Mick's World

One of my good mates always talks about Mt. Barney. He is in love with the mountain. He’s been climbing it with his family not long after his baby steps.

For a long time he was talking about taking me up to the peak of the mountain and camping on top. Last year we did just that.

The summit is 1356 metres above sea level, and it’s the second highest peak in South East Queensland. It’s just over an hours drive South of Brisbane. Acording to this site about Mt. Barney:

The unmarked or barely marked trails to the peaks of Mount Barney require bushwalking experience and navigational skills. The climb up Mount Barney via South Ridge is arduous and should only be undertaken by very fit, experienced bushwalkers. Other peaks and routes up Mount Barney require a very high level of fitness, experience and navigational skills. All walks take at least 7 hours and should not be attempted late in the day.

We didn’t really walk on a track, we basically worked our way through the bush to the top. I am not very fit either, actually i’m just not fit. We did it in 6 hours. We were also carrying backpacks which were upwards of 20kg in weight.

The route we took was South East ridge and there has been a record of 58 minutes to climb that very route. The person that did that must have landed their UFO near by and decided they would like to give it a go.

Anyway before even getting to the base of the mountain there was about an hours walk from where we parked the car. Once we started getting closer to the mountain we were able to see the peak surrounded by clouds. At this point i was wondering what i was in for.

We continued along a dirt road until we reached what seemed to be a random point where my mate said, "This looks like the place". I didn’t know what he was talking about as we ventured of the road direclty into the bush and started ascending.

The walk was indeed arduous. Struggling up this beast of a mountain, the thing that got me to the top was definately mind power. The continuous upwards battle against gravity with a pack on my back, altering my center of gravity made it interesting when scrambling up a shear rock face with a 50 metre or more drop, an arms length to one side.

Step after step would get us there, over another rise, down a small gully, over and over. Along half metre wide walkways with a large drop down the side of a cliff.

The strenuous journey would see us reaching the peak just after midday, to meet a view that was well worth the effort.

In this photo the first mountain inline with where i was standing is Mt. Ernest and the one behind it, that looks like a cake on top, is Mt. Lindesay. Here’s a photo i took while at Mt. Tamborine a couple of weeks ago.

That night we camped about 1 metre from a cliff face as this was the only suitable surface to set up a tent. Being so high up, as the sun was setting, looking both east and west we were treated to a spectacular sunset and moonrise.

The next morning we awoke to yet another beautiful scene from the top of the mountain.

A sea of cloud, which we were high above, covered the surrounding area and mountain tops.

What goes up, must come down. Coming down was possibly more painful than going up, as we took a different route and it was made up of uneven steps one after the other.

Once we were back on the road towards the car we were able to check out the beast of a mountain that we had climbed the day before.

I’m looking forward to climing the mountain again in the future, the pain and acheivement of conquering a mountain such as Barney was a great feeling.