Part 1 – Old and new introductions

The last time I had a week long climbing trip was to Victoria to visit and climb with Dan in the Grampians.  Originally planned for Easter 2020, it was delayed by two years due to the pandemic.  Early last year, Dan and I started to chat about another catch-up.  An adventurous one that would see us sail into the Bass Straight between Australia and Tasmania, and climb on a remote place called Deal Island.  A week before I was to fly out he dislocated his shoulder and the trip had to be canned.  The big question left hanging was what to do with the flights:

One option I had floated with Howsie was to go to Victoria and spend a week at Arapiles.  In some ways it is a bit like Stanage in England.  Both are a great place to learn trad climbing, boast over 2,000 routes, and are very accessible.  Stanage however only has routes up to 20m high, whereas Arapiles has lines towering up to 140m.  Long trad multi-pitch routes are what I love. The timing seemed perfect for spring this year, marking my thirtieth anniversary of the one and only very short visit I have had there.  But the plans changed:

Howsie’s brother, Mikie, caught wind of our plans and hinted we might want to head to Queensland.  Rumour of our possible visit got out and Rongy, who happened to be over that way, was also keen to get in on the action.  So it was that close to a year and a half after Dan and my plans were forming, Howsie and I flew to Brisbane.  I do hope my next climbing trip is not quite as convoluted and delayed in the planning.  It felt like this trip was far off for a long time, and when it eventually arrived it was a very much needed circuit breaker from work:

Mikie, along with his wife Helen and three young kids Rupert, Bryn, and Maggie, live on Bribie Island.  A short car trip north from Brisbane airport, which we drove after our red-eye flight that saw us get a maximum of three hours sleep.  I’ll provide more detail about Bribie Island later on, but fair to say the first impression was a quiet and pretty seaside town.  A popular getaway destination, and being the Queensland school holidays it was busy but never too crazy.  Better still the island is located on the doorstep of the Glass House Mountains:

The Glass House Mountains had on offer big two to three hundred meter routes.  But before we went climbing, the morning was spent catching up with Mikie and Helen, and Howsie of course had uncle duties to perform.  With three young kids, putting us two up for a week was no small undertaking.  I was given the luxury of a granny flat, and Howsie took the caravan giving everyone a bit of space.  And there has to be a massive shout out to Helen, who kept the kids entertained while we kept Mikie entertained with our trips out:

We were however also conscious of not making home life too busy and unrelenting for Helen.  Our start times were generally fairly relaxed, and we didn’t climb till light faded.  Aiming to get back to the house by approximately three most days, so we could give a hand with the kids.  Due to our close proximity to the crags and the relatively short walk ins, with nothing more than half an hour, there was plenty of time to climb.  Plus if we were to keep going for eight days straight, we needed to pace ourselves to avoid getting burnt out:

The risk of getting burnt out was not only from the climbing but also the climate.  We have had a bit of an unusual end to winter and start to spring in Australia.  The southern parts have been hit by windy, wet, and cold conditions, while the northern parts have been hit by a heat wave.  Temperatures reaching ten to fifteen degrees above the expected averages.  Where Mikie lives was no different and just a week before we got here, the temperatures were in the thirties.  Being Queensland you can add the humidity to that, so it gets hot and sweaty:

I don’t like climbing in the sun, and certainly don’t perform well in heat and even worse in high humidity.  It was a risk, and coming here in spring elevated that risk.  In fact the majority of local climbers consider our visit here to be outside of the climbing season.  Autumn and winter being regarded as when the weather is great for this type of activity, and as spring works its way in the temperature and humidity start to put people off.  Then comes the wet season, when only the real diehards might be seen out on rock:

Indeed Mikie had suggested we leave our warm clothes at home, but I came a little more prepared than that just in case.  In part because, just in time, there was a promising looking forecast for while we were to be here.  Great temperatures that steadily increased as the week progressed.  And with the great outdoors beckoning, and after we had settled in and caught up, it was time to hit some rock.  Our first destination was Mount Ngungun, which has several short crags on it with mostly single pitch climbs:

Mount Ngungun is the smallest peak in the Glass House Mountains, at only 235m high.  There are thirteen peaks that rise out of the otherwise flat landscape.  Remnants of volcanic plugs that have resisted the erosion of time.  A process that has lowered the landscape around them, into what we see today.  These plugs were formed 26 to 27 million years ago, but the Glass House Mountains were only named as such in 1770, by Lieutenant James Cook.  This was because the peaks reminded him of the glass furnaces in Yorkshire, back in England:

The area is of course steeped with a much older cultural history, having deep spiritual importance for the Jinibara, Gubbi Gubbi and Kabi Kabi Traditional Owners.  And in more recent decades joint agreements have been put in place to ensure appropriate management of the area.  This has generally, so far, not prevented climbing.  Access and activities are however, and understandably, restricted on some peaks.  But not Mount Ngungun, and we aimed for the Upper Cliff, offering 40 plus meter climbs on the hexagonal basalt columns:

In planning where to climb, we were mindful that Howsie has been here before and of course Mikie has climbed all over.  We endeavoured to pick areas and routes that Howsie hadn’t been too, but also tried to find crags that were new to Mikie.  The Upper Cliffs were the perfect start and we picked three great, steep, sustained, and continually interesting traditional lines.  The cracks between and on the basalt columns looked great, but were deceptive in nature.  Flared and often blind, making gear placements a thoughtful process:

It was also an introduction to an unfamiliar style of climbing for Howsie and myself, adding to the mind game that climbing can play.  Mikie while a local, has not been out too much over the last year or so.  Family life having taken over.  So while he was bouldering fit from his indoor wall, leading fitness is quite different.  The three lines were all listed as classics, three stars hanging off their names in the guidebook.  Stars can be subjective, but in this case they were spot on, totally absorbing and engaging routes in a great position:

All three of them had us on edge the whole way up, and I could write stacks about each line but will restraint myself.  What a way to start the trip.  And despite the advice not to pack warm stuff, which was fine while climbing, all three of us got cold while sitting at the base or at the top.  But I’d rather be cold than hot, so that is certainly not a complaint.  In the evening Howsie put another one of his talents to the test, when reading the bedtime stories.  Keeping the boys interested with an impressive array of voices, which became a hit for the week:

Being amongst friends, once the kids had gone to bed, Mikie and Helen didn’t bat an eyelid when I would sloped off to the granny flat at a reasonably early hour.  Even before Rongy and Sarah had arrived, in their campervan.  After a chat with Lisa who was two hours behind me in Western Australia, that first night in a bed was bliss.  It was wonderful to catch up on some sleep.  I still however awoke early, at 4 most days.  And was grateful to have a small kitchenette at my disposal to have a brew or three before venturing into the house:

Rongy and Sarah are traveling about, hence the campervan.  They had a very stop-start beginning to their travels, with many a false starts for various reasons.  Since then they have however enjoyed a relative free lifestyle on the road in their big yellow van.  They have been in Brisbane for a few months now, working before they head back on the road.  Managing to take a week off work while Howsie and I were over.  Day two arrived and the five of us aimed for a crag called Serpent.  This place was in the Blackall Range, which was a bit further away:

It is a small but steep crag, that had one of the longest walk ins of the trip.  At only half an hour, but it was one of the steeper approaches.  Or was it that today it felt warmer and the air was a little heavier with moisture.  The drawcard for this place was a climb called Minotaur, one that Howsie had placed on his tick list.  It included a great geological feature, that simply had to played on.  We were all keen to jump on it.  However before we hit it, we were kept entertained with an offering of less steep climbs at the edges of the crag:

The cooling time for the lava that formed the basalt at this crag was different to that of Ngungun, changing the mineral sizes and rock texture.  Forming a rock mass as opposed to columns, needing a changed approach to the climbing techniques.  Another aspects that we aimed to keep mixing up on the trip.  You’ll have noticed a variety of images so far, that has included some flowers, trees, shrubs, and fauna.  Unlike my usual approach, I haven’t attempted to identify my finds.  There are simply too many, and I would spend days if I tried:

I will however get into more detail for some of them as I go along.  And I’ll start with the stick insects in three of the above images.  I believe that the small green and big brown specimens may be a very young nymph and adult male Titan Stick Insect (Acrophylla titan).  It is a bit of a guess as I didn’t look for the finer details that are required for a true identification, and is based on the short antenna and spines on the back of the thorax.  We only saw them on one climb, and didn’t see any more during the entire trip.  But there was plenty more to see:

Minotaur, above, was as good as we had hoped.  A steep line snaking it’s way between a huge flake that looked to be defying gravity.  After caterpillaring up this you poke out of a window, onto the steep juggy headwall.  It was the last route of the day, being our shortest day of climbing as a group.  The travel time and walk in having chewed into our ability to stay any longer.  That said the remaining routes were much harder and it was heating up, so I was happy to call it quits.  Ending on a high note of another well-deserved three star classic climb:

It was so good that it took a while for everyone to lead or second the very cool two pitch routes.  And while that happened the rest of us were kept entertained with a myriad of interesting insects and arachnids that were mulling about below.  The above insect is a nymph planthopper, probably of the Eurybrachys genus.  This one may well have lost one of its false antenna, which are located at the back of the body.  This is an example of mimicry to make it look like a different and more aggressive creature, to deter predators:

They also walk backwards to make the back look like the head, and then when the situation requires they can hop away quite some distance.  Sarah also spied this tiny arachnid, which I have, not surprisingly, had absolutely no luck in identifying.  It is likely to be a juvenile, being a mere millimetre or two in size.  What really intrigued us was the cluster of soil and leaf detritus attached to its back.  Again I can only assume this may have been a camouflage technique, but I can only find out about a spider in Mexico that is known to use this method of concealment:

Sarah also found some crag booty, a misplaced chalk bag with koala print.  She wasn’t overly interested in keeping it, so I nabbed that.  My two outdoor chalk bags are getting a little ratty and worn out, and this one will serve as a good replacement.  Arriving back at the cars Rongy and Sarah drove to Brisbane, where they are house sitting, while Mikie, Howsie and I went back to Bribie Island.  All up our first two days in Queensland had been great.  Two quite different crags, lots of new flora and fauna to spot, and catching up with friends:

Route summary

Sat 14 Sep – Mount Ngungun
Upper Cliffs
Icehouse 16*** 45m Howsie
Visions of a Transmitter 18*** 45m Krish
Ensorcelled 17*** 45m Mike

Sun 15 Sep – Serpent
Serpent Wall
Off With the Pixies 13* 18m Krish
Berserker 17* 15m Krish
Arcane Secrets 18* 12m Krish
Minotaur 17*** 35m Mike/Krish (alt)