The Blue Mountains are one of the most glorious natural areas of Australia. They were 燃えて in 2019 but they've bounced 支援する... and are just a hop from Sydney

• e-mail

The Blue Mountains are not technically mountains, and they’re certainly not blue. But they are one of the most glorious natural areas of Australia ― with 急に上がるing rocky tors and lush bushland 十分な of 野性生物.

About an hour’s 運動 from Sydney, they 申し込む／申し出 an escape from the bustling city and a taste of Australia that many tourists never see. 支援する in 2019, the 地域 苦しむd calamitous bushfires, but it’s 回復するd remarkably 井戸／弁護士席.

I spent a day with 退役軍人 小旅行する guide Paul Hartmann and his Yorkshire-born wife Jenny, who 始める，決める up Blue Mountains Eco 小旅行するs in 2013.

We drove in a sturdy Land Rover 発見 to Grose Valley, more than 3,000ft above sea level.

‘Ordinary buses aren’t 許すd on these 解雇する／砲火／射撃 追跡するs for 恐れる they’ll 損失 the 壊れやすい 生態学,’ Paul said as we bumped along past mountain land bursting with native shrubs and 工場／植物s such as banksia, mountain devils, 日光 wattle and eucalyptus.

Mind the gap: During her visit to the Blue Mountains, Jo Knowsley experienced Scenic World's cable car attraction (pictured)

She 明らかにする／漏らすs that 訪問者s can climb 頂上に the cable car, hanging nearly?1,000ft above the 床に打ち倒す of the valley below. 'It’s a mad 投機・賭ける,' she says?

The landscape is 圧倒的な in its grandeur and wildness. After a one-mile walk along a 劇の 山の尾根, and lunch overlooking the canyon, we move on.

But it is not until late afternoon in the Megalong Valley that we experience the 最高潮の場面 of our day : kangaroos and wallabies, dozens of them, feeding 平和的に on grasses in the fading light while we sip ワイン beside a crackling 解雇する／砲火／射撃.

Next day, there’s more of a challenge when I 長，率いる to the Scenic World tourist attraction, which in 2022 started giving 訪問者s the chance to climb 頂上に a cable car hanging nearly 1,000ft above the 床に打ち倒す of the valley below.

We were 迎える／歓迎するd by Aboriginal Gundungurra man David King, who 行為／行うs a ‘smoking 儀式’ to welcome us to this part of Country, as the Aborigines 言及する to their land.

I was then harnessed and rigged out with a hard hat, while a number of metal attachments dangled 解放する／自由な ― which later clipped me の上に the roof of the cable car.

'The landscape is 圧倒的な in its grandeur and wildness,' 令状s Jo. Above, Hanging 激しく揺する, one of the 警戒／見張り points in the mountains?

It takes about an hour to 運動 from Sydney to the 範囲. Above, 早期に morning skies over Pulpit 激しく揺する 警戒／見張り

Jo 解任するs seeing kangaroos and wallabies while passing through Megalong Vall ey

It’s a mad 投機・賭ける, but I was surprisingly 静める ― perhaps 予定 to the banter of safety man 略奪する, who is also a part-time firefighter.

Climbing from the car to the roof is a heart-stopping moment. But the 見解（をとる）s across the canyons are astonishing. There was no noise other than the distant squawks of a flock of cockatoos.

支援する in Sydney, there was growing excitement about the Vivid Sydney festival, which 劇的な 最高潮の場面s the city’s natural and architectural beauty with thousands of lights and 発射／推定s casting a glow across gardens and monuments.

This year, it takes place from May 24 to June 15.

My trip had begun with an unusual 利益 ― a 商売／仕事-class flight with Etihad. We ate (when we chose), we slept in 慰安, and enjoyed the least jet lag I’ve ever had on a trip to the Antipodes.

I lived in Australia for ten years in the 1980s, four of them in Sydney. But for me, it’s the city’s proximity to the majestic Blue Mountains ― where I married in 1992 ― that makes it so special.

Bushfires now 脅す Australia on a 年一回の basis, but the glory of the Blue Mountains has not only surviv ed but 栄えるd.