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Bushwalks Outside of Sydney – Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park & The Blue Mountains

Sharing two bushwalks that are outside of Sydney but still easy enough to get to using public transport. Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park & The Blue Mountains will get you out of the city and into the Australian bush!

Bushwalks Outside of Sydney - Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park & The Blue Mountains
Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park lookout point.

FINALLY! I went into Australian nature and actually saw some rather scary looking wildlife! Haha. (Pictures are below.) I wasn’t sure it was ever going to happen, but I finally saw some interesting creatures.

And we’ve been in Australian nature (the bush!) pretty frequently. Hiking (a.k.a. bushwalking) has been our weekend activity of choice lately, as there are many gorgeous National Parks in and around Sydney. I’ll be sharing two that I really enjoyed in this post. One is rather remote, and the other isn’t so much.

Bushwalks Outside of Sydney – Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park & The Blue Mountains

Bushwalks Outside of Sydney - Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park & The Blue Mountains
A goanna, an Australian monitor lizard!

Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park

First up is Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. That’s where we stumbled on all our fun wildlife. Pictured above is one of the creatures we happened on during our hike. Finally! A creepy looking monitor lizard! We kept a safe distance from him, as these guys are pretty quick and like to climb trees when they feel threatened (and have been known to accidentally try to climb up humans legs to get to safety).

Bushwalks Outside of Sydney - Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park & The Blue Mountains
Australian brush-turkey

The brush-turkey, above, was a real butthead to the goanna… he kept trying to eat his tail and attack him. The turkey scared me a bit more than the lizards!

Bushwalks Outside of Sydney - Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park & The Blue Mountains

And in addition to the fun wildlife, Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park was a wonderful area for hiking and beaches. It’s near Palm Beach and is a bit of journey to get to from the Central Business District of Sydney – but I was really glad we went!

How to Get to Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park 

From Sydney’s CBD – you can take the L90 bus from Wynyard Station all the way to Palm Beach & then catch the ferry over to Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. The ferry is a private business, though. So your Opal card will not work and you will need to pay $15 for a round trip (credit card or cash is accepted).

Bushwalks Outside of Sydney - Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park & The Blue Mountains
Aboriginal Heritage Walk in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.

We did the Aboriginal Heritage Walk and The Basin Track and Mackeral Track the day we were there. It was really beautiful, and we were able to some engravings done by the Aboriginals.

It was also rather remote. There were no bathrooms or places to fill up your water bottles on this hike! Make sure to pack more than enough water, and be prepared to use the bush as your bathroom if needed.

Bushwalks Outside of Sydney - Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park & The Blue Mountains

We also had to wade through the ocean at one point to get to the trail, so be prepared to get a little wet! (It came up just over my knees.) We kept a pretty quick pace, thanks to our friends leading the way, and were able to do these hikes in less than half the recommended amount of time. But, boy, I was certainly tired by the end of the day! Haha.

Bushwalks Outside of Sydney - Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park & The Blue Mountains
Barrenjoey Lighthouse

It was certainly worth it for the views, and wildlife, though!

Just to reiterate, this bushwalk is remote – pack accordingly. You can click here to check out the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park website for more information. And keep scrolling if you’re interested in a less remote, more bathroom/cafe friendly bushwalk!

More photos of Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and Palm Beach below, just click on them to make them full-sized.

Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park photo gallery

The Blue Mountains

This isn’t the first time I’ve been in the Blue Mountains, but the last time was for a bus tour and didn’t involve any hiking (click here to see that post). So, we went back this past weekend and did the Prince Henry Cliff Walk and The Giant Stairway.

How to Get to the Blue Mountains

Getting to the Blue Mountains from Sydney CBD is easy enough too. There’s a Blue Mountains train that leaves Central Station and goes directly to Katoomba (where we were hiking). This is also included in the Opal Pass Sundays and you’ll only have to pay $2.50 for this trip if you go on Sunday! (It’s about a 2-hour train ride.)

Blue Mountains
Prince Henry Cliff Walk

The Prince Henry Cliff Walk in Katoomba is not nearly as remote as the previous hike I mentioned. There are cafes, restaurants and restrooms in the vicinity. However, adding the hike up The Giant Stairway to the Three Sisters made this hike incredibly tiring (for me at least). However, we climbed The Giant Stairway, which is 1,000 feet worth of stairs, in about 25 minutes. So, that also had something to do with me being tired afterward!

Bushwalks Outside of Sydney - Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park & The Blue Mountains
The Giant Stairway!

But it is cool to finish the hike by walking onto one of the Three Sisters! (They are a very famous rock formation in The Blue Mountains.)

Bushwalks Outside of Sydney - Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park & The Blue Mountains
The view from one of the Three Sisters.
Bushwalks Outside of Sydney - Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park & The Blue Mountains
The one “sister” you can walk on.

I am glad we went back and actually hiked The Blue Mountains. And I’m pretty proud of myself for conquering The Giant Stairway in 25 minutes! Haha. You can click here for more information on The Prince Henry Cliff Walk. And if hiking is not your thing, click here for more information on the bus tour we took of The Blue Mountains.

If you are interested in other walks/bushwalks a bit closer to the Central Business District of Sydney, click here for my post on hiking in the Manly area and click here for the Bondi to Coogee Beach walk.

The Blue Mountains photo gallery

Shortly after this post publishes I will be catching a flight to Uluru for even more hiking! Haha. I won’t be bringing my laptop along, so I do apologize if I’m not responding to comments on here or social media. I’ll be back up and running as usual on Monday (and there will still be a post on Friday)!

Bushwalks Outside of Sydney – Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park & The Blue Mountains

bushwalking in Sydney, Australia
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16 Comments

  1. Ah wow the Blue Mountains I hear about all the time and they look beautiful, I’ll need to get down there and visit them for myself sometime. It’s funny that I feel like I’ve often seen more of other countries around the world than I have my own.

    www.thesundaymode.com

  2. Wow. So enticing. I love walking in nature — but yours is so much nicer and more interesting than ours. I need to visit your country.

    1. Thank you so much! And I hope you get to visit one day! Although, I do have a feeling walking in your nature is slightly safer. Haha! 😉

  3. I just can’t get over the beautiful scenery! The sky and the ocean are so incredibly blue. That lizard does look creepy, but I can imagine the bush turkey being aggressive like that. Geese around the U.S. remind me of how you were describing the turkey. Anyway, loved seeing all of these photos. The landscaping is unreal. Congrats on all of the intense hiking too! Enjoy Uluru!

    enchantingelegance.net

    1. Oh, I know the blueness of the ocean is just incredible! And oh yes, geese can be nasty little buggers. That’s very true! And thank you so much, Amanda! 🙂

  4. Just enjoy the weekend seeing Uluru, dear Lindsey! I am so glad to see you had fun and loved to read the tips (take enough water, be prepared to use the bush as… 🙂 and wow, the lizard does feel scary, although you said that the brushturkey is more! I loved that the trail also involves the ocean and I also loved the Blue Mountains too, even with 1000 steps – well done, 25 min! I am now waiting for the Uluru post! Hope you have a very lovely weekend!
    DenisesPlanet.com

    1. Aw, thank you, Denise! I loved Uluru! So glad you enjoyed the post! Hope you had a lovely weekend too! 🙂

  5. Those Blue Mountains look unreal, wow! I just hear the insects and feel the heavy heat looking at those photos. What a wonderful experience, and congrats on your fitness, too! It takes walking and physical effort to get to some of the most beautiful places on earth, and is so worth it.

    1. Thank you so much, Bryony! And oh yes, it can take effort to get to some views…but is always worth it. 🙂

  6. I remember being around so many Iguanas in Tulum. They are actually really harmless but feels a bit weird initially.
    Love the view of Three Sisters. Kudos for the 25 min hike! I am just the slowest hiker out there. Have to work on it though 😀
    Richa | Fancier’s World

    1. Ooh I don’t think I’ve been around Iguanas yet – Tulum is one place I really would like to visit in the future! And thank you so much, Richa! Haha, I’m generally a very slow hiker too, as I like to stop and take photos every 2 seconds…but our friends made sure we kept a good pace, so we weren’t out there for days. Haha. 😉

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