The Steamers

Tuesday 10 April Baz and I took a leave day and did a walk on The Steamers range in the Main Range. The Steamers range is so named because it's four main features (the Prow, the Funnel, the Mast, and the Stern) make it resemble a Steamer (ship) when viewed from Mt Superbus which is just 2km to the SE.

Our ambitious goal was to traverse The Steamers and Mt Steamer, then follow the ridge to Lizard Point. This would be a 10km return trackless walk in very steep country. We expected the geological features to be so dramatic that we'd be able to navigate map-to-ground using map 9341-12 Mount Superbus, but we took 2 compasses and 2 GPS's to be safe. We also took 2 UHF 5watt hand-helds, mobile phones, hoochies (shelters), wet weather gear, and heaps of water, just in case.

We left home at 4am and after a bit of poor navigation by the in-car GPS system, parked the 4WD on a side track off Old Mill Rd north of The Prow at 7.20am (442991 6880504). We then headed SSE up the slope, then had a quick rest in a cave at the foot of the Funnel. The best route was along the north side of the Funnel, the Mast, and the Stern before crossing the more thickly wooded saddle to Mt Steamer. We had morning tea on the summit among the squat moss-covered trees and took a few photos. When we reached the NE edge of the summit of Mt Steamer it was time to decide whether we had time to make the big push to Lizard Point. It was 12 noon and we were looking over the edge at a steep descent into thick rainforest followed by 1km of serious bush bashing. We concluded it was too much for one day and we turned back to climb to the western summit of the Stern to take the classic Steamers photo of the Mast, Funnel, and Prow all in a row. We had lunch on this summit before retracing our steps to get back to the car at 3.20pm.

Click here to see The Steamers on WikiMapia

Here's some photos:

Mt Ngungun

Mt Coonowrin & Mt Beerwah from Mt Ngungun

Saturday 7 April Spence and I went for a walk up Mt Ngungun on the Sunshine Coast. Ngungun is the smallest of the Glasshouse Mountains peaks and the easiest to climb. It's only a short walk (5.5km return), but has a couple of steep and eroded sections which provided a good opportunity to introduce Spence to scrambling. There is a steep-bottomed cave about halfway up which Spence and I enjoyed exploring. Spence set our pace on the walk and we got up in 35 minutes including a couple of short stops to check out the view, and down in 1 hour including playing around in the cave.

Here's a map:



Here's some photos:

Freshwater trip

Last weekend was our family's first 4WD camping trip since we bought the dual-cab Navara a few weeks ago. We went with Brant & Jane to Freshwater camp site on Teewah Beach in the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park.

Brant had done the trip before so he lead the way in his Jeep as we drove to Tewantin and got the barge across the mouth of Lake Cooroibah, then drove the 40 odd km along the beach to Freshwater. That was the first time I'd driven on the beach and the whole family thought it was awesome. We pitched the new tent and set up a comfortable camp, then went to see what was left of the Cherry Venture wreck which was in the process of being removed. All that was left was the huge engine. Next day (Saturday) we took the Freshwater Track through the forest to have lunch at Rainbow Beach Surf Club. After lunch we headed east along the beach, around Mudlo Rocks, and parked on the beach. This was unwise as we had misread the tide charts and the tide we expected to be on it's way out was actually coming in. We packed everyone in the vehicles and dashed to the start of the Leisha track, only to find a traffic jamb. Due to my inexperience I was pretty freaked out as the tide started reaching the Navara. After letting air out of the tires and getting some succinct advice from Brant, I backed briefly into the edge of the water to straighten up, then ploughed up the soft churned-up sand and got onto the track. What a buzz!
Later that arvo Brant, Spence, Grace, and I went and explored the rocks at Double Island Point, then parked on the beach and flew Spence's kite while Jane had a walk on the beach and Mikarla did some reading for uni. That night Brant experimented with using the big cast iron camp oven on a gas burner and made a damper for desert. All six of us slept in our tent (3 rooms) as Brant and Jane's tent poles had gone walkies from their tent sack. Saturday night was not as warm as Friday night so we slept better. Next day (Sunday) we had a big cooked brekky, packed up at a leisurely pace and drove back the way way we came. The drive along the beach way beautiful and very relaxing. Overall it was great trip enjoyed by the whole family.

Here's a few photos:










And here's a map

Noosa National Park walk

This was a short walk Spencer and I took with Andrew and Callum on 24 Feb. Baz showed us on a map how to get to a cave and a secluded beach. We started at the Sunshine Beach Surf Club, walked north to the headland, and climbed over to where we could see the cave. We climbed down close to the cave, but didn't go in due to the incoming tide. After the cave we walked the track which leads to Oyster Rocks Blowhole and Alexandria bay, taking a minor track to get down to the secluded beach between the first headland and the second (called Devil's Kitchen). The beach was beautiful, and perfect for us all to have a swim.

A great little day walk. Here's few shots:



Here's a map.