Saturday, September 10, 2011

Following Yellow Arrows Further

I finished my last post on the verge of climbing up through a stone slot on my way up Hollow Mountain. Anyway, with a squeeze and a lot of scrabbling I made it up through the slot

At the top of the slot I climbed around the base of a tree and out onto a wide sloping shelf of rock; a bit more climbing (easy compared to further down) and I reached the base of this beautiful formation. You can see one of our little yellow arrows in this piccie.

This piccie shows where this formation is in relation to the whole mountain, I have circled it on the original piccie from last post.

The dark shadow at the bottom of the vertical face is a cave which is part of the reason this is called Hollow Mountain.

I sat inside to give you a view from inside.Inside the cave if you turn around you discover that it goes right through the mountain.A detail shot of the stone at the cave mouth, I am absolutely enamored with the colours in this landscape

Leaving the cave a short walk takes you around the back of the massive block of stone the cave sits in. You can squeeze through a chasm and catch a glimpse of the sheer cliffs at the back of the mountain.By now I was fairly tired and to my frustration I had finished all the water I had brought with me (a litre) so I was pretty thirsty. But I hadn’t quite reached the top.

So reversing my way back along the chasm I followed the rock shelf around as it climbed toward the rear of the mountain. I paused to take a shot of the country I had climbed up from. Another low cave extends deep into the mountain here.

Finally I reached the top and looked down into the country behind the Hollow Mountain.

This magnificent formation is called the Taipan WallAll I can say is it was amazing in the late afternoon light and made the climb well worth the effort.You can see my shadow in both these piccies, just in front was a sheer cliff maybe 500 feet straight down. I wasn’t going any closer to that edge!

My climb finished I turned to make my way back down.

As I got back to the top of the front rock face I ran into the two young men I had met at the bottom. They had just finished climbing up “the hard way”.

We had a brief chat and they began to make their way down this time taking the easy route.

I took a shot of them climbing into the top of the slot I had climbed on the way up (and had to follow them down). As you can see it was a squeeze for this fat, unfit, middle aged Aussie boy!

10 comments:

Kathleen Jones said...

I felt quite giddy looking at your pics - having no head for heights at all! But very envious. What a wonderful landscape and the colours of the rock are glorious. Well worth the effort!

mshatch said...

wow. Amazing. But I agree with Kathleen - heights scare me.

Linda G. said...

No way you can be "unfit" and manage a climb like that!

Amazing pictures, as I've come to expect from your blog. :)

Old Kitty said...

The first pic looks like the side of a man's face!! Wow!!

Everything is so vertical!! Well done you and those climbers! What an amazing climb - but worth it!! Beautiful scenery!! Take care
x

Al said...

Hi Kathleen,
I don’t have a head for heights either. I can make myself do things like this (or working on a roof) with a bit of “psyching myself into it.”
It is a beautiful part of the world. The colours are heavenly and well worth a scramble!

Hi MS,
It is great isn’t it?

Hi Linda,
If I was fit I wouldn’t have to stop catch my breath and take all those photos :-)
Fitness is relative I guess, I am very overweight but I have learnt that by determination and with the help of the odd breather I can go most places.

Hi Jennifer,
It does, but I didn’t notice until you pointed it out.
It was amazing, beautiful hard work and amazing.

Carolyn V said...

You are always going on such great adventures! I love the pictures.

(Heights scary me too. I'm happy to see them through the photos.)

Theres just life said...

Al if you are unfit, than I am bedridden. I think too much attention is put on ideal weight. You are more active than many supposedly fit people I know.

Great pics. Can I live in that cave? Please!!! I would love to look out at that view all the time.

Pamela Jo

Deniz Bevan said...

I *can* see your shadow! I'd love to visit Australia some day...

Sharon K. Mayhew said...

Holy Cow! Those are awesome photos! Thanks so much for sharing them. :D

Susan Fields said...

What awesome photos! It looks like you had quite an adventure!