Detours: High living

If Sydney is laid-back, then Katoomba - a 90-minute drive to the west in the heart of the Blue Mountains - is practically horizontal. For more than a century the town has acted as a hilltop retreat from the coastal capital of New South Wales, a haven for artists and dropouts, alternative lifestylers and anybody in search of a breath of country air in the wilderness.

The Blue Mountains are listed as a world heritage site, covering an area roughly the size of Belgium that is an inspiring mixture of rainforest, canyons and heathlands. In 1994 one explorer found himself standing in a grove of 'dinosaur' trees that until then were believed to have been extinct for 20 million years.

Today, Katoomba (below) is not so much prehistoric as precocious, providing a heady combination of natural beauty, outdoor activity and sheer, rip-roaring fun spiced with some excellent restaurants and spas.

One of the area's earliest inhabitants was Norman Lindsay, who set up home at nearby Faulconbridge in 1912. A controversial artist by the standards of his day, he favoured paintings and sculptures of satyrs and nymphs, which were reckoned to be fairly close to self portraits of himself and many lady friends, although apologists say he just admired women with a passion.

His cottage has been turned into a studio/museum.

With a million hectares of wilderness surrounding Katoomba there are ample walking trails, ranging from short hikes to treks lasting several days. One of the most popular, the Prince Henry Cliff Walk, leads from Echo Point, which overlooks the spectacular Three Sisters rock formation. Stretching 9km, it takes in the Katoomba Cascades and Jamison Valley.