Mount Cougal Caving
Sven September 9th, 2007
I’d heard rumours of a cave – a tunnel – that ran through the Eastern peak of Mount Cougal, on the QLD/NSW border. A narrow channel through the rock that starts human-sized, and becomes progressively smaller, so that if a person was to emerge on the other side, they’d just be poking their head out of the cliff face. Did it exist, and could we find it? Read on…
It wasn’t just Jon and I ascending Mount Cougal, we’d gathered a good social group to accompany us, and possibly stretcher us out if necessary. Seven of us in all set out from Brisbane under sunny skies, only to reach rather more overcast conditions to the south. However, while there was a chill in the air, it was quite welcome considering the effort we put in to the climb.
Walking the ridge along the border fence, we could see patches of heavy rainfall in the Tweed Valley, though the worst of it seemed to dissipate before reaching us, and the walk was fairly pleasant. Pleasant, that is, if you ignore certain steep stretches that nobody really enjoyed :) However, everyone made their way to the top of the mountain and enjoyed the fantastic view. Jon and Kelli likened the view of the western peak to that of Huayna Picchu in Peru…
So, the trip down.
Jon and I suggested the others continue down the mountain, while we looked for The Cave. As it turns out, finding the cave was not difficult at all, though it wasn’t really exposed, and finding it by accident would be difficult. Certainly, in the numerous times I’ve climbed the mountain before I’ve been metres away from the entrance, but never knew it. So, the cave entrance was a little taller than we were, and not too much wider, with a packed earth floor. We could see in only a little way, where water dripped sporadically from the ceiling.
The entrance, from a little way inside:
Preparing to document the excitement:
Fortunately, both Jon and I had our headlamps with us, so we left our bags at the entrance and ventured inside. The walls slanted a little, but the width sayed fairly constant for a while, until the cave opened up a fraction wider, before narrowing dramatically.
A cool fresh breeze blew strongly from the narrow tunnel, and through it we could see the outside of the mountain, and sunlight. Apart from the narrowness of the tunnel, though, there were also obvious obstacles – two large protruding rocks would make life very difficult for anyone attempting to crawl through.
So, once again to our disappointment, common sense prevailed, and nobody had to be rescued by the SES. A brisk “jog” later, we caught up to the others, and made our way back to the start of our walk.
Next time we climb the mountain… sunrise, sunset, or just star trails? :)
- Excursions
- Comments(13)
Arrr I see my face of confusion there as to why my images where black – seems that lens cap is still on at that point!
Wow, I just used my other lappie to look at this post – the shots look awful! Severe banding in that bottom cave shot, too.
Note that the bottom cave shot has Jon’s knee at the upper left, so you might get some sense of scale from that.
Can’t really see much banding here on my work screen or laptop. Can just make out my pant legs – that really was a small opening!
Yes it does bear a resemblance to Huayna Picchu – the mountain behind the city of Machu Picchu. There is actually a temple up on top of Huayna Picchu – but no bolt like on Cougal :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huayna_Picchu
I’ve wanted to climb Cougal for some time now but am unsure of the best starting point. Do you start from the sawmill in Currumbin Valley, from Tomewin Rd or from Garden of Eden Rd?
Garden of Eden Road – drive down it for five or ten minutes, until you get to a wooden gate on the right. It’s a fairly obvious entrance, and last time I was there, there were actually a couple of “Mount Cougal” signs pointing up the walking track. There isn’t a sensible way up the mountain from the sawmill. It’s definitely worth the climb – have fun!
[...] Images of Mount Cougal [...]
Where abouts is the cave? i’ve done the cougal walk a couple of times but never see it.
After the long, rocky, uphill stretch along the fenceline, you reach the fairly vertical section, where you’d normally go right for a bit, to climb up. Along that section you’ll see a couple of boulder things – hop up on top of them, and you’ll be looking into the cave.
Is it the vertical bit just before the other track turns off or the part where it’s fairly dense and you have to kind of make your own path?
It’s where you’re looking up at rock overhangs – once I knew there was something to find, it wasn’t too difficult to locate – there are only so many places a cave entrance might be hiding up there. :)
OK, thanks. I’ll look out for it when i next go up there.