Pai seh, pai seh... haven't been updating my blog for a while. Have been extremely busy lately with work....
Anyway, to start the ball rolling, let's go back to the days before Heng Onn and Christina left Brisbane - 27 Jan 2008. On this day, the 4 of us (Heng Onn, Christina, Esmond and me), embarked on a journey that will test our endurance and physical fitness. We were hiking up Mt Warning, just across the QLD border into NSW.
Before we started off, we had to refuel ourselves (as well as the car...), so we headed off for Hungry Jacks at Springwood for breakfast. This time, Heng Onn is the driver...
After breakfast, we set out for a 1.5 hour drive across the border. We headed for the tourist information centre to get our bearings straight and to confirm on the route to take right up to the top of the mountain. We were advised that it would take an average of 4 hours to make a round trip from the foot of the mountain to the top and back.
The thought of a 4 hour hike is daunting. At every moment on the way to the mountain, I doubted if I could complete the whole climb. When we had parked our car and were at the foot of the mountain, there was no turning back. So with our best foot forward, we embarked on our climb up Mt Warning.
Due to the rain in the last few days, the trek was muddy and slippery. And before long, our shoes were all caked with mud.
On the way up the mountain, Heng Onn keep encouraging us to drink and rehydrate (to lighten his load in his backpack!). Before long, our water supply started to dwindle ....
The first part of the climb were countless flights of stairs. For me, it's the toughest part of the climb. Before long, our aching legs were screaming for help.... but we persevered, lured by the fact that the last part of the climb is so steep that we had to pull ourselves up with the chain. We were curious as to the gradient of the climb hence we pushed on...
After about an hour, we finally reached the half way mark... The view at the half way mark is....
On the way, we also saw.... "lizard in shining armour"....
All along our way up, a lot of people were on their way down. They gave words of encouragement and urged us to continue upwards, assuring us that the view up at the top was well worth it.
At last, we came to most anticipated portion, the last leg of the climb. We braced ourselves, strap our bags tighter and heaved ourselves up.
As we were going up, others were on their way down. The climb was steep and narrow and the chain was only on one side of the route. So we had to take turns to shuffle and keep to a corner, letting the others pass us and vice versa. Thought the climb up was hard and to a certain extent a little risky, it was most fun (for me).
After about half an hour, we have finally reached our destination - the top of Mt Warning. We immediately plonked ourselves down to give our tired legs a well deserved rest. We also realised that we were famished so we fished out the food that we brought in Esmond's backpack and laid it out on the circular bench in the middle of the platform.
All the other people who were there were staring at us. They must have been thinking that we were crazy to have lugged all these food up the mountain when all they brought were just a bottle of water and some nuts / muesli or grapes.
When we've had our fill and our legs were complaining less, we explored the surroundings and its view.
According to my aunty, this moss like plant on these branches can only be found in very clean and fresh environments. The air up there was indeed very refreshing.
Before long, we heard a family voice approaching. It was David. He had went to Mt Warning on the same day with his church mates.
When we've had enough rest, we headed down the mountain.
The journey down didn't take as long a time as when we were going up. I felt like my feet were acting on their own, putting one foot in front of the other automatically as if they had their own minds and were acting independently from the other parts of the body. As we had run out of water, Esmond and I drank some of the spring water from the waterfall. It was sweet and truly refreshing. We even filled our bottles with it. Too bad Heng Onn and Christina were not game to try some... My dad would have filled every bottle available to bring them back home with him.
It was close to 4pm when we reach the foot of the mountain again.
Once we got to the car, we refueled ourselves with isotonic drinks and some soda before heading off to the Gold Coast for a surprise birthday dinner with Jennifer and Rey.
Jennifer was kept in the dark about our plans. We made it such that it was a coincidence in meeting up with them at the Gold Coast. We had in fact, bought a birthday cake before we arrive at the meeting point at Oasis (opposite Conrad Jupiters Casino) and accidently "bumped" into her on our way to dinner.
Originally, the dinner was to be held at a Szechuan restaurant. However, Jennifer had decided otherwise and Esmond had to stop Heng Onn from leaving the cake with the waitress of the Szechuan restaurant while Christina and myself checked with Jennifer on where she'd like to have her dinner. Once we've got the answer, Esmond and Heng Onn proceeded on ahead on the pretence of getting a table. The surprise was a success as Jennifer had no clue that it was an arranged event by Rey. She was pleasantly surprised...
It had been a good day, albeit a long day. Hopefully, we will pluck up enough courage to hike up Mt Warning again.
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