Thursday, April 20, 2006
Mount Warning
Photos >>
Since then, the gentle slopes (typical of a shield volcano that spews forth lava of low viscosity) have been eroded away to form steep escarpments and rugged peaks, surrounding the core.
As a result of this recent volcanic activity, the region is fertile and green, and with plenty of rain, the mountains’ slopes are predominantly rainforested. Mount Warning now forms the heart of a series of National Parks, which are World Heritage listed.
Mount Warning was so named by James Cook, to warn (presumably) future navigators of shoals (dangerous ones, I guess) on the coast, at a place he named Point Danger. (See box right.)
It is a pretty stunning peak, and seems to rear up at you from odd angles as you drive along the roads in the Tweed Valley below it.
At the outset, I was pretty confident of getting our 5 year old (what’s his name again) to the summit. Then I read this: Big Volcano, which paints a slightly harsher picture of the climb, all “legs at melting point” and “hearts racing at130 beats per minute”. But all the time I was reading this I was thinking ‘yeah, but my Mum got to the top!’
The local national parks guide states that Wollumbin (to give the peak its local Aboriginal name) - like Ularu - is a sacred site and as such, people (actually, the “uninitiated”) are requested to consider not climbing it. Despite this polite plea, about 20,000 people each year do and few things typify the cultural chasm that divides Western and Aboriginal conceptions of the natural environment.
Whereas Aborigine people consider Wollumbin a “sacred mountain and […] therefore of considerable spiritual and cultural significance. [A] place where the Law Men gathered to receive guidance from Babara (God) and put Natural Laws into practice for the wellbeing of Marmeng (Mother Earth), people of a liberal Western philosophy, like myself, see it as a “bloody big mountain, which therefore requires conquering.”
Whilst both philosophies can sufficiently justify the mountain’s protection and respect of such places, for one of them the mountain is spiritually tied to a fuller understanding of one’s place in the environment, to another it is ‘a really good day out, offering stunning views of the surrounding countryside.’
The climb itself is not too stressful; the very personal story of suffering and exhilaration was somewhat over-egged. Whilst it boasts a peak of 1,185m, the drive up the valley to the parking area probably drags you up 400m of this.
You climb-up through a changing succession of habitats as the microclimate gets progressively wetter, then steadily drier and more exposed towards the heathland on the top. There are some fine gnarled old mountain ash trees, just before slabs; big trees grinding out a living on soil no deeper than a few inches.
The final section at the top of the track is a steep scramble (with chain assisting) up the last 200 metres of altitude to a round, flat peak with several viewing platforms.
The views from the summit are fantastic and thus worth the trip. When it is cloudless, as it was, you get 360 degree views of the region. Northwards you see the piffling man-made effort of Q1, pushing up through 300m. To the West you get a sweeping vista around the Lamington NP plateau and over the crest to Mounts Lindsay and Barney. To the South and East you can see the lighthouse at Cape Byron.
The walk down was easier than the walk up, pretty much every step descending.
Photos are here >>
Mount Warning
Posted by Living with Matilda at 9:36 PM
Photos >>
Since then, the gentle slopes (typical of a shield volcano that spews forth lava of low viscosity) have been eroded away to form steep escarpments and rugged peaks, surrounding the core.
As a result of this recent volcanic activity, the region is fertile and green, and with plenty of rain, the mountains’ slopes are predominantly rainforested. Mount Warning now forms the heart of a series of National Parks, which are World Heritage listed.
Cook’s Journal
16 May 1770
“We now saw the breakers again within us, which we passed at the distance of about 1 League; they lay in the Latitude of 28 degrees 8 minutes South, and stretch off East 2 Leagues from a point under which is a small Island; their situation may always be found by the peaked mountain before mentioned, which bears South-West by West from them, and on their account I have named it Mount Warning. It lies 7 or 8 Leagues in land in the Latitude of 28 degrees 22 minutes South. The land is high and hilly about it, but it is Conspicuous enough to be distinguished from everything else. The point off which these shoals lay I have named Point Danger;”
“We now saw the breakers again within us, which we passed at the distance of about 1 League; they lay in the Latitude of 28 degrees 8 minutes South, and stretch off East 2 Leagues from a point under which is a small Island; their situation may always be found by the peaked mountain before mentioned, which bears South-West by West from them, and on their account I have named it Mount Warning. It lies 7 or 8 Leagues in land in the Latitude of 28 degrees 22 minutes South. The land is high and hilly about it, but it is Conspicuous enough to be distinguished from everything else. The point off which these shoals lay I have named Point Danger;”
Mount Warning was so named by James Cook, to warn (presumably) future navigators of shoals (dangerous ones, I guess) on the coast, at a place he named Point Danger. (See box right.)
It is a pretty stunning peak, and seems to rear up at you from odd angles as you drive along the roads in the Tweed Valley below it.
At the outset, I was pretty confident of getting our 5 year old (what’s his name again) to the summit. Then I read this: Big Volcano, which paints a slightly harsher picture of the climb, all “legs at melting point” and “hearts racing at130 beats per minute”. But all the time I was reading this I was thinking ‘yeah, but my Mum got to the top!’
The local national parks guide states that Wollumbin (to give the peak its local Aboriginal name) - like Ularu - is a sacred site and as such, people (actually, the “uninitiated”) are requested to consider not climbing it. Despite this polite plea, about 20,000 people each year do and few things typify the cultural chasm that divides Western and Aboriginal conceptions of the natural environment.
Whereas Aborigine people consider Wollumbin a “sacred mountain and […] therefore of considerable spiritual and cultural significance. [A] place where the Law Men gathered to receive guidance from Babara (God) and put Natural Laws into practice for the wellbeing of Marmeng (Mother Earth), people of a liberal Western philosophy, like myself, see it as a “bloody big mountain, which therefore requires conquering.”
Whilst both philosophies can sufficiently justify the mountain’s protection and respect of such places, for one of them the mountain is spiritually tied to a fuller understanding of one’s place in the environment, to another it is ‘a really good day out, offering stunning views of the surrounding countryside.’
The climb itself is not too stressful; the very personal story of suffering and exhilaration was somewhat over-egged. Whilst it boasts a peak of 1,185m, the drive up the valley to the parking area probably drags you up 400m of this.
You climb-up through a changing succession of habitats as the microclimate gets progressively wetter, then steadily drier and more exposed towards the heathland on the top. There are some fine gnarled old mountain ash trees, just before slabs; big trees grinding out a living on soil no deeper than a few inches.
The final section at the top of the track is a steep scramble (with chain assisting) up the last 200 metres of altitude to a round, flat peak with several viewing platforms.
The views from the summit are fantastic and thus worth the trip. When it is cloudless, as it was, you get 360 degree views of the region. Northwards you see the piffling man-made effort of Q1, pushing up through 300m. To the West you get a sweeping vista around the Lamington NP plateau and over the crest to Mounts Lindsay and Barney. To the South and East you can see the lighthouse at Cape Byron.
The walk down was easier than the walk up, pretty much every step descending.
Photos are here >>
Posted by Living with Matilda at 9:36 PM
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