Sunday 24 June we did the Mt Warning walk. This was a walk that our friend Craig had wanted to do for some time, and it provided an excellent opportunity for three fathers to take our three sons on a walk. The party from Brissy was Andrew and his son Callum (7yo), Craig and his son Tom (9yo), myself with Spence (6yo), and we were joined for the walk by Andrew's nephew David.
We drove down on Saturday afternoon and enjoyed wonderful hospitality and company as we stayed the Saturday night in an excellent comfortable cottage on the farm owned by Andrew's father in law. Card games, beer, scotch, and great conversation filled an evening in which the young boys got to sleep much too late. We kicked off the Sunday with a breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast - the perfect fuel to power us up a mountain.
Mt Warning is a very popular graded track walk, as evidenced by the chockers carpark. On this Sunday it attracted a wide variety of walkers from poorly equipped and under-clothed (given the threat of rain) families to seasoned walkers in minimal but well selected gear, and even a couple of small groups training under the guidance of super-fit guides for grander undertakings such a Kokoda.
The well maintained path winds in a westerly direction up a ridge on the southern side of the mountain, passing initially through some beautiful wet rainforest which gives way to squat scrub of a more alpine character toward the summit. Halfway, a sign warns not to proceed after 1pm as it gets dark early under the canopy and storms can cause people to get lost even on the graded track.
Our pace was set to be comfortable for the youngest of the party - Spence. The ascent took 2hrs 10min, so I expect it could be done in an hour by fit adults. Cloud completely enveloped the peak, so at times we walked through thick mist. Thankfully there was no rain, but the air was cool and occasionally we passed through places where it seemed to rain as drips fell from trees as mist condensed onto leaves. The final vertical 100m is via a steep track eroded back to bare rock and has a chain for support. This last section provided quite a challenge for the boys and dad's alike. Occasionally where the wind caught and drove the mist hard against us, it was quite cold. The chain ascent was such a place and I don't think Spence's fingers would have kept working if the chain had been much longer.
Above the chain we broke out of the cloud a few metres below the summit. It was surreal to be surrounded by cloud on all sides, but have the sun shining down on us. The summit has a boardwalk around the circumference and a large viewing platform. We got only occasional views from the summit through brief breaks in the cloud.
Slippery rocks on the track were more treacherous on the descent than the ascent. Spence and I were the slow-coaches on the way down, but despite taking our time we had a couple of minor spills but no injuries.
This was an excellent walk, and I'd recommend it to anyone - even if Baz does think it's boring.
Click here to see the location of Mt Warning on Google Maps
Here's some photos:
