Jo Bloggs: The first sun, dolphins and whales

The climb of Mt. Warning
As promised in the last post our next bush walking mission (and the next post) would be on the trip to Mt. Warning in northern New South Wales. Since this mountain is very tall (1,157 m) and close to the most easterly point of Australia, its summit is the spot to see the first rays of sun on the whole continent!

We (Am, Michelle and myself) started the 2 hour drive late Friday afternoon (some people have this strange thing, they call it work, which does not allow them to nick off at 10am on a Friday - strange....). This meant that we arrived at the campsite near Mt. Warning after nightfall and on top of that there was a dense cloud cover, some light drizzle and lightning in the distance - not the ideal conditions for a night walk to the top of an exposed mountain.

And yes, you've read correctly: a night walk! To enjoy the privilege of seeing the first sun (that is if the sun is visible) one has to get up at 3 in the morning in order to complete the climb before 5.50am. The views of the ascend are limited to the small pool of light from a head torch which gets increasingly smaller if you have forgotten to put in new batteries! But it was an awesome experience to walk among the huge rain forest trees in the light of a full moon.

However, we had three torches and could shuffle batteries between them. This might not seem very organised but the true Aussie approach is still quite different. At the car park (which was quite crowded for this hour of the night) we met two guys who tried to find the start of the walk in the dim orange light of their dying torch. This, however, was no reason for concern for them. "Do you know where the walk starts? We only have this half-assed torch but are really keen to go."

My suspicion is that the boys left in the middle of the night to do that walk without thinking about a torch at all. Arriving at the start the probably went: "Gee, this is really dark, it would probably be good to have some light! Maybe this old torch in the toolbox still has some life left in it". Anyway, as we were changing around batteries between our torches half way up the mountain, we wondered how our fellow climbers were doing. And the next second the round the corner making good progress in that little orange speck of light.

After the strenuous two hour walk we reached the summit and were in for another surprise: There was already a party of some sort going on - close to twenty people had found there way up despite the cold and the unstable weather conditions. There were the usual elderly, which you seem to meet at every tough bush walk in Australia (much to one's frustration and detrimental impact on one's sense of achievement). We also saw that a group had camped up the top and were preparing coffee and a big breakfast.

Fortunately the weather was great and we could see all the way to the coast and Byron bay in the clear moonlit night.

(View to the coast. Byron Bay is the headland in the distance to the right)

Since, we rushed the walk a bit (sorry Shell!) we had ample time to enjoy the nice view before the actual event. Looking at the hundreds of photos I took, it seems that I was obsessed with small pools of mist that had collected in the valleys below (I put only one of the shots in...)

For some awfully cold twenty minutes an orange shine on the horizon kept us riveted despite freezing cold winds.

At this point, it might be interesting to share another bit of the Aussie way of doing things: Clothing and weather. Living in a subtropical climate you would think people get sensitive to cold (at least I got). But Australians seem different. In winter and pouring rain you meet them in shorts and t-shirt wearing their compulsory thongs (flip flop). But for a bushwalk they would surely change their attire? But there on the top of Mt. Warning one could admire the whole range of clothing. From windbreakers and gloves, pants and jumper (I was part of that middle range and freezing my ass off) to shorts and t-shirt. And to everyone's amazement the guy in his light gear got himself a nice cold beer as the time of the sunrise neared.

But then finally, the first rays of light on the Australian continent appeared at 5.55am and made us forget the early start and the cold.

If we had initially thought it might have been nicer with less people, we were wrong. It was like a small party: Everyone (except for us foreigners) joined in singing the national anthem, champagne was opened and drunk, food shared around and everyone took a photo of everyone else.

After that it was time to explore the other sights the 360 degree view of Mt. Warning has to offer. As I mentioned last time Mt. Warning is the large volcano in the centre of the scenic rim.

This meant that we could see the locations of all the other walks we had done in the northern section of the scenic rim (Lamington NP, Springbrook NP and Mt. Cougal)

The scenery was lit by the first sunlight with the full moon still visible in the background.

And there were more pools of mist in the valleys...

The following are a few shots form the descent:

(From the way up, I did not quite remember that it was that steep)

(Michelle getting infected with the photo virus)

(The team on the way down - huge spear lilies lined the track)

And this is it Mount Warning from afar - looks impressive, huh?

Byron Bay

After packing up the camp we drove to Byron Bay to enjoy the rest of the weekend on the beach. After a short nap (I am still tired today...) and exploring the beach right next to our caravan park (tent site with ocean view) we rewarded ourselves with BBQ t-bone steaks:

Unfortunately, Sunday should bring the rain that was promised for that weekend. But we were lucky that it started just after we finished breakfast and stopped again before we went to explore Cape Byron and the lighthouse.

Cape Byron is famous for opportunities to see dolphins and sometimes whales from the shore. During our small walk on Saturday we were already lucky enough to see dolphins surfing the waves. This shot is taken from a small headland and we could see the dolphins very clearly. The photo, however, is not so pretty and more to prove that we really saw them.

(The dolphin is near the centre of the photo - might have to look for a while)

During our walk along Cape Byron we lingered for a while at the most easterly point of the Australian mainland and there was a sign about whale migration and whale watching. I remarked that if they put up a sign they should also make sure there is a whale. At that point Shell really spotted a suspicious blow in the distance. After a while it turned out that there were really whales! As we watched the came closer to the shore and we could see them waving their side fins or jumping out of the water. They were still a fair way away but we could clearly see the shapes of the fins and the colouring. Again the crappy photo does not do this any justice: