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:

Mt Warning

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:

Gap - Simpson's Falls walk

This morning I did the 5km bushwalk from home to Simson's Falls starting at 6am (still dark) and finishing at 7am. I have done this walk many times, often on my own, sometimes with Spence, and occasionally with others. It's a bit of a favourite due to the start (at the end of Paten Rd) being only ~500m from our house (so no pre-planning is necessary). The route passes one of the transmission towers on Mt Cootha and has views of the city.

On this occasion I encountered a group of three Nordic walkers - the first time I've seen this trail used for that pursuit. Perhaps it's worth giving a try.

There is still no water flowing at the falls, despite the recent rains having increased the water level in the pools along the creek.

I carried a small thermos of fresh coffee to sip while I waited for Mikarla to pick me up from Simpson's Falls picnic area. The picnic area is lovely, with cement picnic tables, wood-fired BBQs, toilets, broad expanses of grass, and mature trees.

Love Creek West Branch

Sunday 6 May we walked the west branch of Love Creek, which I have been looking forward to doing again since Andrew and his brother Brendan showed it to me last year. This time the party was the Andersens (Baz, Sandy, and their son Corey) and I, with me doing an unconvincing job as leader. This is not a remote area, so we left the wet weather and emergency overnight gear at home making our packs much lighter. Baz had his excellent GPS receiver coupled by bluetooth to his PDA which runs Ozi Explorer (map software), and I had a compass and a map (Brisbane Forest Park Information Map - a gem), and an A4 enlargement of that map showing the walk area. Baz had the same A4 map loaded into Ozi Explorer as a jpg image file. We had mobiles and UHF handhelds in case something went awry.

We met at Maiala car park, just west of Mt Glorious township, at 7.30am, and after shuttling to drop off the second vehicle at the end of Alex Rd (which is not labelled on the map, but ends at 753 782), we started the walk at 7.45am. The walk-in on the graded track to Greens Falls (764 776 on the map) was a pleasant warm-up. We stopped at the falls so Baz could start the GPS tracking on the jpg map he had calibrated, and Corey promptly found a huge carpet snake laying on the rocks below (see photo below). The poor fella was very unwell due to an injury to his head/neck. Perhaps the humane thing may have been to kill him, but I don't know enough about snakes to write him off, so we left him there.

The descent along Cedar Creek to the junction with Love Creek (772 781 on the map) was steeper than I remembered, and provided plenty of opportunity to practice the scrambling skills that are needed later. Cedar Creek was almost completely dry with no running water, and I was disappointed by this until the dry rock proved fortuitous when Corey had a particularly interesting descent of one of the cascades on which he encountered an overhang near the bottom. We had morning tea at the junction, which is an absolutely lovely spot, and enjoyed the first sounds of running water we had heard so far - Love Creek was still flowing.

The ascent to Love Creek falls (767 784 on the map) was as much fun as I remembered, with the dryer rock allowing faster progress than last time. Corey and I climbed a small way up the falls to get our photo taken, before joining Baz and Sandy in taking the easier and slightly less steep route to the right of the falls. Lunch was at 11.30am at the top of the falls where we (boys) laid out our shirts to dry while we all ate and enjoyed the sun.

Ascending the west branch of Love Creek afforded a few minor misadventures, as I fell in a pool of water after foolishly stepping onto a slippery rock (to the great amusement of the rest of the party) and Baz encountered a stinging plant (much less amusing). Shortly after, Corey also took a spill in a pool, but his lacked the undignified bum-first entry of mine. I had forgotten how dark and spooky it gets in this thickly canopied creek-line in the afternoon, and by 1.30pm it was virtually twilight. We made excellent time on this upper section of the creek, which is my excuse for misjudging which creek junction we were at, thus causing us to have to backtrack a short way after Baz got a lock with the trusty GPS.

Once we confirmed our position, we took a well worn track SW then W up the ridge from the creek junction at 758 785. This track got us back by 2.15pm to the vehicle we left on Alex Rd, from which we quickly shuttled back to pick up the other vehicle from Maiala. The day ended with coffee, cake, and toasted sandwiches at a Mt Glorious cafe.