For a challenge I thought I would climb (and walk up) the four main legal peaks of the Glass House Mountains in a day. Mt Coonowrin is currently closed for climbing due to lose rocks. According to the aboriginal dream time story each of the peaks represents a member of a family. Mt Beerwah was the pregnant mother, Mt Tibrogargan the father, Mt Coonowrin the eldest son and the rest of the hills the other children. The eldest son would not help his mother escape from the rising sea instead running away with fear, the father struck Coonowrin, resulting in the crocked neck. Later Coonowrin would beg for forgiveness but the family could only weep in shame (resulting in the many small creeks in the region). The white fella version of the creation of the mountains ... read more

After returning from Peru about a month ago I was itching to head outdoors again. So I decided to climb Mt Barney which is located slightly over 100km from Brisbane. And at 1351m it is one of the highest mounains in the South-East of Queensland. Day 1 - A rush to the top After doing some last minute packing I left the house and drove to the base of Mt Barney arriving at Yellow Pinch car park. I set off up the mountain at 11:40am. The first part of the trail was fairly easy going along a mostly flat 4-wheel drive track. After around 30 minutes I arrived at the turnoff to the South-East ridge trail. I was beginning to think that I missed the turn off, until I passed a tree which has SE engraved ... read more

I left Nazca in the afternoon once again opting for comfort on a first class bus. The trip was interesting as it was still daylight outside. We drove through Ica and the streets where full of school kids. I arrived in Pisco fairly late in the evening. At the bus stop I was approached by a friendly lady who offered to arrange the hotel for me, since the bus stop was ten blocks from the town centre I felt lazy and accepted the offer plus I was warned that Pisco was a dodgy place (I didn’t find it that way btw). We got a taxi to the hotel and soon afterwards she also arranged the tour of the national park for me. Afterwards I visited an internet café, and upon paying the lady running the café ... read more

Mount Ampato is a 6288m peak on which the Inca mummy dubbed Juanita was found in 1995. I wanted to climb a peak over 6000m and having read about the mummy back in Australia this was the perfect peak to choose. My guide was Miguel Zarate who had co-found and recovered the mummy a decade earlier! Day 1 I was collected from the hotel at around 9am in Arequipa. We got of to a bad start as they wanted more money for the trip. A couple of days earlier we agreed on $US380 but now they wanted an extra $US90 for the driver even though that was supposed to be included in the original cost. I didn't want to waste too much time and ended up settling for an extra $US60. After a quick shopping trip ... read more

I caught a cheap bus from Puno which turned out to be a lot of fun, apart from the lack of leg room (being 6 feet tall didn’t help). Each time the bus was late to leave a stop the old ladies, dressed in traditional clothing, would bang on the windows and yell out vamos (lets go)! At most stops people selling food would get on and push through the bus. At one stop a young boy got on the bus and sang quite loudly until the next stop collecting money on his way out. The following morning I headed out to the Plaza de Armas. There happened to be a military line up in front of the cathedral. The soldiers would sometimes lift their guns and then put them down again, and this seemed to ... read more