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3rd day without Internet, it makes you realise how much you use it thats for sure!
I had a bit of a lay in this morning, but was pretty confused when I woke up - my phone was set to 'Sydney Time Zone' and it said it was 9something am, but it definitely didnt feel that late. It turns out that all the southern states, and WA have daylight savings, so their clocks goes forward an hour. However Queensland and everywhere north don't, so are on the same longitude, but are an hour behind.. Anyway, it was only 8am.
I got up and sorted all the animals and got my stuff ready to go and climb Mt. Tibrogargan, in the glasshouse mountains, like I had wanted to do yesterday. As I left the house I looked at the thermometer and it was already 28 degrees in the shade, at 9am... So got and extra bottle of water just incase.
When I got there the car park was really busy, and I bumped into a group of 5 young people who were about to do the same climb. They turned out to be Danish and Swedish students, studying at Brisbane uni. I got talking to one of the Swedish blokes called Martain, who was a right character and it appeared to be running their little possy, so joined their little group.
I have the information board photo on my camera, but it turns out it was meant to be a pretty treachous climb including 'rock climbing and high level of fitness', which you should allow 3-4 for hours. This made laugh, as Martain was still half pissed form last nights party somewhere, was still wearing the same clothes (including daps not real shoes) AND had no water at all, as he was 'going to fill his bottle here, but it wasnt drinking water'. All of this made me think it would be a good laugh, plus it was really much hotter than when I left home.
Long story short, other than the first 500m or so which was a boulder path, the entire climb was just that...either outright rock climbing, or bouldering, all the way until the last 100m at the top! It was brilliant fun and I really enjoyed it, but you did think at times as you were scrambling up near vertical rock faces 'if I slip off here, I will die'. I took lots of photos on my camera, which having looked at them when I got home are quite good, but dont really show quite of steep some of it was.
The little group got split up quite early on, with the 2 guys and one of the chicks charging on ahead, and the other 2 chicks lagging behind. I ended up getting left behind too, due to talking to other random people (who were mostly coming back down coincidently) and trying to help out one of the girls with some of the rock climbing.
In the end the 2 chicks just couldn't get past one of the hardest parts half way up, and turned back. I was quite far behind the others so just did it at my own pace. Really I was quite glad for it, as it was absolutely boiling hot and pretty hard going.
Eventually I got to the top, and it was more than worth all the climbing! Despite it being quite a hazy day, the views were incredible. Took lots of photos and had a sandwich in some shade, before turning around and coming back down.
The way down was actually a little easier than I expected. Despite it being steep, it was just possible to scoot down most of it on backwards all-fours. At the hardest point about half, where the girls bailed on the way up, there was a bit of a jam of people. So I just sat out the way waiting for a few minutes.
While I was sat there a few head-sized boulders came flying down the face of the mountain, where they had been dislodged by people scrambling around further up. It all happened really quickly, but one of the women who was struggling getting down the hard bit, had her head missed by a boulder big enough to kill her by a couple of feet, which was a bit scary.
By the time I got down to the bottom where it goes back into a boulder path my legs were pretty wobbly, and despite having drunk about 1.5 litres of water I think I sweat it all back out, so felt pretty dehydrated.
There I bumped back into Martain and his group, and by then he looked pretty worse for ware. Among other things he said pretty convincingly "I need some food and water before this hangover kicks in". Nutter!
I drove the 15ish minutes home, and just dropped all my stuff and jumped in the pool with all my clothes on, I was absolutely baking. When having some lunch and drinking a huge amount of water I looked at the thermometer again, and it was only 34, but it felt much hotter.
Once I felt back to normal again I spent most the afternoon lounging around in the pool on the Lilo thing pretty tired form the mornings climbing.
The family get home tomorrow sometime too, so I made an effort to go round the house and garden etc tidying up, to disguise all the parties I didn't have!
Having eaten and just writing this blog I got a message from the Prawn Fisherman I have been in contact with. The skipper of one of his boats is happy to take me out on a trip, which was meant to be tomorrow. However the forecast is pretty poor, and for last time I saw the swell report about 3 days ago, Tuesday there was meant to be some really sizeable swell around.. As a result he is going to get hold of me in the morning once they have decided if they are going to sea or not.. I must admit I really want to go for the experience, but would much prefer it if they go out a little later in the week!
In the evening I watched 2 really interesting programmes. One about Arnold Shwateniger (how you spell his surname I have no idea) and how he got to where he is, and his affairs etc. Then a documentary about Julian Asange (again spelt wrong I think..?) and WikiLeaks, which was very interesting.
(Photo - Bloody massive spider on the veranda at home!)
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