Bluff Mountain

There was no need for the alarm this morning as I was awake before it went off, I must be excited about heading off to the Warrambungles. I was up and ready when Phil arrived and we headed off, Alvo was up and at em too taking the puppies for a walk around the farm and then head to her sisters house to prepare the feast for tonight. Phil and I chatted about this and that all the way to the National Park. He took me to Whitegum lookout first to get an idea of the orientation of the place which will make it easier to know where we are once we are in the park. There were a few cars in the carpark when we got there which is good to see and with our water bottles and an apple or two we set off into the wilderness. Initially we had plans of conquering Mt Exmouth which is the tallest peak in the park but Phil suggested heading up a different route as the views are much nicer, he is the boss so I wasn't about to argue. Phil has walked every track here many times so I would be wise to listen to him. There was water running in the creek which made the start to the walk just beautiful and I knew I was in for something special. We walked and chatted for quite a way until we started a bit of a climb where things were a little more challenging and the 250ish steps we climbed didn't warrant any chatting either. We spotted the main spires and landmarks in the park along the way and got an idea of how large they are as when we get to the top of Bluff Mountain we will be looking down on them. The butterflies led us alot of the way and are just beautiful. The sound of the trees and the birds is something that I just get totally absorbed in. It took us about 3 hours to get to the top and was worth every minute, on the way there were groves of black boy plants which were amazing and on arriving at the top we felt like we were on top of the world. The view is spectacular and as Phil predicted there was an eagle soaring above us. I am grateful that Phil took me today as this was really my first walk of this kind and I could quite easily get hooked. The walk was about 16km in total and took us around 5 hours to complete and then it was back to the farm to get ready to meet the whole clan down at Alvo's sisters house which is only about 7km away. Seeing everyone there was great and we all got chatting and drinking and eating of course and the food consisted of Chicken Madras, Chilli Prawn and Avocado Salad, Warm Pumpkin and Feta Salad and a Leg of butterflied lamb done on the bbq and was absolutely delicious, all this eaten while sitting around the usual fire that we always have at Serena and Daves place but strangely enough didn't turn out to be such a late nite with us finishing up at about 10.30pm so home we went and headed straight to bed, I think I will sleep well tonight.
Tanya