Murwillumbah

Alex: Murwillumbah isn't on the the coast and the main draw is to climb Mount Warning but climbing mountains obviously isn't on most backpackers itineraries here as we were the only ones to get off the bus. It was like when we got off in Grafton, everyone else looked at us with confused expressions. The hostel has to be on of the best we have ever stayed in (Murwillumbah/Mt Warning YHA) with free transport to the mountain, free use of the hostels canoe with a couple of nights stay and most importantly free ice cream every night. The owner obviously really took pride in the place and wanted to make sure everyone had a good time. To make full use of the facilities we took a canoe out our first afternoon and had a peacefully jaunt up the lazy River Tweed and down a little creek not far from the hostel. It was one of those perfect summer afternoons, complete peace, warm sun. Murwillumbah itself is also really nice, there isn't masses going on but it is really pretty with lots of nice little shops and cafes, enough to pass a pleasant hour or so.

Mount Warning 01

The following day we decided to climb the mountain. As well as the amazing views at the top the mountain is also famous because it's peak is the first part of the Australian mainland to see the sunrise. We didn't get up in time to see the sunrise from the top, and to be quite honest I wouldn't fancy going up in the dark. Instead Tassie, the hostel owner, drove us to the base at a  far more sensible 10am, giving us a mini-tour on the way. As well as some local history he told us a bit of how the mountain was formed, apparently it is a long extinct shield volcano that has been eroded over the millenia by the Tweed river, wind and rain to its current shape which is less than half as high as it was originally. The climb up is pretty steep but absolutely gorgeous, taking you through semi-tropical and temperate rainforest before the scramble over rocks to reach the summit (they sensibly put in a chain hand rail to help you up and down). We didn't manage to spot any of the rock wallabies or koalas that apparently sometimes hang around the mountain but instead we saw dozens of bush turkeys (we had speculated before that they can't be very tasty otherwise there wouldn't have been so many of them but apparently their flesh contains a worm which can kill you if you eat them, good to know!) The views from the top were great, forests and hills on one side, Byron Bay to the south, the high-rises of the Gold coast to the north and the Tweed river meandering through it all. Back at the bottom we just chilled out for the rest of our time in Murwillumbah resting our aching legs.

Mount Warning 02

Mount Warning 03

Mount Warning 04