Sep
9
The “Hike”
Filed Under General
It was decided at lunch afterward that our trip up Mt Cougal was a “hike” and certainly more than a mere “bushwalk”. And indeed it was. Information on the time up and back was mixed but for us it was a four hour round trip, taking it easy as things were a little slippery due to recent rain. Our group was Ben, Shell, Adrian, Jo, Sven, Kelli and myself.
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| Camera: Canon EOS 20D Exposure: 1/160-1/40 Aperture: f/5.6 ISO: 100 Focal Length: 21 mm Keywords: australia, cougal, gold coast |
The trip up was a quite rugged and sometimes very steep trail following the border fence in the Currumbin Valley to the twin peaks “The Cougals”. The pic above from the summit was a handheld HDR and a bit of messing with curves etc. It was quite a cloudy day by the time we reached the top and we narrowly missed the rain – which we could see in the neighbouring valleys. Most of my shots seemed to have a red tint like the white balance was wrong (?) – hope it was that anyway. Quick snaps from the journey in the gallery here. Sven also took quite a few snaps here. And bravo to all, as everyone made it to the top – no easy feat!
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| Camera: Canon EOS 20D Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125) Aperture: f/5.6 ISO: 100 Focal Length: 18 mm Keywords: australia, cougal, gold coast |
On the return journey Sven and I decided to check out a cave he had been told about which lay off the trail and allegedly lead out to hole on the cliff face. It was a concealed entrance behind a boulder.
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| Camera: Canon EOS 20D Exposure: 0.04 sec (1/25) Aperture: f/4 ISO: 800 Focal Length: 10 mm Keywords: australia, cougal, gold coast |
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| Camera: Canon EOS 20D Exposure: 0.067 sec (1/15) Aperture: f/4.5 ISO: 1600 Focal Length: 11 mm Keywords: australia, cougal, gold coast |
It was quite cramped inside but we managed to get to a point where we could see the light coming in from the other side and a very strong (and cold) breeze.
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| Camera: Canon EOS 20D Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60) Aperture: f/4.5 ISO: 400 Focal Length: 11 mm Keywords: australia, cougal, gold coast |
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| Camera: Canon EOS 20D Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60) Aperture: f/4.5 ISO: 1600 Focal Length: 11 mm Keywords: australia, cougal, gold coast |
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| Camera: Canon EOS 20D Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60) Aperture: f/4.5 ISO: 400 Focal Length: 11 mm Keywords: australia, cougal, gold coast |
Unfortunately the exit on the far side was very small and one would need to be very skinny or move in a sort of snake action to get out. This shot was painted with the torch.
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| Camera: Canon EOS 20D Exposure: 30 sec (30) Aperture: f/4.5 ISO: 200 Focal Length: 10 mm Keywords: australia, cougal, gold coast |
We had a brisk (and very hard on legs) jog to catch up to the others. Finally all who reached the bottom were very relieved and we made our way to the nearby rock pool area for lunch.
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Keywords: australia, cougal, gold coast |
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7 Responses to “The “Hike””
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I am so glad I didn’t look at those cave pics before bedtime – I would have had nightmares!
Yes, a hike it was. You know that last few seconds where you are about to fall asleep? – I had little flashes of slipping into oblivion, sticks pocking in the ear and generally nasty contractions of pain in my thighs. What a great day.
When you first pointed out the MOUNTAIN that we were going to climb – there were a few choice words exchanged. In the end it was worth it – for the view, the “bolt” and the encounter with the Kangaroo….great way to spend a Sunday..
Indeed. I forgot about the wallaby! We stalked a wallaby several hundred meters up a section of the trail before he decided he wanted to come back and made a daring dart right past us with a couple of very large tree-hopping jumps. That being his second attempt – on the first he did a huge brake and turn back at the sound of Michelle’s screams
Hey, there were supposed to be “pedantic observation” tags around that!
My apologies. My rather poor knowledge on these matters is: smallish=Wallaby, biggish=Kangaroo. I guess I am being racist towards those growth-inhibited kangaroos out there.