Weekend of Adventures!
The Castle. A mountain a few hours south of Sydney that nobody knows about, yet, my dad's friends do, now so do I. It isn't particularly tall, yet extremely tough to go up. We've previously successfully made it to the tail before, but going to the head of The Castle could not be done.
At our last attempt, we camped down near the foot and began walking just after sunrise. We made the tail by lunch time and it was time to turn back. There was little light when we returned, and it was midnight when we got home. The plan this time. Once again, we camp at the foot, but this time, wake up at 3am. We got up in time, after hearing the weather fluctuate throughout the night (strong winds, rain...), we woke up to a warm, calm, clear morning with a full moon. It took us a while to get ready since it was quite dark. We drove (more like crawled) to the beginning ot the walking trail and at 5am, we began walking in pitch black. The moon was out, but was blocked out completely by trees. Luckily, we knew about that and were prepared. We had torches, they helped a bit, but for the first hour or two, our pace was slow.
Slowly, the sun rose and we were able to regain normal speed. Before 8am, we had our morning tea break. We were two hours ahead of our previous attempt. We continued walking through the bush. Mostly it's made of loose rocks, at places there are steps made from felled trees, more eroded places there are wooden steps. The trail itself isn't long in terms of distance, but it's mostly made of slopes that make the distance all the much longer.
By 10am we had reached our previous best. Last time we rejected the idea of continuing because it was too dangerous and it we did continue, we wouldn't have made it back down before sunset. But this time, our plan was to make the top, so we stared danger in our faces and continued. I have to admit, I had never been really scared until then. My legs were approaching the state of jelly. The cause, vertical cliffs. The cliffs we had to climb up weren't all that tall, however, there aren't safety gear whatsoever, except a rope left by a previous climber. There are a series of such cliffs, if you slip, you'll fall to the next level, however, that's unlikely as those 'platforms' are only wide enough for a person to stand, so when someone falls, that person would simply hit that platform and continue falling to serious injury or worse. Needless to say, we were slow going up the cliffs. We made it up with no incidents, except some scratches and bruises, and sore legs and arms. Many places upper body strength is needed to get up. Hang on to a rock and pull yourself up like you're getting out of a pool, except if you fall, there's nothing but rock.
The scene at the top is like nothing I have ever seen. Surprisingly, there's a lot of vegetation. All the vegetation is of the same type, around chest height. At places where there's no vegetation, it's rock. The rocks are all filled with waterholes, or dried up waterholes. At the bigger ponds where it's not yet dry from the drought, there are many tadpoles. First we saw small ones that are the size of watch's battery, then we saw ones that were probably just about to grow legs, they were as big as the nail on our pinkies. There's no official, or clear trail at the top. The top of The Castle is flat. Not many people actually make it to the top due to the cliffs. No, they don't fall to their deaths, but turning around is a good option as it truly is very dangerous. When we made it to the head, I saw a box that has striking resemblance with a clue box from The Amazing Race. I opened it, and inside, a book for those who made the trip to sign. Of course, we all wrote our comments. Behind the box, is the most spectacular view. Other mountains and rock walls can be seen, as well as farms, even the Pacific Ocean, more than two hours' drive away, is right there. It was the perfect spot to lunch.
After lunch, we realised that it was time to tackle the difficult descent. Throughout the walk towards the tail of The Castle, I thought to myself, "how would my legs be when I reach those cliffs?" When we got there, I took many deep breaths, and slowly began to slowly go down. Surprisingly, going down was much easier than going up, even though the potential for injury was much greater. I added a few more scratches, but made it safely down. By then, it was 1pm. Much more walking was needed for us to reach our car. Once again, it was the loose rocks and whatnot. It was then that the tiredness began to kick in for me. I wasn't sore at a particular part of my body, unlike my counterparts, who mainly had strains in the knees or thighs or calves. For me, it was overall tiredness. We walked and walked, walked and walked. Occasionally we breaked for a few minutes for water, but we still had to be down in time before sunset. Our plan wasn't to drive home that day, that would be completely idiotic. We were to camp another night. By the time we reached the bottom, our car, the sun was already hidden behind the hills, not set, but evidently dark. One look at the stopwatch, total time - 11 hours, and 47 minutes.
To be continued...
At our last attempt, we camped down near the foot and began walking just after sunrise. We made the tail by lunch time and it was time to turn back. There was little light when we returned, and it was midnight when we got home. The plan this time. Once again, we camp at the foot, but this time, wake up at 3am. We got up in time, after hearing the weather fluctuate throughout the night (strong winds, rain...), we woke up to a warm, calm, clear morning with a full moon. It took us a while to get ready since it was quite dark. We drove (more like crawled) to the beginning ot the walking trail and at 5am, we began walking in pitch black. The moon was out, but was blocked out completely by trees. Luckily, we knew about that and were prepared. We had torches, they helped a bit, but for the first hour or two, our pace was slow.
Slowly, the sun rose and we were able to regain normal speed. Before 8am, we had our morning tea break. We were two hours ahead of our previous attempt. We continued walking through the bush. Mostly it's made of loose rocks, at places there are steps made from felled trees, more eroded places there are wooden steps. The trail itself isn't long in terms of distance, but it's mostly made of slopes that make the distance all the much longer.
By 10am we had reached our previous best. Last time we rejected the idea of continuing because it was too dangerous and it we did continue, we wouldn't have made it back down before sunset. But this time, our plan was to make the top, so we stared danger in our faces and continued. I have to admit, I had never been really scared until then. My legs were approaching the state of jelly. The cause, vertical cliffs. The cliffs we had to climb up weren't all that tall, however, there aren't safety gear whatsoever, except a rope left by a previous climber. There are a series of such cliffs, if you slip, you'll fall to the next level, however, that's unlikely as those 'platforms' are only wide enough for a person to stand, so when someone falls, that person would simply hit that platform and continue falling to serious injury or worse. Needless to say, we were slow going up the cliffs. We made it up with no incidents, except some scratches and bruises, and sore legs and arms. Many places upper body strength is needed to get up. Hang on to a rock and pull yourself up like you're getting out of a pool, except if you fall, there's nothing but rock.
The scene at the top is like nothing I have ever seen. Surprisingly, there's a lot of vegetation. All the vegetation is of the same type, around chest height. At places where there's no vegetation, it's rock. The rocks are all filled with waterholes, or dried up waterholes. At the bigger ponds where it's not yet dry from the drought, there are many tadpoles. First we saw small ones that are the size of watch's battery, then we saw ones that were probably just about to grow legs, they were as big as the nail on our pinkies. There's no official, or clear trail at the top. The top of The Castle is flat. Not many people actually make it to the top due to the cliffs. No, they don't fall to their deaths, but turning around is a good option as it truly is very dangerous. When we made it to the head, I saw a box that has striking resemblance with a clue box from The Amazing Race. I opened it, and inside, a book for those who made the trip to sign. Of course, we all wrote our comments. Behind the box, is the most spectacular view. Other mountains and rock walls can be seen, as well as farms, even the Pacific Ocean, more than two hours' drive away, is right there. It was the perfect spot to lunch.
After lunch, we realised that it was time to tackle the difficult descent. Throughout the walk towards the tail of The Castle, I thought to myself, "how would my legs be when I reach those cliffs?" When we got there, I took many deep breaths, and slowly began to slowly go down. Surprisingly, going down was much easier than going up, even though the potential for injury was much greater. I added a few more scratches, but made it safely down. By then, it was 1pm. Much more walking was needed for us to reach our car. Once again, it was the loose rocks and whatnot. It was then that the tiredness began to kick in for me. I wasn't sore at a particular part of my body, unlike my counterparts, who mainly had strains in the knees or thighs or calves. For me, it was overall tiredness. We walked and walked, walked and walked. Occasionally we breaked for a few minutes for water, but we still had to be down in time before sunset. Our plan wasn't to drive home that day, that would be completely idiotic. We were to camp another night. By the time we reached the bottom, our car, the sun was already hidden behind the hills, not set, but evidently dark. One look at the stopwatch, total time - 11 hours, and 47 minutes.
To be continued...