My sister and I drove out to Cunningham's Gap to climb Mount Cordeaux at sunrise. The weather report wasn't great, and it turned out worse, but still ended up being a beautiful view, despite being rained on as we made it to the bottom!
Springbrook Warrie Circuit
As I get older, it's becoming more and more of a joy to meet people who embrace the early hours of the morning, whether it's meeting for breakfast at 8am on a Sunday, or heading out onto the road to climb a mountain at sunrise.
The "morning person" persuasion seems to invoke a sense of adventure and enthusiasm for spontaneity in life, starting with an early rise into the world. These people seem to have an intangible thirst to get up and do things.
This has become an all too important aspect of life in the last few years as I discover what I'm truly passionate about doing each and every day.
South East Queensland from Mount Greville (facing generally south)
I work four days a week in an office, and while I enjoy the work, I cherish each weekend that I can get outside in the sun. Hiking and climbing the mountains in South East Queensland has become a huge part of that, and I want to extend that to overseas.
So I created a Facebook group exactly for the purpose of pushing this lifestyle of weekend adventures, incorporating fitness and photography into the hiking.
If you are an enthusiastic hiker or photographer who loves sunrise mountain climbs, photography and/or fitness based hiking in the South East Queensland area, don't hesitate to join my Facebook group to see photos, discuss hikes and join events.
Spontaneous solo climb up Mount Mitchell.
Breakfast with Simon, Hannah, Rhys and Jeremy yesterday morning then a wander through the city.
Continuing the new tradition for hiking a lot... These are from a group hike up on Mount Greville, east of Main Range in Queensland.
I was out in the forest again today with Dash, hiking the 17km Warrie Circuit down in Springbrook National Park. Legs are tired, but it's great to be out away from the city.
As I get more and more into hiking, I'm treating each hike as training towards bigger hikes. I'd love to get into overnight and multi-day hikes with camping eventually, especially in mountainous locations I'm inspired to visit from other photographers I follow.
Just a regular breakfast, bridge, city, street kinda day with Simon and Hannah.
This weekend seems to have been about climbing mountains. I bought some new hiking shoes yesterday and on a whim decided to drive out to Cunningham's Gap again and hike up Mount Mitchell on the south side of the highway.
This morning I left home at 4am with the intent of climbing Mount Cordeaux to the main lookout, about 1,100 metres above sea level. To my surprise I met another photographer named Fred McKie, who does anything from commercial photography to architecture, lifestyle and landscapes.
We both ended up walking the extra 30 minutes to Bare Rock north along the ridge from Mount Cordeaux lookout.
Had breakfast at Blackstar with Simon, Hannah, Alex, Cameron, Rhys, Tyler and Fiona this morning then wandered into the city.
I met up with Simon and Hannah. Simon just bought the Leica Q 28mm fixed focal length camera. It is fantastic, and I sincerely hope Leica releases a 35mm version. These aren't actually from the camera, though.
Met up with Simon and Hannah in West End for breakfast then wandered into the city.
After seeing the Shrine of Remembrance, we headed back through the city to the hotel, stopping for soup at The Soup Place (Degraves St) and hot chocolate at Koko Black. I had a stunning sunset flight home to Brisbane.
We turned around after dinner at Split Point, where the lighthouse is. They filmed the classic Australian TV show "Round The Twist" here. Then Hannah, Simon and I wandered Melbourne on my third and last day. I managed to get a few good street photographs in. More photos to come.
We stopped at Torquay and Anglesea along the Great Ocean Road, then had wood-fired pizza and dessert at Split Point before heading back to Melbourne that night. These are from the earlier portion of the trip.
I booked flights to Melbourne this year on a whim without any actual plans. What came together was one of my favourite weekends down there so far. I was still relatively sick with a cold on the first day so I wandered around, caught up with a friend then went back and slept the night off.
The next day I caught up with Genevieve and her friends before heading down the Great Ocean Road for a short road trip with Connor, Simon, Hannah and Lana. It was wild and raining at times but beautiful. The next post will have more of that.
