Day 3 - Monday 7 February - Mount Buffalo - Kazza's Australian Holidays

Slept mostly ok, but did wake up a few times hot/cold/restless. Woke up at normal time, got ready and went to Woollies for some breakfast supplies (cereal/milk/oj/coffee) and came back to have breakfast here. The sweetie got ready and we headed out a bit before 9am.

Our first stop was Huggins Lookout, which I thought was in town but was actually a few logging trails and 15 minutes away. The view was nice enough but not super spectacular.

Bright from Huggins Lookout

Then we headed, very slowly, up Mount Buffalo.

View up to Mount Buffalo from Mount Buffalo Road

We stopped at the chalet first. We were hoping it would be like a hotel and serve coffee and stuff, but the place was actually deserted. They normally do tours every few days, but not now because covid.

Mount Buffalo Chalet

Interior of Mount Buffalo Chalet (taken through a window)

So went across to have a look from all the beautiful granite lookouts which was quite nice.

Granite cliffs at Mount Buffalo

Hang glider runway at Mount Buffalo

Then we headed down to Crystal Brook falls so I could try and replicate the photos my parents took in 1969. Amazingly I found them all, although they really don't make it easy to get a photo of the falls, and I had to stand on the edge of a rock to get it which made me *very* nervous!

Crystal Brook just before it goes over falls

Crystal Brook Falls

View east from top of Crystal Brook Falls

Pulpit Rock

Cliffs at Mount Buffalo

Rocks at Mount Buffalo

Rock climbers on Mount Buffalo

Crystal Brook Falls

Me at a lookout near Crystal Brook Falls

Headed back to the car then went across to The Monolith to do the walk up. It was a very slow walk because we stopped every few metres to take photos of flowers and stuffs! I couldn't find one of the photos Dad took (could have been anywhere), and the parents were there a lot later in the day, because the sun was shining on the western side of the monolith for them, but it was still in shadow for us today. We had snackages for lunch and watched lizards and the sweetie got very sunburnt. We also didn't see a single other person on the track. Going on a Monday sure makes a big difference for that sort of thing!

Stu on the walk up to The Monolith

The Monolith

Stu climbing up to The Monolith

View south to Lake Catani from The Monolith

View north from The Monolith

Lizard (possibly a black rock skink) at The Monolith

Granite rock at The Monolith

The Monolith. Sadly you can't climb it anymore.

The Monolith

Next stop was Lake Catani to reproduce another photo of Mum and Dad's. There were a bunch of ducks at the picnic area, and they all followed me around while I was taking photos.

Lake Catani

The Monolith from Lake Catani

Lake Catani

Then up to The Horn. I found the place where Dad took a photo there, but I don't know if they went all the way to the top or not. The sweetie certainly didn't have the energy, so I left my backpack behind and went up by myself. It was a pretty amazing view.

The Horn from Mount Buffalo Road

View south from The Horn carpark lookout

The Horn picnic area

Gum trees recovering after the fires two years ago

Granite on the climb up to The Horn

Narrow stair case on the climb up to The Horn

Me at the top of The Horn

View north east from The Horn

View south from The Horn carpark lookout

The Horn carpark lookout and dead tree

Finally we just drove allllll the way down the mountain.

Ski lift at Cresta Valley

The Hump (left) and The Cathedral (right) from Mount Buffalo Road

Granite hillside on Mount Buffalo

Eurobin Creek

Even though we were exhausted, we had a pretty amazing day and God sure gave us some great weather for it!

Got back to the motel and collapsed in a heap - our everything hurt!! I downloaded photos and GPS, and we had some TRBC Tex Mex beer which was *amazing* - smokey and spicy!

For dinner I went over to the Katsu Japanese place. They may not have actually been Japanese, but sure did understand it. We got two Don bowls which I brought back to the motel and we scoffed them in about three seconds flat. Must have been hungry!

Don bowls we got from Katsu in Bright

Then I went to Woollies to pick up a small tub of ice cream for dessert.

Finally I've written up my blog entry. It's now nearly 8pm, that's bed time right? :)

NB: I sent some photos of today to Mum. The father type person carked it eight years ago today. *eight years* !! So it was kinda nice to remember him in a place he totally would have loved - he was massive fan of granite and waterfalls and stuff!

Day 3 - Monday 7 February - Mount Buffalo

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