Gap - Simpson's Falls walk

Today Spence and I did the walk from Paten Rd in The Gap to the Simpson's Fall Picnic ground. This walk starts near our home, so it is the walk we do most often. Nonetheless, it's been some months since I've done it.

We started at 11.30am and finished at 1.10pm, after taking our time and stopping to look at various tree and plants along the way. Normally we take the Maculata Track from the pond at grid 966624, over the un-named hill with the comms tower on the summit (grid 957626), to cross Sir Samuel Griffith Drive at the start of the Stringybark Track. For a change we took the Bardon Trail passing directly beneath the comms tower. We haven't taken this track before, so it was interesting to see the tower and the discarded machinery nearby.

Everywhere there was new growth of grass, bushes, and trees due to the recent rains. However, despite the rain the water level in the pond was still about 1.5m below the outflow level. The eucalypts we saw had nearly all completed their shedding of bark, and some had striking new bark of green or pink.

The falls were flowing (finally!), but only just - maybe 1 litre per minute across the whole width of the cascade.

Here's a map of the area:



Here's a capture of the same map as an overlay on Google Earth:



And some photos:

The Team on Ngungun

Today we had a work team-building day for which we went to the Sunshine Coast. We had a great fair dinkum pub lunch at the Beerwah pub, then walked up Ngungun. I really enjoyed seeing everyone on the summit, even though there were more than a couple of bemused faces. Hopefully Baz and I can convince a few of the team to come on some of our adventures.

Here's some photos, some of which were taken by Brant (brantwinter.com):

Levuka trip

The first combined Fry/Wallace family camping trip. We gave the kids a day off school to make a long weekend and went camping in Northern New South Wales. Brant had told me about a private 4WD and camping reserve called Levuka, and I had spent a few months checking out the informative website. The main attractions for being that dogs are allowed, and campfires are encouraged (firewood provided by the owner).

Pauly and I packed up the cars to near bursting (his Caprice and my Navara) on Friday morning, loaded in Spence, Grace, Taylor, and Harvey (the Cavoodle), and headed off in the Navara. Mikarla and Kath followed in the evening with Nath and Jaz.

It was an enjoyable weekend of relaxing, kicking the footy, tending the fire, and a bit of walking. The kids hadn't been camping before with a campfire, and enjoyed the experience greatly. We were really just feeling properly relaxed on Sunday when it was time to leave, so an extra day or so would have been perfect - maybe next time.

I'd like to camp somewhere like this again.

Here's some photos:

Warrie Circuit

Our Warrie Circuit walk was a wonderfully successful experiment. During a chat at work about enjoyable weekend pursuits (walks, food, wine, friends) Amanda, Baz, and I agreed we should do a full-day walk, and take good deli-style food and wine for the lunch break. Baz and Amanda had done sections of the Warrie Circuit walk before, and enthusiastically suggested we do the whole thing. Baz was confident Sandy would be keen, and thus a plan was formed.

We met early at Amanda's lovely Auchenflower apartment, then piled into Baz's Pajero for the trip down the coast to Springbrook. With McDonalds breakfast under our belts we arrived at the Goomoolahra picnic area carpark, geared up, and set off. Shortly afterward we were back in the Pajero having found that there is no access to the Warrie Circuit from Goomoolahra. An inauspicious start, but a reminder to READ THE MAP.

The Warrie Circuit is a 17km walk taking in some 11 waterfalls, three of which are passed under by the track. It includes lower track of the Twin Falls Circuit, following the foot of some impressive cliffs and rock outcrops. We completed the 10km to The Meeting of the Waters - our lunch stop - in record time, as we wanted to stay ahead of a huge noisy group (20 or more).

Lunch was a lovely memorable experience of good food and wine and great fun conversation in friendly company. Baz, Sandy, and Amanda brought an incredible spread of antipasto, cheeses and crackers, flavoured chicken legs and wings, and the best savoury miffins I've ever tasted. I brought two bottles of shiraz (a Yarra Burn and a Water Wheel) to show off two of my favourite Victorian wineries.Baz displayed innovative use of a Mini Maglite torch to open the wine, after I forgot to bring a corkscrew. He would have gained full marks for that spark of brilliance but for spraying wine all over everyone and everything. The Meeting of the Waters was a perfect setting to sit, eat, drink, and relax; and we had the perfect spot - a small flat-bottomed half cave beside the creek. Sandy caused a storm of laughter when she pointed out that another group lunching nearby was settling for sandwiches.

After about an hour and a half, set off again - rather unsteadily - on the 7kn return leg. Baz rightly pointed out that in future we should choose walks in which the uphill leg comes before the food and wine. The uphill track was a struggle at times, and I was grateful when we stopped for afternoon tea. Out came the gas stove and espresso pot, and in short order we had lovely cuppa's to accompany the lovely muffins Amanda brought.

This walk was long, sometimes a bit steep, and the rucksacks were heavy - between us we were carrying about 13 litres of water. It was well worth the extra weight for the memorable lunch and afternoon tea. The scenery was spectacular and the company was first rate.

Here's a link to a good map (PDF)

And here's some photos:

Mt Mitchell

Seen from the Cunningham Highway, the deep saddle in the above photo, Cunningham's Gap, separates Mt Cordeaux on the right (North) from the dual-peaked Mt Mitchell on the left (south). Today I did the 10.5km (return) graded track walk from Cunningham's Gap to the east peak of Mt Mitchell.

Getting there was a lovely 1.5 hour drive on a sunny winter morning, but when leaving the carpark at 7.45am, I was surprised at how cold it was. The carpark and first ten minutes of the track were hidden from the sun by Mt Cordeaux, so despite being rugged up in fibre-pile and rain-shell , I felt cold and my breath created visible water vapour. Soon enough I reached the sunny side of the mountain and was stripping off layers to avoid sweating. The sun and frigid wind tag-teamed through the morning to keep me alternating between hot and cold.

The views on this walk are spectacular, and start almost immediately - within about 15 minutes there are views of Mt Cordeaux, Mt Castle, and the valley stretching to the north-east. It was such a clear day today that I could make out the Brisbane CBD skyline.

The breeze in the trees had been such a constant aural companion on the north side of the mountain, that it was quite unnerving to turn a corner in the trail and suddenly be surrounded by silence. At about the same point the trail entered heavier, darker forest - quite spooky. Despite the forest being quite dry, there was water dripping from a crack in the roof of a small cave beside the trail (just a shallow depression in the rock really), and making a clearly audible splashing sound. Soon after entering this darker, quieter section of forest a bird was making a call that I've never heard before. I recorded it with my phone, and if I can find somewhere to host the sound file I'll put a link to it here.
[17 July: The bird has been identified by someone much smarter than me as Albert's Lyrebird]

Reaching the saddle between the west and east peaks at 9am, I was met with a sign warning of sheer cliffs ahead. That was no joke - the cliffs are hundreds of metres high. In Bushpeople's Guide to Bushwalking in South East Queensland (excellent book - if you find a copy, buy it!) it states that the cliffs have previously been responsible for a fatal accident. Fifteen minutes later I was enjoying the awesome views from the razorback on the east peak. North was Mt Cordeaux, Mt Castle, and the escarpment, south were numerous dramatic features including Spicer's Peak, Lizard Point, Mt Steamer and the Steamers. I only had the location map in Bushwalking in SEQ so wasn't certain which peak was which. My morning tea of coffee and chockies was interrupted by what I thought was thunder, until the sun reflected off a very fast moving military aircraft which had passed the peak heading south. The morning sun was beautiful but the wind on the summit was freezing, and when I left the peak at 10am there was still frost on sections of the track.

This was an easy walk with fantastic views and interesting, varied forest. I met no one on the walk up the mountain and only one walker on the way down - weekday walking has definite benefits.

Here's a map:



And here's some photos:

Mt Beerwah

I am officially getting old. Today Corey (Baz & Sandy's son) was kind enough to take me up Mt Beerwah, which is the highest of the Glasshouse Mountains on the Sunshine Coast. As I huffed and puffed my way up the rock-face, attempting to follow the path Corey took as he bounded along, I felt every day of my age (37).

From the unusually empty carpark (three cars including mine), it took ten minutes on the well maintained graded track to reach the base of the mountain. If you work in a high-rise, picture yourself walking up to the wall of your building knowing you have to climb the thing - that's a good approximation of how I felt. Shite, it looked steep from the bottom. It turned out to be not as bad as it looked - but close.

45 minutes after starting the climb we stood on the summit, and that included a five minute stop at the Galleries halfway up (see top left photo below). We were blessed with gorgeous weather - a cloudless, sunny sky, and a cool breeze - and the fairly clear air provided an awesome view of the surrounding peaks. The photo above is Mts Coonowrin (closer) and Ngungun (further) and is the reverse view to the one in the April 07 post below.

After a rest and some munchies we started the descent, which took quite a bit longer than the ascent (1.5 hours) due to a couple of small adventures along the way. Soon after departing the summit we left the main route to explore a protuberant feature. This side trip provided an interesting view of the mountain (bottom left photo below), and was a lot of fun. When we reached the Galleries again Corey showed me a cave. It has a small entrance and it look me a few minutes to talk myself into crawling inside. Corey has crawled through before to the third chamber - where there are bats - but I only went far enough to see into the second chamber (bottom right photo below). By the time we were descending, the carpark was full and we passed six or seven groups on their way up.

This was a terrific walk/climb in perfect weather and with excellent company. Thanks Corey!

Here's a map:



And here's some photos: