Thursday, 9/27 Warrumbungle National Park

Snakes, bricks and breadknifes

Coffee and oatmeal for breakfast, packing for a long walk, and we were off to see some spectacular views of the park.

Are we gonna climb that Kevin?

     About 40 minutes into the trek we encountered a six foot long red-bellied black snake leisurely making his way down the trail. Australia has the distinction of being the only continent where venomous snakes outnumber the nonpoisonous varieties, actually nearly two to one. The RBBS is one of them, although it's fairly nonaggressive. Nonetheless, the Aussie family heading down the trail as we were heading up warned us about the snake, and we warily watched him as he slithered down the trail.

Good thing Neville's not a betting man!

    The park is one of the most popular in Australia, and the trail we were on is the most popular in the park. Surprisingly the first couple miles were set in brick pavers for much of the way, and the final ascent to the base of the famous dyke called Breadknife is constructed of galvanized metal stairs. The materials for these had to be helicoptered in. Some Aussies we met on the hike warned us that this was the only trail they'd ever seen in the country built to anywhere near that standard.

Not your typical mountain trail

     Once we reached the rock outcroppings overlooking Breadknife, we traded photo snapping favors with fellow hikers.

Hello to everyone back home, we miss you!

Little Devil Tower

Grass trees, summit lunch

     The normal route returns to the parking lot on a trail that circles the base of Breadknife. Instead we decided to proceed on to conquer Bluff Mountain, the highest peak in the park, which promised great views of the entire Warrumbungles.

Bluff Mountain

     It's a steep hike through a Grass Tree grove standing just below the summit. It was fairly slow going for us, but at least we weren't at Rocky Mountain elevations, but rather at around 3500 to 4000 feet.

Grass trees

     There is no tree line per se, but the winds and sun limit the growth of trees at the summit of the mountain, and the views were indeed grand. Plus we got to watch a pair of Wedge-tailed eagles soaring on the updrafts. Our long anticipated lunch of tuna and bread and carrots did not live up to expectations,however, the tuna being of a very cheap variety and nearly tasteless without any salt, the bread borderline moldy, and the carrots way past their best days. And to add to that, the stiff chilly wind on our sweaty bodies had us snatching paper towels and hats that threatened to take a short cut back down the mountain. (Memo to selves, don't save the lunch for the top of the mountain, and inspect the bread for little blue spots on it before you leave on your hike. Oh, and you get what you pay for when you buy the cheap generic tuna in the big cans.)

Lunch at the top of the mountain ain't all its cracked up to be

     We had a couple hours of knee grinding hiking back down to the LC, but got to see some nice Dr. Seussian woods along the creek near the end of the trail.

 Has Theodor Seuss Geisel been here?

     In all we walked around 10.5 miles and ascended and descended around 2800 feet of elevation. I'd like to think we could have done more, but sitting on the comfy vinyl seats of the car was a real relief, and my ambitious plans for dinner ended up being Tasty cheese and crackers with a little raw cauliflower thrown in to make it seem like a healthy meal. And wine and Tim Tam's of course.