1
I didn't even know if this beautiful picturesque place existed only a week ago.
As usual when 4 days of Easter holiday came along our hiking plan naturally popped up.
I've got a remarkable planner.
(Eddie truly devotes himself to what he likes with undivided enthusiasm and passion.
He plans, prepares and manages our hiking trips.
I usually welcome his plan with open arms but
as easily as I accept his plans and everything
to be honest I tend to complain to him without thinking sometimes.
I have to remind myself that the hiking for us is all about spending time together,
make a connection with each other.
It's not about finishing the task.)
Eddie suggested that we go hiking and camping in Warrumbungle National Park 3 days.
Warrumbungle sounded a typical indigenous name but I had never heard of it.
I jokingly asked him if there was any National Park in NSW we hadn't been yet?
It turned out that it was 536 kilometers northwestern way from here which took us 5 and half hours to reach there by car.
Definitely I'm now getting used to a long distance car ride to outback.
It's more likely we have rainy days during Easter but not this year luckily.
We had sunny beautiful autumn days there.
2
Like most multi day hiking courses we came across same people along the mountain areas over the 3 days.
From the Pincham car park our walk made a big circle anti-clockwise around the must-do places in Grand High Tops.
My impression before I climbed up this mountains was...it had a quirky beauty with ancient looking rock formations.
I learned they were the remains of a volcanic feature known as a dyke, where molten rock squeezed through a vertical crack in the surrounding rock and then solidified.
We camped at Balor Hut first night as scheduled.
We planned to camp at Ogma Gap second night after Grand High Tops walk via Breadknife and Bluff Mountain.
But we ended up at Danu Gap which was at the foot of Mt Exmouth.
We wanted a quieter place for camping after first night's crowded feeling at Balor camp and it worked out perfectly for our early hiking to Mt Exmouth on the third morning.
First night, we found Balor Hut Camp site was located on top of small narrow mountain with backdrops of Breadknife and
the Grand High Tops along with other beautiful mountains after mountains near and far.
Even though it didn't provide us with flat wide spaces for many people it allowed us to enjoy one of the most splendid
expansive views and just perfect location for sunrise,sunset and stargazing.
We opened the Second day with appreciating sun rise a few steps further up on Balor top rolling out of our tent.
When I zipped open the tent red colored sky over the mountains came to my eyes just like that.
However as soon as the sun occupied its position over the mountains the magic lingering in cool dawn air dissipated completely.
It was getting hot very quickly after 8 am already.
We climbed up to numerous Grand High Tops lookouts sweating
and overlooking gorgeous panoramic views.
I spotted a little bit unhappy boy with mum in the middle of the track.
She seemed to try to encourage him to go back on the walk.
We were at the summit of the Grand High Tops and the boy with mum came along in no time.
There were 4 of them in the family.
Mum,dad and two little boys.
I vaguely remembered them at the camp the night before.
Boys were babbling happily all forgotten about their whinging or them make their parents annoyed.
Suddenly this young mum left their family and had her own moments...she cried standing on the rock
a few meters away from me showing her back to me.
We saw them again when we were almost on top of Bluff Mountain.
They were before us.
The little boy was walking holding a long thick stick, happily shaking it left to right.
Mum didn't try to hold his hands or help.
They just walked side by side casually as if they were strolling lightly in their neighborhood.
I overheard they shared their impressions sincerely about the scene from top of Bluff Mountain.
That's how they started learning conversation or communication skills I thought.
We had lunch before climbing up to there in Dows Camp and left our big packs there which was good.
It was very humid with strong heat and mountain was rocky and rough on the track
,it was not an easy climb up there even for us on the hot day like that.
And of course I was hugely impressed by the little ones there.
Mum looked OK (or rather impassive expression) and I had an impression
she was the sort of person she didn't show her emotions easily
to others even though she cried for some reason.
They looked like a real ideal family in appearance.
Mum and Dad, loving each other ,fit and brave to bring their young children( age of 3 and 6)
to give them good experience and memory in nature.
I admired them instantly.
The memories they shared together would be ingrained in their hearts for ever.
Her cry made me ponder over the real reason like a riddle though.
(Maybe it's kind of human nature we have to be confronted from time to time?
Weakness that we should embrace?
She looked like a really strong person both physically and mentally.
But humans can not be too perfect.
Like my too ridiculous expectations toward Eddie, he can be grumpy and he can make mistakes too.)
Tired and drained with strong heat we trudged toward Ogma Camp with heavy big packs
after admiring views down around Warrumbungle National Park.
Huge and vast endless plains surrounded this volcanic product of ancient national park!
It was just beautiful and splendid.
We passed Ogma camp to look for our own solitary that night.
We saw already a lot of people settled for the night there.
On arriving at Danu camp we realized there was only one possible spot for camp.
It's a small gap on two dirt roads crossing with the entrance into Mt Exmouth at the end.
There were nothing but only dirts and rubbles where we made our own roof and walls.
Which felt like a kind of miracle for me.
I rested a short time inside our temporary home feeling relaxed and grateful before dinner.
I noticed suddenly two familiar discolored big packs standing under the sign and soon
the two boys and mum were there.
I asked her if she wanted to camp in there.
She just nodded to me and was busy searching for a good spot for camp.
She realized there was no other good spot for them.
As a professional experienced hiker without hesitation she was gone into one of the roads with boys swiftly
and packs left behind.
She came back alone a little later to fetch their packs after finding her best spot for the night efficiently
and Eddie volunteered to carry the bigger pack into their camp spot.
In that way she didn't need to come back for the second pack.
We learned her husband went to get water for the night.
She set up their tent while waiting for her husband to come back with two innocent boys playing around nearby.
So we had this small camp site all to ourselves that night.
With several Kangaroos and unknown animals hopping around during the night.
Eddie wanted to go see sun set at the Mt Exmouth but I didn't want to get us sweaty again for the night
so convinced him to do an early hike for sun rise instead the next morning.
We heard boys' voices echoing from somewhere down there in the woods
when we were trying to catch a glimpse of sunset at the beginning part of Mt Exmouth.
That early morning hike was our highlight of this trip.
We woke up around 4:30 am and started climbing up the track with our head torch on.
It was still pitch black but with the help of bright torch light we had no problem climbing up
to the top.
A few times we were almost caught in spider webs and we heard fox's howling sound near the top.
Or mountain goats?
Eddie was quite happy with this first experience of head torch hike.
So were we.
I couldn't quite put it into words...
Walking in the dark forest with our boots soaked in early morning dew..
Witnessing the secret hidden world waking up with changes of light by the minute
,with our gradual progress of steps, and finally you were on top of the world feeling so exhilarated...
as if we participated in most important parts of creations with the mountain world and creatures
which we never couldn't get when we day hiked.
The whole hike took us around 3 hours.
Almost at the end of track from where I could look down at our tent
we saw the family already starting climbing up the Mt Exmouth.
I saw her smile finally when I said hello to them.
The little ones looked sleepy and a bit cranky but there they were climbing the mountain earlier than
I thought they would've.
My daughter was very sympathetic about the boys. LOL.
All of us again were very impressed with them.
We demolished our one night home with regret, wrapped it up into the bag after breakfast.
Everything went back into our three back packs just like a magic without any trace left.
During which we saw many familiar faces from last two days come for the hike to Mt Exmouth.
We exchanged our hellos and good byes.
We walked back to Ogma gap from where we hiked down to Pincham car park via West Spirey Creek way which
made our route of walk a complete circle anticlock wise.
It was again a beautiful route and serene with morning atmosphere.
Soon day walkers with light packs from car park filled the quiet mountains with noises and cheers.
Then I realized our 3 day hike was complete.
It was one of the best walks as always.