Wednesday 12 December 2012

Mt Warning Madness

The photo is taken from the front of my niece's house the mountain you can see is Mount Warning. It's clearly visible from the Ocean and Captain Cook called it that to warn any sailors that might come after him that there was a really big problem ahead; namely  the Great Barrier Reef. You don't get bigger problems than that when you are sailing in unknown waters.

It's the worn down core of an extinct volcano the last erupted 15 million years ago. Then it was 2000 metres tall, now it's down to 1163 metres and there is a path up the side which takes anyone who wants all the way to the  top. So far I have been up that path 5 times but only a hundred metres. It's 720 metres straight up from the car park to the top and the view is spectacular. The local native tribe hold the mountain sacred and do ask people not to climb to the top and as I have mentioned I have so far respected their wishes.

However I foolishly mention to my nephew that the idea of going to the top on Friday morning had crossed my mind so before I could explain that this was just a tentative idea a whole party was being assemble to accompany me, or hopefully carry me. Some people go up in the early hours of the morning. Because it is in the east and it's height it means the summit is the first place in Australia to see the sun rise. I missed the sun rise at East Cape in NZ and I will miss it here. Even I'm not getting out of bed a 2am to watch the sun rise.

I'll let you know how I go on. 

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