After recently sharing a number of more leisurely coastal walks with you all, I'm proud to recount one of my tougher hikes — the Grand Canyon track in Sydney's beautiful Blue Mountains. If you've travelled to the region before you won't be surprised when I say that it was truly other-wordly. The expansive mountains and sheltering trees were certainly humbling in the moment but even more so afterwards when we spotted ourselves like tiny dots among the wilderness in the pictures we had taken.

Although you don't need to carry any special hiking equipment for this track, be warned that there are sections that have extremely narrow, steep and slippery steps making it both challenging and adventurous. Surrounded by ferns, moss and walking among creeks and caves with overhanging rocks -- these are the features that give the entire thing a very Jurassic Park feel. The fact that the track makes you cross creeks and go under a mini-waterfall, only adds to the effect. At 6km, it isn't very long but steep steps make it quite tiring towards the end leg when you're ascending out of the valley. I suggest packing a picnic lunch and enjoying it by a waterfall to truly absorb the surroundings with a few of your closest friends. If you are going with friends, make sure to park one car at Evans lookout and another one at Grand Canyon Circuit car park, to shorten the walk a little bit. We finished the entire loop in 3.5 hours which included a nice long leisurely lunch as well as plenty of fooling around and jumping on boulders.