Sunday 24th April – Mount Barney
Bronwen and I walked up Mount Barney until it got dark where we, very fortunately, found a tent-sized flat spot amongst the rocks and cliffs.
Monday 25th April – Mount Barney
Waking up on the top of a mountain is actually quite pleasant, although somewhat hard on the hips. A little soymilk and muesli later, and we were off to conquer the remaining peak. This seemed like a good idea, until the cliffs we were climbing became steeper and steeper, threatening to throw me to my death hundreds of centimetres below.
We had just come to the conclusion that we should turn back, due to a combination of my extreme unwillingness to crawl up slippery rock faces a kilometre above the ground, our uncertainty about what lay ahead, and the thought that anything climbed up would have to be climbed down again, when another climbing party descended from above. They had climbed up the easier route we mistakenly thought we were on, and were now on their way down to reconnoitre a far more challenging climb for another day.
One of them, not being too keen to reconnoitre rope-less, walked back down with us. He happened to be an IT professional, so we had rather out of place conversations about the IT industry, Microsoft versus Macintosh, and so on, interspersed with talk about climbing, bush walking, and psychology students, while heading down through steep and slippery loose rock.
Evening
The drive back to my place was uneventful, although we were met with a Joe dilemma–whether to order fish and chips, or Thai takeaway. Fish and chips were decided upon, whereupon I drove to get them, meeting every possible red light on the way. Feeling suitably bloated after gorging on various forms of potato and grease, a drive through the city and an early night were in order.