New Year Hike

Hello! First blog of 2012 and the last year to get your blog on if you believe what the Mayans predicted! This blog contains the details from a hike my friend Tom and myself went on New Years Day, we are going to start up a blog together to log our adventured but for now I thought I would make a start and copy and paste it across later.  Think of this blog as a teaser, we will be posting about all the other hikes we have been on in much more detail as well as other tips along the way, but this will give you a taste of what is to come. 

We decided to go to our favourite spot which we call "The Falls", I can't tell you where it is, but it's a great spot and one we frequent on our hikes, which I will post the back logs soon. Here are "The Falls".

The falls are made up of three waterfalls. The first and smallest being "Little Red" which is the top left photo, the second and middle sized being "Wire Rope" right top and bottom photos and the last and largest "Lower Falls" which is on the bottom left photo. We haven't been able to get down to the bottom of "Lower Falls" yet as it is a sheer cliff drop, there is a way to get down by going about a kilometre to the right but we have decided against this, and have got rock climbing equipment to make the decent and allow us to explore the cliff line in more detail, we plan on doing this very soon.

For this hike we originally planed to leave on New Years Eve but I had plans on so we pushed it to New Years Day starting late in the afternoon. We knew that leaving so close to dark wasn't the greatest decision, but as we knew where to go and what to do, as long as we stuck to the plan and executed it right we would be fine. We left from Toms house at about 5pm, where almost immediately at the property boundary we encountered thick undergrowth that needed to be cut through, Tom led and used my new Smith & Wesson CKSUR7 Bullseye Search and Rescue 10.5" Fixed Blade to cut through, it worked great and we made it through to the first cliff line which most of the houses left and right of St Bernard's Pub back onto, we found same spot we have been using for a while and climbed down.

It was now a matter of remembering the way, the sun was so far in the west that no more light was getting through to the floor of the rainforest, only the top of the canopy was getting the last rays, we knew we had to keep moving or we would loose the light completely. We moved downhill in a straight line, easy going terrain, crossed a track that leads to where the owner lives (We have permission from him to camp on his land, always, always check out where you are camping and make sure you are in the clear), and then for about another 50 meters all good until we hit the great wall of lantana. We could see it thinned out ahead, and without enough time to go around we just had to go straight though it. Out came my new knide and I led us through it. For those of you who haven't done off trail hiking, it can get pretty hairy, you need to be on alert all the time, little did we know but the spot we chose to move through had a seriously eroded footing, and we couldn't see it until I first dropped a good foot, we slowly pushed on and could see the edge of the lantana only a few meters infront, I kept going and there was a log in front of me I didn't see under the thick undergrowth which threw me off balance and I nicked my left hand with the knife which is razor sharp.

Luckily the cut from the knife wasn't that deep and on with a bandage and moving on, we hit what seemed like an old fire trail or prospecting track cleared many years ago, as it was clear nothing had been through it since it was made, severely eroded, thick tall grass and small sapplings all over the once clear track, but it was still easy to navigate and took us right down almost to the falls, where all we had to do was follow the creek for 50 odd meters, scale down Little Red falls and then we had reached our spot and begun to set-up camp.

Our first priority was shelter, the light was fading quick and so we got into it quick, I set-up my hammock first (We both bought new Hennesy Hammocks, these are the go for ultralight hiking, great bit of kit), it was the first time either of us had used them in the field, I set mine up at home before without a hitch, while Tom hadn't got around to setting his up fully yet, so he got firewood ready so that by the time I had done setting mine, we set his hammock up and got the fire going as the last of the sunlight faded, we tried the flint, but it didn't work for us, we need to practice at home, it's an art. We used a jet lighter which got the fire going just before it ran out of gas (We had another backup lighter as well incase).

With the fire now burning away and everything setup, we took a moment to just sit back, proud that our plan worked out. I took stock of the food and Tom got some more firewood.


Food List

• 2 Fantastic Mi Goreng Noodle Bowls
• 2 Indomie Mi Goreng Noodle Packs
• 2 Nestle Country Cup Potato & Bacon Soup
• 4 Uncle Tobys Quick Sachets Creamy Honey Oats
• 1 Nestle Condensed Milk Tube
• 1 Nestle Milk & Coffee Tube
• 1 Coles Soy Crisps Bag
• 1 Grain Waves Chedder Cheese Bag
• 1 M&M's Bag
• 1 Starburst Babies Bag
• 6 Canadian Club Cola Cans

Then onto the cooking, we boiled up some water over the fire and made up the Fantastic Mi Goreng, we choose this as the trip was a quick plan and we didn't do up a proper food list and we are still gathering cooking gear which is my second point, the bowl was included which meant less weight and less gear until we get the proper lightweight cooking set.

We had a great night all in all, plenty of food, which weighed hardly anything and all of it packed down really small, as it was new years we took some Canadian Club, usually we wouldn't but this was an exception. We spent the night mostly catching up, telling story's, planing trips and just having a good time. Then it was off to bed to christen the new hammocks, which were great, really comfortable and worked flawlessly, Tom broke a clip on his, but after doing some research I found out he overloaded that clip, good thing it's only a 5c part. We did find later in the night however that it was quite cold, we didn't think the temp would drop that low for summer, so before we head out again we are going to get good quality sleeping bags, I have been tasked to find the best one for our needs, and am looking at a -5 Celsius bag, even though it only just hits freezing in winter on Tamborine Mountain if it does, due to the way hammocks are with the cool air coming up underneath the -5 sleeping bag will help provide a good barrier against this, and the sleeping bags we are looking at have a waterproof base so that will really provide a good weather barrier from below, they are the same sleeping bags used my several army's worldwide including the Australian and United States forces. The other pro of a -5 bag for us is we can take it to colder climates and if it does get to hot, then unzip and use it like a doonah.

A great sleep in to 11am once that sun started to rise we managed to put some good hours away, here is Tom checking out the morning view. 

Our camp, some coffee and oats for breakfast. 

We then went down to the plunge pool of Wire Rope Falls for a swim, it was pretty cold, seeing as the water has  a very small retention time and is encased in rock acting as a big heat sink and also gets hardly any sun it is quite cool, very refreshing though, there is some weed taking hold in there, I pulled some out but would of done hardly anything to eradicate the problem, hopefully with winter it kills it off.

Tom chilling out before we struck down camp and headed home.

We packed down camp and headed back home, we followed the creek back up, which is a good hike, challenging and the creek itself is stunning, there is a great section where it goes underground for 100 meters or so where by looking at the lay of the land you can see a very long time ago the land caved in on the creek past this section we reach the base of St Bernard's Falls then tack right going through an old film set, past the owners house and then back up the cliff and into Tom's back yard. I cleared a path through the undergrowth near his boundary for us so it will be easier next time we go down. That concludes this blog, hope you had a good read, feedback welcome and we hope to get the new blog up soon!

Sam

Give Me Love - Ed Sheeran (+)