Summit

                   NFL playoffs are a priority this morning, so Willy woke up at 7am to watch the AFC championship game. Meanwhile, Jenna went for a 2km swim at the pool right beside the beach. We read about this really challenging walk at Mount Warning in Wollumbin National Park. It’s described as a steep 4.4km (one way) climb, with a challenging final rock scramble. We drove 60km to get there, and started the walk at 1:40pm. After our last rainforest experience, we decided to take this one on well prepared – we wore shoes and packed warm clothes, raincoats, water, snacks and a phone in a waterproof bag. The walk started off fairly well groomed with gradual easy steps. However, this changed over time as the path became very muddy from the all the rain and made the rocks very slick. Our goal was to get to the top in 1.5 hours, and at the halfway point we had been walking about 40 minutes – under pace! Then, things got interesting. We passed several emergency helicopter points with emergency numbers to call for help. It also got a lot colder the higher we got. With 400 metres to go, we came upon “the chain” that was for the anticipated final rock scramble. The path was straight up rock climbing without being attached to anything, but you had a chain to hold onto. It was recommended from passing walkers to use both hands, and that a cast was going to present some difficulties. But there’s no way Willy was going to come this far and not go to the top. Success, we did it in 1 hour, 45 minutes to the top! We thought we we’re alone at the top of the mountain, however, there was a big ass snake keeping us company. We decided to head back down, which was a lot harder than going up. It took us 25 minutes to get back down the 400 metre rock face, and the rest of the walk seemed a lot easier after that. We finished the walk at 5:30pm, almost 4 hours after we started! What a great feeling (minus the legs shaking part). We drove to TweedHeads to spend our first night in the Gold Coast area.