Rail to Hervey Bay
All three of us were alone when I woke up. Had a 10:30 train to catch, so I hit the pavement. As I made my way down the street, there was a girl on the corner with a tent strapped to her bag. She looked the (American) Backpacking type, so I thought I’d ask her about camping up the coast. She didn’t know, but it didn’t matter. We ended up having breakfast at the station together. Her name is Sarah and she’s a Kiwi. She recently quit her job as an architect in Queenstown and came over here. Doesn’t know how long she’ll stay, wants to make her way to Mexico & the States, and I may see her again in Sydney. Interesting girl. Done with the party-packing (as opposed to backpacking), trying to get away to the Nat’l Parks, do some bushwalking, similar to me. She just has all the time I lack.
What kind of a name is Caboolture? I could ask the same of Murwillumbah, I suppose.
Between my conversation with Sarah and my trip to Mt Warning yesterday, I think I shall leave Ulan for next time. There will be a next time, right? [Editor: Sadly, no. Kevin died at the end of 2001]
Ooh, 160 kmh! Is that fast?
It’s really been a nice 24 hours, indeed. Yesterday was great. Murwillumbah has a great small town feel, and I really liked that hostel. The rivers, national parks, free ice cream … it was all so wonderful!
Sign on trail at Mt. Warning
So Tassie drove me and this old British bird out to the park with Ken (from Melbourne) following behind. Tassie turned out to be a nice guy. Very Helpful & accommodating. Anyhow, we got to the trail at about 10:30 and had 5 hours to go up and back. Plenty of time, right? I of course brought my field glasses and (hefty) field guide. It took me an hour and a half to reach the halfway point! Oh, it was great! The base is covered in sub-tropical rainforest and there is decent signage along the trail. It was like walking through a conservatory except it was all REAL! The sounds of exotic birds calling, the bright sunlight filtering down through a closed, green, and leafy canopy, the joy of buttresses! It was wonderful! And the birds I saw were great.
Brush Turkey
Logrunner
I had a few Brush Turkeys walk up to me (the one pictured at the summit bit me. I teased it), little twit birds were all around, Logrunners were scratching around in the leaf litter, and I saw these most beautiful Noisy Diltas [Editor: Can’t locate?]. Gorgeous birds. Didn’t get a picture, though. The Trek up was long and the vertical rock scramble at the summit was really cool. The trail was 4.5 kilometers in length, (2.8 mi) with the “Final Assault” being 200m up. At the top I had lunch at 1300m above sea level. The view was as good as the hike up. I could see, well, everything I said on page 36 [Editor: See Lunch atop Mt Warning]. At the top, it was a scrub community. Only shrubs and the Blue Mountain Ash eucalyptus were in abundance.
More about the mountain:
Mt. Warning Crater Wall
Mt Warning is an ancient volcano that erupted over 20 million years ago. It sits in the center of a large crater from a very big volcano. The crater is the largest in the southern hemisphere. The “mountains” to the south, west, and north of Mt Warning are actually the volcano shield, or the crater walls. Most are covered in forest comprising a half dozen or so national parks. The Tweeds River basin washed out the eastern side of the crater. I can also chalk up Mt Warning as another World Heritage area.
Mt Warning gets its English name from Captain Cook. He ran the Endeavor up on a reef, looked up to see the Mountain, and decided it could be a landmark to warn other sailors about the reef. Its Aboriginal name is Wollumbin, meaning either “Cloud Catcher” or “fighter chief of the mountains.” The latter is desired from a story explaining the thunder coming from the mountain, The noise was from a great battle and the ravines and gorges along the mountain face were scars from wounds.
And that will do it for today’s anthropology lesson. Speaking of, classes start today.
KC