Wonder and awe in the mountains ⛰ Q: What and where is the second biggest canyon system in the world (depending on whether you measure depth, width or length)? A: The Blue Mountains, New South Wales For a recent hour—hours, rather—in nature, our commercial director Claire took her family walking in the Blue Mountains. Just an hour and a half west of Sydney, the mountains are part of a larger World Heritage area* that spreads across the nations of the Darkinjung, Dharawal, Dharug, Gundungurra, Wonnarua and Wiradjuri peoples. As Claire notes, this isn’t your average weekly hour in nature. ‘To see the immensity of the valley and know that you are seeing only 5% of the entire area is quite unfathomable.’ The mountains famously owe their English language name to the blue haze of oil emitted by many thousands of eucalyptus trees. But there’s also an incredible density and variety of lush rainforest palms on the valley floor. Starting their visit at the spectacular lookout at Govett’s Leap, Blackheath, Claire told her children ‘how the deep valleys formed from a tiny river over the course of millions of years, and the land we stood on used to extend flat across to the other side before the little river started its work. I could tell the kids thought I was really wise and that I might just know more than they realised. I knew that my high school geology class would come in handy one day!’ Another highlight was looking at seedpods like big ‘banksia men’ and ones with ‘spiky devil horns’. Collecting native seedpods was second nature during Claire’s childhood, but not so much for her children, who have grown up in urban spaces and in other countries. But the Blue Mountains worked their magic on the youngsters. Says Claire: ‘so often things don’t impress them these days with their busy lives and access to the world through a screen, but time spent in nature among this epic scenery filled them with awe.’ #anhourinnature #naturepact #morenaturefeelbetter * World Heritage status is awarded by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee to sites that are deemed to possess ‘Outstanding Universal Value’ - exceptional cultural and/or natural significance.