I had a couple of days off over Christmas and decided to head away. Knowing that this can be a crazy period for camping with the Christmas crowds I wasn’t overly thrilled by the idea but needed to get out of town for a couple of days anyway. We decided to head west and give Kanangra Boyd National Park a try, it’s an old favourite of mine. Thankfully there wasn’t many people set up at the campsite so we pitched our tent and made base.

Kanangra Boyd is a beautifully rugged national park to the west of Sydney. It is part of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage area. It is a designated wilderness area which means if you are don’t know what you are doing it certainly doesn’t pay to stray far from the path as there is a high chance you won’t be seen again.  The National parks and wildlife service describe wilderness areas as “large, natural areas of land that, together with their native plant and animal communities, remain essentially unchanged by modern human activity.”We spent a couple of days here and just had a good look around although we didn’t stray from the paths ourselves.

One day was also spent driving out to the silver mining ghost town of Yerranderrie. Considering its close proximity to the outskirts of Sydney (probably around 50-80kms as the crow flies) this is one little remote town. It took us around 2.5 hrs to drive there from the nearest town along some beautifully scenic roads. Though a 2 wheel drive vehicle can make it a 4wd is suggested and would probably be a must on bad weather days. It’s an interesting little piece of history. As there is a campsite out there and it is such a long drive I would suggest to anyone looking to visit to spend a night out there and have a good look around. There is not a huge amount to see but it is a wonderful drive and you would almost certainly have the place to yourself as the sun starts to set.

The trip was finished off by what was supposed to be a quick visit to Jenolan Caves but it took a lot longer than we thought it might. We wanted to top out water bottles with some of the cave water and be on our way but we picked the wrong day for a quick visit. It seemed like half of Sydney had also picked that day to visit, all carparks were full and people were jamming the roads as they drove around looking for places to park. we just pulled over by the side of the road higher up and waited for the crowds to thin a bit.

Jenolan Caves is the one of the subterranean limestone jewels near Sydney.  Being the most easily accessible it attracts the crowds, especially on the weekends and holidays. Its a beautiful spot and well worth a visit though I would recommend doing so through the week if it is an option. Another nearby option is Wombeyan Caves which though can be busy is not as bad as Jenolan can be.