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Published: June 10th 2007
We left Nimbin early in the morning as we had decided that we needed a bit of exercise after the past few lazy days. Half an hour’s drive from Nimbin is a spectacular post volcanic peak known as Mount Warning, Captain Cook himself named the mountain when he first discovered the east coast of Australia to prevent him from running into the coast. It is a huge very disguisable mountain that can be seen from all around this area and the sea, so we thought at a quick stroll to the summit would be a great idea to get the old heart working again and the shouldn’t be a bad view either.
We drove to the base of Mt warning, parked the car and got some food and water sorted for the journey as we new it would be around a 5 hours and wanted to be fully prepared. We started the walk up a never ending set of stairs that wound its way thought the lush rainforest, the stairs then changed to a rough dirt track that seemed to get rougher and rougher the higher we went. It wasn’t that bad a walk and we didn’t find it that
steep even though it was constant uphill climb, must be getting fitter from all this walking Emily and I have been doing the past month!!
As we climbed our way up the mountain you could see the trees and vegetation change from dense rainforest, to forest to bushes and small trees and then getting rocker as we approached the top. The last 100 meters of the mountain were the best because we had to climb using hands and feet up this near vertical rock face to reach the summit. There was a chain rail to help people that struggled but I was in my element and tried to climb the section faster than everyone else, I had to wait 5 mins for Emily has she didn’t enjoy this bit nearly as much as I did. As I climbed up the last section we did come against a group of people that decided it was too much of a challenge and turned back, also there was another women who had frozen with fright half way up and need 4 people to help her back down again. I did get a couple of people ask how I was finding it so easy
to climb but all I could do was laugh as I was so out of breath as it felt like being a little kid again trying to climb a tree that no one could climb!
Once at the summit and joined by Emily who had finally made her way to the top a few minutes after me, we were met with the most amazing 360 degree views, it was breath taking we could see all the way to Bryon bay in the distance (where we had left that morning) and then right up coast to Surfer paradise (where we were heading this evening). We sat and stared for ages in ore of the magnificent views before us, I really couldn’t believe how high we were and how far we could see it must have been at least 100kms in all directions!! Just look at the pictures!
I was so happy as I have wanted to climb a mountain for ages and I found this to be to great fun and not nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be. The views were astonishing, especially looking out at all these other mountains beneath us and all the
massive lakes that looked like small puddles of water from up here.
There were 7 viewing platforms all position 360 degrees around the summit, so Emily and I were going from one to another taking in the view at each section when moving on to the next when suddenly I was grabbed by a large bloke and pulled back, to my shock he had just prevented me from walking right over the huge 2 meter long brown and yellow snake!!! I was so taken with the views I hadn’t noticed the 4 people stood staring at the snake as it slithered into the undergrowth. I later found out that it was a tiger snake, yet another highly dangerous creature of Australia!! I was so excited as I had been on the look out of snakes since I have arrived here and have now finally seen a snake that could kill me with on single bite, Wahoo!
We had our lunch at the summit before starting the walk back down again, well more of a reverse climb to start with. Getting back down was a little harder than climbing up but just as enjoyable with the added bonus you could
look out at 100kms of landscape as you climbed down instead of a stone rock face on the way up!! I had to wait for Emily again as she really didn’t enjoy the downward climb either and she was so relived when we got back on to the path to stroll back down though the rainforest.
Half way down we watched a helicopter rescue team fly rescue a woman that had fallen and hurt her leg which was a bit of excitement to break up the journey. We also saw 2 other people that had tripped and hurt themselves on the way back down over the uneven ground and slippery rocks. Seeing these injured people really made us think as we thought we had come prepared bringing water and food but in reality we had just climbed a huge mountain with no plasters, bandages, anti-venoms or even a phone to call anybody if we had a problem (and even if I did have the phone I didn’t know the emergency number anyway)!! So I have now noted to myself from now on when I undertake climbing a huge mountain in the middle of nowhere I will come a lot
more prepared for an emergency.
We got back to the car park 4.5 hours after setting out on the walk but this time there were 4 emergency rescue vehicles, ambulances blocking the car park etc and around 15 people making there way up the mountain to rescue all the injured walkers. As I pasted by the ambulance on the way to my car we noticed another tiger snake basking in the sun on a big branch. It’s funny I haven’t seen a deadly snake since traveling and now I see two in a day!
We got back in the car and decided we still had enough time to go and explore some more of the national park, so we drove of to a look our area that was marked on the map. What we hadn’t expected was that we would be taken down the rough windy grave road through thick forest and over all these small wooden bridges that look like there were made 100 years ago. I think we ended up driving down what looked like a farm track for nearly a hour in the hope of trying to find this look out, but as the road got
worse and worse we finally came to huge drop in the road that meant have to drive full pelt though a small river at the bottom and then up a very steep climb the other side on loose gravel!! At that point both Emily and I turned to each other laughed and decided that enough was enough as the road had been get worse by each mile and this was the final straw, so we turned around and headed back. We were a little disappoint having driven for such a long time to find nothing but the journey was great fun and totally unexpected so wasn’t completely pointless as we got to explore yet another area of this fantastic country.
We did mange to navigate our way back to proper tarmac roads and in a little over an hour we were back in civilization and heading to the twin towns of Tweeds head and Coolangatta which is on the border of New South Wales and Queensland.
We arrived there just in time to get the tent up before the sun went down and the heavens opened in terrific down pour! Both of us were so tired from climbing Mt
Warning, we just headed to the shop for some food and stayed at the campsite all evening relaxing as we could face anymore walking!
The reason we stopped here was because of a conversation Emily and I had had with an old couple back in Yamba, they had mentioned a festival going on here all weekend with live music up and down the high street and all kinds of lovely old cars. Apparently they blocked of the high street for the whole weekend and you are able to walk around listening to all these live bands and looking at all kinds of old cars. Other than that we didn’t know what else to expect.
So after a relaxing previous evening I woke up bright and early to head into town to see what was going on, well I have to say it felt like we had just been transported back to 1950’s America. I had discovered by now that it was a 50’s themed festival with loads of music from Jonnie cash and of course Elvis. All the cars that were driving around were also from the 50 and 60’s and mostly from America.
There was a great feeling
around the place with everyone in high sprits, it turned out that this is a really big event here and there was a great buzz from everyone around. We did notice though we were some of the youngest around and the majority of the people were 40+.
There was loads to see and keep us entertained including all the usual rubbish stands selling useless stuff that no one needs or will every use again. Most surprisingly though was that there was no beer tent anywhere!! In England that would be the main tent at every festival and positioned right in the centre and always full to the brim with people, well here there wasn’t even an out side bar to get a drink! I just couldn’t believe it no beer tent at a music festival, it wouldn't happen in England!!
In the evening be headed to the twin towns club as I knew they sold alcohol there and after looking at all those cars and walking around all day we were well up for a drink or two. In Australia they have these big clubs everywhere, inside there are usually 2 or three different bars, a restaurant and a
gaming room full of pokies (Aussie bandits) all under one roof. These places are normally pretty big, but as this one was 2 towns joined and on the border was absolutely huge I couldn’t even guess how many thousands of people were in there, there seemed to be room after room after room as we walked around the different levels and floors. It was like be inside a huge luxury ocean cruise liner with everything you will every need in 1 building.
The next day we headed on up the gold coast towards the famous, high rise resort spot known as Surfers Paradise, we couldn’t wait!
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Libby
non-member comment
Enough Snakes Already!
You're giving me the e-bee-gee-bees with all this talk about snakes! Great mountain though. I have been asked - do you have to climb every mountain you come across or have you just got a thing about mountains and waterfalls?!! See you soon, get some snake repelent spray for our tent though, eh?!! Love Mum