Mount Gibraltar

So it was recently my one year Wedding Anniversary, so I planned a day for myself and my wife, keeping the details to myself. I surprised her with flowers,

Only to realise we didn't have a vase, but we improvised.

and we hopped in the car and began driving. I told her she could change the CD, as I know she isn't a fan of my music (I was rocking to Eluveitie), so she put on Foo Fighter's 'Wasting Light'. As we headed along the East-West Link, towards Albion Park, she guessed that we were heading up into the highlands (which was also where we got married). I told her "No, we're just going to visit your mum", stirring her up.
We got stuck behind a truck driving up Macquarie Pass, which I didn't mind because I was able to enjoy the views along there more than I usually would. I only roughly knew the way, so after turning and following the tourist road at the top of the pass leading us to right nearby the Fitzroy Inn (where we were wed), I stopped to quickly examine Google Maps for directions. We continued on until we arrived at Mount Gibraltar (Aboriginal: Bowrell). I stopped at our first lookout, Jellore Lookout. We hopped out of the car into the heat and walked a very short-way down for a look.

While the lookout wasn't that spectacular, I knew there would be two more, and more of the day planned. As we returned to the car I opened the boot, and took out some Grape Licorice, which we both enjoy before opening my backpack to give her some water. It wasn't there. I had left it in the freezer. We now had no water to drink on a scorching hot day. Things were going south fast. We enjoyed some licorice as we drove around to the next lookout.
The next lookout, Mittagong Lookout was even more disappointing, rundown and overlooking more suburbia.
We continued on, to the third and final lookout. Bowral Lookout.
We stopped here at a little covered table and seating area and I pulled out some picnic foods from the car. We enjoyed pine nut hommus with crackers while being visited by a cute Currawong and Magpie.

They got very close and the Magpie even took a little piece of pine nut from out of my hand.

We then went for a walk to the lookout, which was also suburbia, but a nicer view of a little old timey looking town.

Knowing our next destination (Nattai National Park), we looked for places where we would be able to buy some water on our way, we decided on a Coles Service Station that was along the main road. However on our arrival to the Service Station, work was being done, so I could not fill up on fuel (I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone), but they also did not sell any plain water. Only flavoured. So we drove back into town to a shopping mall where we went to Woolworths and bought a big bottle of water. We then continued on our way to Nattai National Park.
I enjoyed the views on the way there, including crossing over what I assume to be an abandoned train line which looked pretty cool. We came to dirt road which began to make my wife feel ill (as I only have a little car).

She also started getting anxious as the last time we had driven my car on dirt roads was when I had taken her out to Blue Gum Flat in Morton National Park, which was an absolute nightmare in my car. The next morning after camping I tried to take her to walk Pigeon House Mountain (as she had never done it), however the car park was absolutely packed even though we arrived very early. I began driving back down from there to maybe park on the road up, but wasn't able to in my small car. As I was doing this a car began coming up. I was wanting to turn around and just continuing checking the car park for people leaving. So I reversed to give myself some room to turn around. However the car coming up just kept coming up every time I reversed for some room. As we reached the top my wheel feel down over a drainage bit, and my car was stuck. Jennai (my wife's name) was very freaked out worried it was damaged and because we were stuck. The car that kept coming up drove by and I could see the people laughing at us, infuriating me. However some nice younger people all came rushing to help. They helped lift the car a little while it was on so as the other wheels pulled forward as it was lifted we managed to get out, checking to see that no damage had been done. I thanked everyone profusely, wiping anxious sweat from my forehead, and we decided to head home, without having walked Pigeon House, and since, Jennai had not wanted to drive it on dirt roads.

We eventually arrived at the destination according to GPS, but I could not see anywhere to go, some trails not detailing anything. I was feeling the day had been a massive failure which was upsetting as I had looked into it and they all seemed to be lovely locations. I decided to go back to one of my plans that I had scrapped and drove us again back into town where we stopped and enjoyed a nice picnic at Corbett Gardens.

We sat and ate in the shade enjoying the nice green trees, it was a very hot day and I began to feel incredibly tired and sleepy. We looked at our phones realising we had just been there enjoying each others company for 2 hours, just what the parking time limit was. We returned to the car which was scorching hot, regretting not putting up my sunscreen we drove to the bottom of Mount Gibraltar to go for a walk.

As we walked up we came to a set of rocky stairs or a path to our right. We took the path to our right.

This led around to a set of wooden steps that we took.

This led around and over a tiny wooden bridge just built for rainfall to flow under, and continued up and around until we came to and opening on our left and a big wheel to our right.

We were really enjoying the walk together and I found the opening and open cliff wall very beautiful to look at, a part of me wanting to just walk up and free climb it, Jennai warning me that "You better bloody not".
There was a sign nearby giving us some local history and information about the site.

We soon came to another even bigger opening up on our left, with a big rock in the middle with a plaque on it and a little table to the right we stopped to sit on to drink some water.

While we were drinking a felt a thud on my groin, looking down I noticed a little bee had fallen. Worried he was exhausted from the heat I filled a spoon with some water and offered him some.

I nicknamed him 'Larry'

We continued along the path that continued downward and turned right, seemingly heading back the way we came but down a separate path. Along the way we walked past old overgrown mining equipment.

The path soon split, two our right, leading back up, which I believed would take us to where we were just before or after the big wheel, and straight. We continued straight and it took us onto our path that we had began the walk on that led to the stony steps, so we walked back and up the path to the big wheel and headed back that way towards the stony steps, and we began walking up towards the lookout where we had enjoyed morning tea.

While walking I struggled a bit more than Jennai, just feeling a bit overheated, especially in my long pants. Telling myself again I need to start being more consistently active. The path continued straight up, but even so the walk itself never felt too hard, not like walking up the stairs of Sublime Point.

Finally we reached the top where the walk came up right behind an orientation table right behind where we had morning tea.

We both used the toilet facilitates and I snapped a photo of a sign providing information on Mount Gibraltar Reserve.

We watched two Kookaburras, one swooping down and grabbing a worm and the other I caught a short video of.

We headed home, going out and enjoying some Sushi for dinner, and I was just relieved that we had both had a fun and enjoyable day and that I hadn't completely butchered our one year wedding anniversary.


If you have enjoyed this post, or my blog in general, please follow it, or like my page on facebook or follow me on Instagram.

Thanks for reading! - Steven