Best of the Blue - Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia

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My highlight of Australia was a walkabout tour of the Blue Mountains near Sydney. I hasten to add that it would not be everybody's cup of eucalyptus tea. The walk is quite strenuous and you will get dirty. But if you want an escape from the frenetic pace of Sydney (or, in our case, a rest for our livers after a fortnight of drinking with our fellow rugby supporters), see more of the Australian bush than you would in a whistle-stop bus tour and gain a real insight into Aboriginal culture, this is a MUST DO.

Evan Yanna Muru, our tour guide of Aboriginal descent, met us at Falconbridge station, which is approximately an hour's train journey from Sydney's Central Station. Evan owns and operates Blue Mountain Walkabout. As a former tour guide myself, I am hard to please but I can honestly say that Evan is one of the best. He is passionate about Darug (the Aboriginal tribe that lived in the Blue Mountains) culture and his knowledge of it is vast and deep. The tour group was small and they were an eclectic and interesting crew - ranging from a business mogul who followed the road less travelled to become a volunteer in Namibia, to a technical architect with Sony Playstation who was about to climb Everest.

As I said earlier, it is physically challenging. Most of the 8 km walk is off-track and therefore the terrain is rough. You do not need to be super-fit but you do need to be surefooted. However, there are compensations - our group did not encounter one other person all day. Other than our voices and movements, no other noises interfered with the bush soundscape. How many places in the world can you still say that about?

The Darug Aborigines were not followers of the Atkins diet - they survived mainly on the fruits, seeds and insects of the forest interspersed with the odd kangaroo or emu. Along our walkabout, I tasted some of this 'bush tucker'; the eucalyptus leaves and wild cranberries were more than edible but I declined the aboriginal delicacy that is wood grubs. Some things just are not worth doing in the name of adventure (and I am not a former celebrity trying to revive my career).

We spotted dingoes and kookaburras, but luckily we did not encounter any poisonous spiders or snakes. The aborigines had a holistic world view - that humans, animals and the land are one and the same. Therefore, Evan explained, all things living and non-living were treated with respect. This meant that natural resources remained sustainable. I felt slightly ashamed that the Irish who settled in Australia were among those who condemned this ancient culture as primitive. I winced at the irony that many of the Irish convicts transported to Australia were driven to petty crime because they were dispossessed but went on to drive the Australian natives off their land. The Darug Aborigines occupied the Blue Mountains for 50,000 years. Within two years of white settlement (1788), smallpox had killed more than half of this tribe. By 1860 the last of the full-blood Darug people had died.

We painted totem symbols with ochre on bark and on our bodies, which released the inner child in all of us. Unfortunately, the weather was not conducive to swimming in a billabong. Instead we had our lunch sitting round a campfire in a sandstone cave where we drank eucalyptus tea and ate toasted marshmallows.

In the afternoon, Evan pointed out some of the aboriginal rock art engravings. He really brought the archaeology to life. He told us that the karraji (wise person/doctor) served a 30-year apprenticeship. And we think it takes a long time for a solicitor or doctor to qualify today!

I do not want to give the impression that the walkabout is too highbrow - we chatted and joked and finished the day weary, but exhilarated, in the pub.

Further details:
Blue Mountain's Walkabout
Cost: AUD $95 (approximately €60)

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