Mount Elimbah

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Good morning friends. Today I'm coming from the base of Mount Elimbah up in the Glasshouse Mountains. This is one of the more southern peaks of the Glasshouse Mountains. Looking at the sign here it's also called Saddleback apparently. This is a pretty obscure little spot. I've never been here before so I'm not sure what to expect. Come join with me as I head up the track towards the summit.

Well friends I've now made it to the summit, the summit of Mount Elimbah. There are a lot of trees up here but there were a lot of great views heading up. I'm going to rest here for a while and then head on down.

I think Mount Elimbah is the southernmost of the Glasshouse Mountains. It's not climbed too often - I think I'm the only person on the track today. As you look out north you see more of the Glasshouse Mountains. These mountains are the remains of volcanoes that erupted about 22 odd million years ago when a volcanic hotspot passed under this area as the Australian continent moved north. There's a row of extinct volcanoes running from the top of Queensland all the way to where the current hotspot is just off Tasmania right down the Australian east coast. There's hundreds of these old volcanoes. Interestingly Australia is the only continent that doesn't have any active volcanoes at the moment. All of these volcanoes are extinct and because it happened such a long time ago these volcanoes used to be a lot bigger than what they are now. All the soft material on the outside has eroded. All that is left of these volcanoes is all the really hard rock that got solidified under the crater. It took a long time for the magma to solidify compared to the outer layers of the volcano. These formations are all that is left. These really hard formations will take many millions of years to erode. That's all that's left of these volcanoes now.

Over the coming weeks I am looking at doing more hikes up here in the Glasshouse Mountains particularly focusing on the peaks I haven't done yet. There's quite a few of them and there are also quite a lot of popular ones which I've done quite a few times. This year I'm aiming to do some of the ones I haven't done before, the quieter ones that don't have any crowds on them. Today I thought I'd do Mount Elimbah. It has been relatively short but being a warm day at about 32 degrees maybe up to 34 here today, so I can't really do too much. I'm going to relax here for a bit longer and take in the view before I head back down.

OK I've just come off the summit now and there's quite a good view from down here just above one of the false summits. In the distance there you can see The Twins. I don't know if there is a track up them but I'm going to find out and see if I can do those. Behind them you can't really see but you have Mount Beerwah. Then you have Mount Coonoorin (Crookneck). Behind it we have the hills of the Blackall Range around Maleny and the Sunshine Coast hinterland. As you come out in front you have the Trachyte Range and behind it Mount Tiberoowuccum, and behind it you can just see Mount Ngungun - that's quite a popular one to climb. Way in the distance in the valley there you have Mount Coochin. Even beyond that you have Mount Coolum, one of the ones up the Sunshine Coast. Then heading behind the tree there you have the steep one, Mount Tibrogargan. I did that one back in 2012. It was very steep. Then you have Mount Beerburrum which I've done quite a few times including once last year going up to the forestry lookout. Then in the distance you have Wild Horse Mountain which the motorway goes past. That's a really good one to get the view of all the other mountains during the sunset. So that's some of the Glasshouse Mountains and there's one out there (Mount Miketeebumulgrai) and underneath it there are all these pineapple fields. In behind that you have the start of the D'Aguilar Range which extends about a hundred kilometres back to Brisbane. There's a lot more areas to explore, so I hope to do some of these over the coming weeks.

Well friends I'm now back at the start of the track. A fairly short one today going up Mount Elimbah. It was a really nice walk up there and some really nice time up at the summit. It's great to be back in the bush again. I think you can guarantee I'll be back out somewhere next week. Thanks for joining me today. Do get out and explore your own area. Until next time, ciao for now.