Bally Mountain - 2nd of May 2016
Last Monday, Lewis, Amoi and I began our trek expecting thunderstorms, but to our pleasant surprise we were gifted with a great day for mountain climbing. Our initial plan was to follow a well-worn trail up Small Bally Mountain, and scramble across a razorback until we reached the peak of Big Bally Mountain, which stands at about 497m high.Â
Around 9am, our small crew arrived at the end of Old Bonogin Rd. Armed with a rough map of the area, we began our hike through simple terrain and although the area seemed effortless to navigate, we would later discover that we strayed from our intended path at the very first turn. From here our new path consisted largely of a dried up creek, which meant that our feet constantly found themselves falling further through the degrading sticks and leaves than intended. We endeavoured through the foliage until our path joined onto a steep ridge, which lead to the top of the mountain. As we climbed the ridge, we were often using the long grass and tree roots as rough handholds and from about halfway up, we began to see some interesting flora and fauna, including a flowering Giant Spear Lily, a plant very localised to certain area’s of SE QLD. This was fascinating to see considering Spear Lilies only flower once in their lifetime and can take up to 13 years to do so.Â
From there, we powered through the remainder of the climb, reaching the peak of Big Bally in just over an hour. Here we observed a magnificent view of the Tallebudgera/Springbrook/Coolangatta region. Â While resting there, we also saw an Eastern Spinebill doing bird stuff. After a quick rest, our crew made for the smaller peak. Part of the descent contained a smooth wide dirt path that snaked down the mountainside. It was steep and dry enough that we could slide down much of this section, which was a load of fun. Eventually the mountain narrowed into the ridge that we had to cross.
After trudging along the ridge for a couple of hundred metres we came to a vertical rocky cliff-face. It wasn’t difficult to scramble down, due to an abundance of foot and handholds, but a slip would have resulted in record-breaking time down Bally Mountain. Just below the rocky face was a small cave that tunnelled through to a secluded area that has a comfortable viewing of the forest canopy. We took the opportunity to take a brief rest in the shade and observed a few Grey Fantails darting between trees.
From the cave and on it was much easier-going to get to the Little Bally peak. At this peak, there was no view, but nearby, there was an abandoned and weathered cabin that had a guestbook dating to 1984. On the trail down we realised why climbing the small peak first was the intended route as the trail was made from predominantly dirt tyre tracks which traced all the way back to our original error. Â We saw a few more Fantails on the way down back to base, but it was largely uneventful otherwise. We made it back to the car about 1pm and then made the journey home.
-Sam
