Freedom Rocks Camping Adventures™ XII

April / May 2004

Location 1: Un-Marked Location of Unknown Creek

Location 2: Mount Warning, Mt. Warning NP - Northern New South Wales, AUSTRALIA

Location 3: Secret Beach Cove

Overview: An planned extended Camping Adventure, where we challenge ourselves to climb the notoriously difficult Mt. Warning.  Add a half day climb with a half day decent and what do you have? A full day Mountain Climb!  And this is just to start, over the 10 days that follow catch Christian enjoying the great outdoors, celebrating Freedom and the best way he knows how, In the Awesome Outdoors!  Due to financial issues this Adventure was reduced to 5 days.  After departing a little later than expected of Friday afternoon, we stopped by a creek and setup a tent in long grass, not the wisest of spots however the grass was soft and the creek was most relaxing in the middle of the night.  The following day we move to base camp 2 at the bottom of Mount Warning and decided to climb it that day!  We set off by foot from the Camping Ground not realising how far it was to the bottom of the climb to the top, so we walked an extra 4 kilometers!  It was good to give ourselves that extra challenge!  By 730pm we arrived at the summit and remained up there until about 30 minutes after sunrise the following morning (sunrise was about 6am)  It was the coldest I have been in many, many, many years - I am lucky I still have toes!  It was the coldest morning of the year would you believe! brrr... At least I spent the night there and was able to watch all the fires and house below.  It was a major festival in a town not far from the mountain so it was an exciting night to be on the summit.  Quick word of advice - Take Warm Clothes! To recover after our Mountain Climb we spent the next two days relaxing on a quiet un-spoilt beach.

Length: 5 days and 4 nights

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Night 1

Fire in the Long Grass

Day 2

Between Basecamp 1 and 2 we stop for a quick break for the next series of photos

Mud Burnouts

Just watched a car (caught on video) doing burnouts in the mud. Funny actually cause they got stuck and the passengers had to pile out to get out of the mud.

Flora

More Flora

Tree Engravings

From when??

More Engravings

No mud on my Jeep

Today

Mount Warning

Turn Here

Base Camp 2

Arrival on a busy long weekend

A Journey Begins

Always with the first step

A Journey Continues

Only if you don't turn around and head back

We Continued

Looking from the road to the camp site (in the white part)

Hard Trek

Here I am halfway to the bottom of the summit walk

Narrow Roads

To walk

Or get run over, lucky there wasn't many cars or buses. Yes tourist buses use the road too

Still walking

Still walking

A driveway

I'd love to have a driveway entrance like this

ooo - a 'rare tree'

On a very exciting walk, we come across one of many 'rare trees' - oops i forgot to photograph the tree, now you'll have to do the walk yourself to see it!

Mushrooms

Growing off a rock leadge above us

Getting closer

Carpet?

These plants growing on the edge of the road up the side hill was like carpet and lined most of our walk.

We're There! Almost

At the bottom of the summit walk, only about 4kms of bush track to go!

About half way

And the sun sets, to allow the rest of the climb in the dark!

Day 3

Good Morning! Just before dawn we were invaded by about 30 tourists also to watch the sunrise! The first in Australia to see the morning sun!

Brr it was cold

Anyone Cold

Looking not too impressed being so cold and hungry

Here it comes

Everyone ready?

Just over 1000m

There it is!

The Sun!

What we have been waiting for!

Gold Coast in distance

The final climb

The photo doesn't do justice for the angle of climb.

Ready to descend

A Chain

Yes, you NEED to use the chain to climb up the final part of the Mountain, and in the dark it is very wet and slippery

Mount Warning!

We made it down safe in about 2 hours. It is very easy to come down compared to going up.

Just the peak

Final Chain Climb about 200m

Going home

We Made It!

Only because we got a lift from some other campers we met at the top and again half way down the road towards base camp 2. Thank-you! I was almost dead.

Base Camp 2

Looking towards a little hill in front of Mount Warning

Around Camp

Our Camp

Our fire

Getting started nice and early - I refuse to get cold tonight!

A Spider

See closer

Mushroom Tree

Itch Itch Itch

Ouch, the is a Itch leaf. I itched for ages :(

Roaring Fire

Cat or Bull fire

Can you see a cat or a bull made of flames?

Day 4

Been there done that. Much happier after a nice rest and good sleep

Base camp 3

A final night camping on the beach was a perfect way to end a very adventurous camping adventure

The End