Some of the best camping trips aren't the ones with the most impressive scenery. They're the ones where someone does not bring a sleeping bag and everyone still ends up laughing about it the next morning.

Two friends laughing over cider and wine at an outdoor table, white umbrellas and a cidery building in the background Lunch stop number one: cider, sunshine, and the start of a very good weekend.

Trip Highlights at a Glance

Cider First, Obviously

This trip started the right way: a stop at a cidery on the way out of Sydney, wood-fired pizza, a cold cider, and zero rush to be anywhere. Taking the scenic route through Bilpin on the way to a campsite might be the single easiest upgrade to any Blue Mountains trip, an actual destination before the destination.

Two wood-fired pizzas on metal trays, glasses of cider and wine on a rustic wooden table Wood-fired pizza and cider, the unofficial start of the trip.

Setting Up at Lake Wallace

By late afternoon, it was time to actually get to the campsite: Lake Wallace, near Lithgow, a free campground with showers, which is a genuinely rare combination. Tents went up under a big casuarina tree right by the water, cars parked in a loose semicircle, more like the start of a small festival than a random free camp by a dam.

A tent pitched under a large tree beside a calm lake, golden late-afternoon light Golden hour at Lake Wallace, tent up, nowhere else to be.

Booking note: Lake Wallace, at Wallerawang, is managed by Lithgow City Council and needs no booking at all, just show up and find a spot. It's free for stays up to 48 hours, with 24-hour hot showers, flush toilets, a dump point, and an off-leash dog area. Open fires aren't permitted, so plan cooking around a stove rather than a campfire.

There's a particular kind of happiness in bringing people you genuinely love out into a place like this. Watching friends who don't camp much try to figure out tent poles, hearing the same jokes repeated for the third time, cooking together in the cold: none of it needs to be impressive to be one of the best parts of the whole trip.

Two camp chairs and a small table set up on the grass beside a lake at dusk, ducks foraging nearby The evening setup, right before the wind picked up and hot pot plans fell apart.

The Great Hot Pot Failure

The plan was hot pot. The wind at Lake Wallace had other ideas. It picked up hard enough that the little portable stove couldn't hold a steady flame, and what should have been a 20-minute dinner turned into an hours-long group effort just to get everyone fed. Gear at the time was still very much the Kmart starter collection, which did not help. A midway supply run to the nearest Coles for another gas canister became an unplanned part of the evening.

Lesson filed away for next time: wind shelters and a proper stove matter a lot more than they seem to until the one night you actually need them.

Nobody Warned Him It Gets This Cold

First camping trip, and nobody had thought to tell him that the Blue Mountains in September actually bite at night. He'd packed like it was a sleepover, not a night in the open, and by the time the cold really settled in, there wasn't much to be done except let him fold himself into the back seat and hope morning came quickly.

I was warm the whole night, zipped into a proper sleeping bag a few feet away from him in that same car, and I still feel a small pang of guilt thinking about it. I should have checked. I should have handed over a spare layer before we even left. But here's the thing about a night that goes properly wrong: it becomes the story. Every single time we see each other now, it comes up, someone brings up "that night at Lake Wallace" and we're both laughing again before the sentence is even finished. He suffered for it, no question. I think, in a strange way, that's exactly why it stuck. Some of the best memories aren't the comfortable ones.

Sandwiches, Then a Blue Mountains Canyon

The next morning started slow and properly fed: shakshuka on the portable stove, coffee brewed in a stovetop moka pot right beside the cars, everyone still in beanies against the cold.

A cast iron pan of shakshuka with sliced sourdough, cooking on a portable stove at a camp table beside a car Breakfast before the hike: shakshuka, sourdough, and a stove that finally cooperated.

Two friends making coffee with a stovetop moka pot beside parked cars at the lake edge Coffee, made the slow way, right beside the water before packing up.

Sandwiches were made at the same camp table, wrapped in foil, and packed for the day's hike. The track itself sits somewhere in the Blue Mountains' sandstone canyon country, the kind of terrain with dramatic cliff lines, deep green valleys, and rock ledges that make you want to stop every five minutes just to look.

A person sitting on the edge of a sandstone cliff, legs stretched out, overlooking a deep green canyon A good spot to stop and just sit with the view for a minute.

Three foil-wrapped sandwiches, sourdough with tomato, ham, and spinach, held out in the sun The sandwiches made it to the good part of the hike still intact, which felt like a small win.

Three friends sitting on a rocky sandstone ledge, eating foil-wrapped sandwiches with a cliff face behind them Sandwich stop, halfway up a very photogenic pile of rocks.

Two hikers looking out over a deep green canyon lined with sandstone cliffs One of several stops where the view made everyone stop talking for a minute.

The Numbers

Trip length: 2 days, 1 night
Campsite: Lake Wallace, near Lithgow, free, with hot showers
Food stop: a cidery in Bilpin, wood-fired pizza and local cider
Hike: a canyon/cliff-line walk in the Blue Mountains, roughly 10km, dramatic sandstone terrain throughout
Total cost: ~$100 AUD per person, all-in
Group size: a small group of friends, two cars (one set up with a proper bed in the back) and two tents

Final Thoughts

A trip doesn't have to go to plan to be worth remembering. A hot pot that never happened, a friend who learned the hard way that the Blue Mountains get properly cold at night, a Coles run for gas canisters at the least convenient possible moment: none of it was the plan, and all of it is what actually got remembered. Bring people you love camping. Let it go a little wrong. It tends to make the better story anyway.

Cider, Cold Nights, and a Blue Mountains Hike: Camping With Friends at Lake Wallace