As I mentioned in a previous post, we wanted a quick (and cheap) getaway from Canberra during the recent Winter school holidays.  We decided to head to Kangaroo Valley in New South Wales for a couple of days.  It’s only around 2 hours drive from Canberra and Anto and I both love the area.  We had stayed in Kangaroo Valley many times over the years, but hadn’t visited since we’ve had kids.

Unlike our recent European adventure, this trip was relaxed and not planned down to the last detail.  We didn’t need to check into our B&B until mid-afternoon so we had a leisurely drive up  from Canberra and stopped in Mossvale for lunch.  It was a Sunday, so there wasn’t a huge amount open but we did stumble across a lovely looking cafe, that had interesting food options.  It turned out to be a good pick.  The kids had the most amazing baba-ganoush with warm Turkish bread, I had a goats cheese mousse with beetroot carpaccio, and Anto beef bourguignon.  All were delicious, and I have no idea what the cafe was called!

Since the rain had held out we thought we’d go ahead and visit Fitzroy Falls for a little walk and some photos. It was on the way to our accommodation and I was keen to try out a couple of my (newish) lenses. Both my 80-200mm I’ve had for a couple of months and my brand new (arrived the previous day) wide-angle lens to replace my recently sold wide-angle that isn’t suitable for my new camera.

The kids were also keen to stretch their legs and see a waterfall. Anto and I had visited the falls many years ago and it’s a very short walk from the main car park to the first viewing area and there are plenty of trails you can take of varying lengths to get better views of the valley and falls.

Being a sunny Sunday afternoon in school holidays the rather large car park was absolutely packed! We had wisely bought our hiking boots/waterproof shoes as all the recent rain meant there was endless mud.  A fact that the kids enjoyed but other families traipsing through the mud in sandals and thongs did not seem to be so keen on……

The walk to the first viewing platform gave us a great view of the valley but is right over the top of the falls so not ideal to see the falls.

With Soren excited by the fact that we hadn’t enforced his usual lunch time nap, we headed through the mud to find a better vantage point and set up the camera gear.  The kids amused themselves playing in muddy puddles while we got some long-exposures and HDR’s of the falls.  There were plenty of cameras around on such a lovely day, including people trying to do long exposures from their mobile phones!

With the kids enjoying the sunshine and relatively warm afternoon, we continued around to the next viewing platform to get some more shots of the falls and the valley. Apparently the kids were not much in the mood to pose for photos so we got some interesting faces, but they were having fun, nonetheless!

There are relatively short distances and marked trails (with time and distance noted) between viewing platforms, so we continued around to see what we could see.

If it wasn’t for the mud and the fact that we were expecting Soren to want to be carried at any moment since he hadn’t had a sleep, and was insisting on walking like a big boy,  we probably could have walked another couple of kilometres.  We thought we might be pushing our luck with regards to the mud.  Someone was bound to fall in it soon!

Soren and Astrid did very well with walking, even if some of the steps were half the size of them!  Next visit, if it’s a little drier we might try an even longer walk.  It turns out our European, rated to minus 30 degree, boots are also useful for walking muddy trails on a mild Australian Winter day!