Your Destination:
The Blue Mountains
Only a 90-minute drive or short helicopter transfer west of Sydney, the Blue Mountains will be your natural outdoor playground for the next few days.
This World Heritage-registered region is one of Australia’s most important and diverse conservation areas, known for its dramatic scenery and natural beauty.
The weather here offers its own unique challenges, ranging from clear blue skies to fog, rain and occasionally snow, sometimes all in one day! Your guides are well-equipped to help you plan and prepare for every eventuality.
Your Host
Inspirational guide, James Castrission, has harnessed lessons learnt whilst exploring wild and hostile environments to create rewarding and invigorating challenges for our clients.
With no two itineraries the same, James can modify your journey on a whim, selecting and adapting adventures in accordance with weather and participants’ interests and abilities.
Your Adventure
By carefully positioning itself between opportunity and challenge, this voyage explores your boundaries in a transformative way and nurtures a courageous approach by tackling change and the unknown head-on.
After travelling to the Blue Mountains on the scenic Bells Line of Road (or fly in by helicopter if you prefer), you’ll meet your host and guide James Castrission and his expert team. They will brief you on the days to come and touch on the region’s complex terrain, and the fascinating stories embedded within its landscapes.
Make your dramatic début in the mid-morning light with a 20-metre overhanging abseil into a hidden canyon. Once you’ve triumphed over this first activity, continue pushing yourself with an obstacle course. Scramble over boulders and logs while swimming and wading through natural waterways in a canyon flanked by soaring rock walls and ferny glades. Emerge from the valley to refuel and check in with your body, then trade your canyoning equipment for hiking gear to transition into a long afternoon hike through true wilderness to your first overnight stop.
For the first two nights, you’ll be lulled to sleep by the sounds of the bush at secluded wilderness camps that are ringed by forest eucalypts and home to an abundance of wildlife.
During the day you’ll continue to push your physical and mental limits with guided vertical and roped rock climbs (under harness and helmet), steady hikes up to mountain peaks, and narrow canyons where you can leap into the water, abseil and scramble over rocks. Help is never far away, and vehicle transfers can always be arranged if your limits are stretched too far – but once the team has worked their magic, you’ll find yourself eager to meet your next obstacle and prove to yourself and your companions what you’re capable of.
Day 3, you will arrive at your pick-up point and transfer to Base Camp in the Megalong Valley for some well-deserved respite.
Your Glampsite
James’ Base Camp is set up on a sprawling plain against a dramatic backdrop and offers a remarkable contrast to the wild camping of the past few days. Base Camp is equipped with spacious luxury tents, separate bathrooms and hot showers, fine dining prepared by acclaimed chefs, and award-winning wines.
You will be warmly received by the Base Camp team, and greeted with a Welcome to Country Fire-Dance by a local Aboriginal group. The keynote address that follows has been shared in over eighteen countries to hundreds of thousands of enraptured guests. This is a perfect chance to debrief and reflect on the past few days.
