Mount Greville - Monday 3rd July

Having missed out on climbing Mount Warning due to inclement weather conditions, I decided I would climb something in Lamington National Park. Brissy is conveniently situated not too far from the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and some National Parks inland, so is in fact a great place to be living methinks. Advertised at the Caravan Park was a walking guide operating under the name of ‘Boot’s a walking’, which reminded me of the song in ‘Full Metal Jacket’. Anyway, I’d rung up and there was a hike going off on Monday to Mount Greville, which I tagged onto. An early start, 6am, but what a glorious day. There’s something very self satisfying about getting up really early and doing something when no-one else is around – being somewhere at a time when most people are just getting up or starting work! As this used to be me, I was happy!

Who needs Navigation? It's the Captain!

The drive out to Lamington National Park was very therapeutic – the countryside was lush and green and largely empty – it’s such a large place, it seems that as soon as you leave the major urban centres there’s next to no-one about.

The hill we were climbing is one of a few in the area and is characterised by a heavily wooded base, cut by defiles and gorges that are impassable when the rains have been heavy. We decided our route up would be via ‘Waterfall gorge’ and back down via the spine of the hill.

The gorge was a lovely area, almost like a rainforest and stuffed full of plants and trees which we had to scramble over or around. On the way up, we saw a couple of rock wallabies, but I wasn’t quick enough on the camera – very exciting to see them live and in the wild. Considering there are 100 million plus of the kangaroo and wallaby family here in Oz, it’s a bit of a surprise this was my first sighting in the wild.

Luckily the day was glorious and the views from the top were rewarding – I’ve never enjoyed lunch in such solitude. On the way up, Margaret was telling me about some good climbs in the Glasshouse Mountains, on the way to Australia zoo, so with this in mind, I determined to climb one when I left Brissy.

One thing that also struck me was the amount of fire damaged trees. Margaret told me that the fire was only last year and is actually essential for the ‘bush’ to regenerate. It amazed me that in 10 months, so much had grown back – nature – phew!

The day finished at 4pm – when we returned to the car and found a full car park – strange considering that we’d seen no-one on the way up – I see what the intro on Wolf Creek meant when it said that 30000 people go missing every year in Oz!

After a great nights sleep, Tuesday saw me mooch up to Redcliffe, which was where the first colony in Queensland was founded before relocating to Brisbane after problems with water supplies.