My favourite Blue Mountains hike is the 12km-return from Katoomba to Ruined Castle, a rock formation in the Jamison Valley which – surprise, surprise – resembles a ruined castle from afar. First you have to get off the escarpment and there’s a choice. Ride the world’s steepest incline railway (screamingly good fun) or Australia’s steepest cable car. You can also extend...

Invitations to the opening of Govett’s Leap Lookout in 1889 promised “a banquet on a precipice – speeches in mid air.” More than a century on, a mere blink in geological history, the Blue Mountains view from Govett’s Leap retains its power to steal your breath. Bridal Veil Falls and Horseshoe Falls plunge 180m down faulted sandstone cliffs to the right and left and the Grose Valley...

Volcanoes are commonly perceived and portrayed as violent and destructive geothermal events. But the creative powers of lava under pressure are plain to see even before you set foot on a walking track in Warrumbungle National Park, in central north New South Wales. The grand scale of this artistry becomes clear treading the 14.5km Grand High Tops loop. How could you not stare at...

Everest it’s not but Australia’s tallest mountain deserves a place on any bushwalking New South Wales “to tread” list. For although it peaks well short of the Himalayan giant, Mt Kosciuszko (2,228m) presents glorious mountain-and-valley views in multiple blues. Curious about the mountain’s name? Polish-born explorer and scientist Paul Edmund de Strzelecki climbed the Australian Alps from the Murray River valley in...