28) Running down under, Mt Warning

One the harder things to adjust to down here is the loss of soaring verticality amid the vast reaches of the broad horizon. In other words, this place is pretty flat! There is nothing even vaguely like being able to trot up to the 3rd before work and climb 1000' vert, or pop over to Eldo for a some quick pitches after work (or the well planned headlamp tours!). I am not sure there is the equivalent of the elevation gain on Flattop Mtn on the entire continent! Which is an amazing thought! (The high point is Mount Kosciuszko, 2229 metres - low is -15 meters).

Nancy has been pining for some real mtns to run -- in exchange we have found some gorgeous places above the ocean and through the rainforest where she can get in the verticle (if she goes up and down a few times!)


















We recently made the pilgrimage to "Wollumbin" ("fighting chief of the mountains" or"cloud-gatherer" depending on what source you look up). This volcanic neck is now known as Mt Warning -- named by Captain Cook to warn future mariners of the offshore reefs he encountered in May 1770. It was declared a National park in 1966 and became a world heritage site in 1986. Warning is a volcanic neck - the remnant core of the Tweed volcano - it sits at the center of the caldera on whose rim are the "border ranges" which include the major national parks in the area - Springbrook, Lamington, Border Ranges, Nightcap,

The plug of Mount Warning was composed of different rocks – gabbro at the base of the walking track, syenite on most of the mountain, and trachyandesite near the top.

The complex is about 22 myo "is elliptical, being 8 km maximum east-west diameter, and 5.5 km maximum north-south diameter. The structure we now see is a huge erosion caldera exposing the eroded remains of a large magma chamber. The trachyandesite plug (with minor plugs and radiating dykes) which is the central part of Mt. Warning rises to 1156 m, penetrating the volcano's outer ring dykes of syenite, as well as the surrounding gabbro and monzonite intrusion (itself intruded by the syenite) that now forms the plug's outer slope. The gabbro represents the oldest exposed rocks of the igneous complex. The ring dyke (intruded into a ring fracture) is generally less than 30 m thick and forms a steep-sided ridge. Alkali rhyolite (comendite) and trachyte dykes occur near the summit. The original vent would have been about 1940 m above sea level and over 30 km across. Thick rhyolite and basalt lava flows and pyroclastics were also associated with the volcano, extending up to 54 km away from the eruption centre."(http://www.amonline.net.au/geoscience/earth/warning.htm)


We have learned not to take things lightly here and our goal was to reach the top of this vegetated choss pile. That reliable source of up-to-date information-- "Wikipedia" (the go-to-source" for student information!) says "An ascent of the mountain takes approximately 2 to 3½ hours (one way) and requires a good level of fitness." It is an 8.8 km roundtrip with a vertical of about 700 m and includes the world renowned (via the Internet) "stairway to torture"! We made sure we got a proper Australian "alpine start" and got on the trail well before 1 pm.








We were safe - we got here by 12:45!










The dreaded "steps of
Pain"





Not a good place to hangout in a big e-storm!





















Summit - 360 views of the caldera from the center where it all began.


Wait, what is that rumbling noise? Is that some steam venting over there? Was that a little tremor.....?










Drive home via Fingal Heads. Great storm waves coming in on Dream Time beach, beautiful columnar basalts, dolphins playing in the waves.....