Trekking in Blue Mountains

The Macpac Possum is one of the best investments we've ever made as parents. It is a backpack child carrier that allows you to go off the beaten track with kids. We bought it two years ago in Melbourne, and we have been bringing it faithfully on all our trips where some heavy-duty-walking-in-the-great-outdoors would be involved.

For our recent Sydney trip, we knew without a doubt that we would bring the carrier along. But the question was: Who are we going to carry? Kai won't be able to complete a one or two-hour trek. So if we carry him in the Possum, what are we going to use to carry Kit? The Baby Bjorn carrier places the baby in front, which is quite a strain after a while. Furthermore, this means we would need another backpack for the essentials (i.e. water, snacks, diapers).

So we ended up bringing TWO Macpac Possums to Sydney. Yes, two carriers in addition to our two luggages and stroller. And no, we didn't buy another carrier (those things are pricey!). We borrowed the second one from our friends. I carried Kit and most of the supplies at the start of our trek in the Blue Mountains. It was a matter of mathematics really. Kai weighs around 16kg and Kit is about 9kg. Though Terence was really chivalrous about it and said it was ok, he could carry more, I was quite confident I could manage.

We completed a medium-grade trek (Lyrebird Dell and Pool of Siloam Circuit) in 2 hours. The trek brought us to two waterfalls, and we had a picnic at the Pool of Siloam^.

Kit fell asleep at the start of the trek and was still asleep when we reached the pool. So I propped him up (supervised of course), still in the carrier^, against a big rock while we ate and played for a while.

He woke up eventually and enjoyed the rest of the trek.

One thing stood out from the whole experience: Terence's mum joined us and she completed the whole trek with no problems. Now, she is 60+ and the trek has its fair share of uphill climb and steep, slippery downhill track. But she kept up. It just reinforces the importance of good health; I want to be able to do the same thing with my grandchildren when I get to her age.

(I left our camera battery in the warm confines of our cottage. So the pictures were taken with Terence's iPhone 4.)

More from our Sydney getaway:

- Anxiously waiting for...

- Road trip snacking and its consequences

- Where the wild things are

- Paddling like a hamster

- Summer in Jervis Bay

For tips on trekking with children:

- Grampians part 2: Lesson Learnt

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