful to be in a place across the world from my home and find some similar things and activities that can remind me of it. And now I can get to say to the Americans out there reading this that I went camping upside down!
Alex Madsen, Washington State University, is studying abroad in Australia with TEAN.
