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!

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

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).

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!

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).

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.

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.

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.)

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!

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.)

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)!