G'Day

Welcome, dubiously-descended reader, as I fill you in on the details of visiting Australia.

Australia certainly pulled out all the stops to welcome us to its biggest city... if "pulling out all the stops" round here means a 7-minute drone show, timetabled to coincide with our arrival at 5:15am. Yes, 5:15am. Anyway, Sydney harbour is amazing enough that you don't need mere fripperies like this to impress, although to be honest it's probably better viewed at a sensible time of the day.

The advantage of the ludicrously early start (which was unavoidable due to ship's horns and the like) meant that we could get up and out rapidly. Being adventurous types, we'd planned to get on a train and go somewhere. Getting started early meant our destination was settled to be the Blue Mountains.

Sydney has great trains. In the centre of the city, proper full-on heavy rail (with double-decker trains) runs a metro-like service, something like the RER in Paris (and perhaps indeed London's very own Elizabeth line - something I'm looking forward to sampling for the first time when we get home). This, along with other New South Wales trains which go a pretty long distance run on a smartcard system called Opal, which also just accepts contactless cards the same as Oyster in London, so we were able to just pay for our journeys with a tap of the phone. Bay Area, take note: this is how you do public transport payment systems.

We got on a similar double-decked train from Sydney Central out to the town of Katoomba, about 3000 feet above sea level, 50 or 60 miles out of Sydney. It's about a 2 hour trip; this isn't a fast train. Katoomba is perhaps a bit like the town of Windermere: it's obviously primarily a tourist resort, with an odd combination of cafes, outdoor stores and antique shops. It's just over a mile walk from Katoomba station to Echo Point, a famous overlook which lets you view the Three Sisters, three massive sandstone columns which haven't yet eroded to the valley floor.

At Echo Point we talked to the helpful folks at the information point, who gave us a map and pointed out what would be a nice walk given that we had a couple of hours. My suspicions were raised slightly when I heard that part of the walk was 900 steps down, but hey, trust the locals. What followed was quite possibly the most strenuous walk we've ever done, and definitely the most difficult in terms of the underfoot conditions, but also one of the most rewarding and incredible in terms of scenery.

The start of the walk was down the Giants Steps - this is a set of 900 steep, narrow steps hacked out of the rock next to the Three Sisters, dropping you 600 or 700 feet down to the valley floor. Descending the Giants Steps felt dangerous: they really are just a single person's width for much of the descent, generally with a sheer drop on one side (although admittedly that drop is the other side of some railings). Going down, I was really hoping the climb at the other end wasn't going to be as difficult.

We walked a surprisingly short distance through the densely-wooded valley floor, then past Katoomba Falls, and started our climb up the other side. As it turned out, that was 1013 steps (I counted, just for you, dear reader), although they were wider, gentler, and with more (some!) places to stop for a breather, unlike the Giants Steps. The views here show the way the valley has formed through erosion from local rivers over a geological time period, and the result is tremendously beautiful.

Our second day in Sydney was spent, well, actually in Sydney, seeing the usual sights, like the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, and many of Sydney's other historic buildings. Then it was on northwards towards Cairns, and subsequently Darwin.

I don't want to say anything rude about Cairns, so what can I say about Cairns? Cairns is a place where you can get a really great mobile phone signal.

Darwin was our final port of call in Australia. Darwin is about the same size as Cairns, but is much less touristy, and seemed like a much nicer place all round. I got a decent cup of coffee here, thanks for asking.

Darwin is the capital of Australia's Northern Territory, and the only large population centre for hundreds of miles. It feels tropical - there are palm trees everywhere, and it has the climate to match - but also has that feeling of being somewhat isolated too. We visited their excellent museum and art gallery here, which as well as telling some of that story of isolation through their unique and independent history and natural history, talks about the pivotal event in Darwin's recent past: Cyclone Tracy coming through at Xmas in 1974.

Cyclone Tracy essentially levelled the city, destroying 70-80% of the buildings. Darwin was rebuilt over the next decade or so, and is now essentially unrecognizable from the pre-Tracy city. They like to think they're better prepared for the next big cyclone, but let's not test that out just yet, eh?

And with that, we're leaving Australia. Onwards!