Oz Adventures: Climbing Mt. Ngungun

This past Tuesday, in an attempt to do something that was fun and free (with the exception of fuel costs), Tim suggested that we go climb a mountain.  Before you point out how ridiculous that suggestion sounds, let me tell you about the Glass House Mountains.  The Glass house mountains are a mountain range on the Sunshine Coast hinterland that are practically tailor made for recreational activity.  There is pretty much at least one mountain in that mountain range to suit each and every level of climbing experience and ability.  Mount Ngungun is suggested for "extremely fit walkers".  There are sections of walking that are quite steep but no climbing of actual vertical rock faces is required.  Here are some photos that I took on the way up the mountain:

I think that kookaburras are so neat.  So far, theirs is the only bird call that I can easily distinguish from all the others.  This pretty kookaburra was posing in a tree for me right at the beginning of the trail.

When we first arrived at the bottom of the mountain, a storm was starting to roll in.  We could hear some thunder rumbling in the distance and feel the first few drops of rain.  The kookaburras were laughing from the trees, and it was all very dramatic.  

Tim told me that, depending on how deeply you carve it, anything that is written on this type of tree will stay there for the duration of the tree's entire life.  Kinda neat!

After a 40-ish minute climb, we made it to the top.  Once I got up to the top and out into the open, I made a great new discovery... I'm deathly afraid of heights!  Normally, being up high doesn't bother me at all.  I absolutely love roller coasters and ferris wheels and skyscrapers.  There was just something about being up there above everything else surrounded by all that empty space; I felt like I was just going to fall off the top of the Earth.  I did manage to snap a few pictures, though.  The view was incredible, and the lightning was so close that I could feel it in my fingers when I held the camera up.  Every time the thunder crashed, it was so loud that I was afraid that the sound would shake me loose from gravity.  I might just fly away into the sky.  Lucky for you, it didn't, and I survived long enough to post all of the pictures for you to see :)

This one with the yellow flowers might be my favorite photo of the day.

 Just look at those storm clouds!  It was pretty intense up there being surrounded by all that electricity.

 Don't let the smile fool you... I was terrified!

In the end, I was very glad we went.  Tim's sister's place was on our way home, so we stopped by there to say hi to Alicia and the kiddies.  I got to hold tiny baby Harrison for a while.  He just stared at me for a few minutes, then fell right to sleep.  I think it was the first time I had held a baby since my sister was born.  I don't have a picture of myself with Harry but here is a super adorable photo of Tim's grandpa holding him.  Quite the generation gap!

How adorable are they?  After the visit, we went to Aldi and complained about how broke we are while spending more money on food.  Tim eats sooooo freakin much!  Then we went home.  Anyways, that was our little adventure.  Stayed tuned for more adventures because our life is so, so exciting!  Yep.  

I hope you all have a lovely day.

Cheers,

Amanda