Mt Warning Summit Trail

Today we decided to tackle the Mt Warning Summit Trail - a 9km, 5 hour trek from the Breakfast Creek base to the lookout at the top of Mt Warning.

We made an early start from our home base at Billinudgel, with a brief stop at Mooball, because we just couldn't drive past!  Mooball is a cute little town with black and white cow prints painted on the electricity poles and the general store - the Moo Moo Café (who of course have a variety of "Mooey" things to purchase). 



We came across a great giant motorbike which was actually a ride-able bike.  Not sure what that had to do with cows, but nevertheless, we were on a time schedule so had to say "Hoo Roo to the Moo Moo" and continue on our way.

Mt Warning towers over the town of Murwillumbah in the Tweed Valley.  Mount Warning, the southern hemisphere’s largest extinct shield volcano, is the first place on Australia’s mainland to be touched by the morning sun.  As nice as it would have been to watch the sunrise, we instead set off at the more reasonable time of 10.15am.
 

From Breakfast Creek, at Mount Warning National Park entrance, the main walking track ascends through superb rainforest with strategic rest spots giving a variety of scenic views of the surrounding valley.

After clambering up more than 1000 steps, the trek ends with a challenging rock scramble before reaching the summit.  The photo below doesn't really do it justice, but suffice to say the rock scramble was almost vertical in some points, and continued for some 400 metres.

The reward at the summit (1157m) is a 360° panorama of the enormous eroded bowl of the caldera landform and rim, with coastal views stretching from the Gold Coast to Byron Bay.  It was the perfect place to picnic before heading back down again.
 

We were all pretty tired by the time we got back to the base car park at about 3pm.  Fletcher had walked about 7km of the 9km trek, only being carried in his "pack pack" for a short uphill stretch.  Jack and Jarrah had powered through, despite both of them suffering terminal blow outs in the joggers.

 

We were back at our home base of Billinudgel Hotel by 4pm for Friday night sundowner drinks.  I find it an interesting social phenomena that even a 9 km trek into the summit of a volcano has no identifiable impact on what many parents know as 'arsenic hour'.  Jack, Jarrah and Fletcher continued to wrestle, kick, punch, headbutt and generally beat the absolute bejesus out of each other this evening, despite the physically exhausting day they'd all had.  Guess that's boys for ya!