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philbox
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Nov 5, 2002, 5:43 AM
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I had been communicating with Tom Lambert and Theresa Ho for about 3 or 4 months now. They were planning a holiday here in Oz from San Francisco. They were planning to incorporate some climbing in their busy tourist schedule. What better way to introduce them to Oz climbing than to take them to Frog Buttress. Well the best laid plans and all that meant that after they had done the scuba diving thang on the Great Barrier Reef and the Whitsunday Islands Frog was closed due to extreme fire risk. Alternative climbing venue would have to be Mt. Tibrogargan. Tibro is a mountain amongst grouping of individual mountains and hills called the Glasshouse Mountains. They are located quite close to the capital of Queensland called Brisbane. I met up with Tom and Theresa at the appointed time and drove into the carpark and formally introduced ourselves. I had previously heard that Therese liked chimneys so I took them up Carborundum Chimney which is a pretty easy way of gaining height so we could play on something else higher up. It never ceases to amaze me how much untouched rock there is on something so close to the city and on something that has had such a long history of climbing. When we got to the top of Carborundum Chimney we walked right on the vegetated terrace and Tom kinda liked the look of this face, so up he went and judging from the nature of the route it appeared to have been a first ascent. Lots of lichen and undisturbed rock was all over the route. From the belay at the top of that pitch it was decided that I should do a traversing wandery route up to below the upper overhangs. Another rope stretching part simulclimbed 70 metre traverse saw us at the start of Trojan an Oz grade 13 with a spectacular exposed move out of a cave at the start of pitch 2. This climb is fantastic and is highly recommended for the grade. Whilst in the belay cave I could take a fabulous picture of Tom and Theresa with the entrance of the cave completely framing them and the background of pineapple farms away off down below them completing the picture. We went down the caves route after doing the tourist gawk at the rest of the Glasshouse Mountains. The weather was perfect with a few clouds coming over to take the bite out of the sun until the sun went down behind the mountain after lunch. I invited them back to my house as I had planned to cook a Red Emperor reef fish that I had caught a month before when I had gone out fishing on the Great Barrier Reef. Tom announced that he was indeed a vegetarian but he at least tried a morsel of my delectable piscatorial table fare. Theresa ate with great gusto savouring every last piece I had so generously heaped her plate with. As it is tropical fruit season now we also indulged our passion for mango, pawpaw and pineapple as well as other assorted salads. Monday I took the day off from work to show Tom and Theresa around. I took them into the rainforest where we saw brightly coloured parrots called Crimson Rosellas. We heard the bell birds and whip birds. We saw an unusual large lizard that I have never seen before in all my travels into the rainforest. It was about 16 inches long and quite broad and a very dark almost black colour. Very similar shape to a blue tongue lizard. Of course the tour took in a lot of cliff lines particularly the cliffs of the Condamine Gorge. These cliffs I have measured with the odometer of my truck to be approx 14 kilometres long. The height of these cliffs are up to 180 metres high. I have information of only a couple of routes being done on these cliffs both of which I had a hand in the FFA. I also took them into a creek area of the rainforest up at Teviot Falls. We rock hopped our way down to the 100 metre falls and whilst there we tried to trundle a huge log but thought better of it cos of environmental considerations and alos the fact that we couldn`t budge it. On the way back up Tom got a hold of a few rocks and tried to splash me with them but I managed to scamper back from the edge of the pool and Tom fell in and got drenched so we all laughed at him. Lunch was had at the Dugandan Pub at Boonah which is pretty much as close as we were going to get to Frog Buttress. After that we wandered home. [ This Message was edited by: philbox on 2002-11-04 21:45 ] [ This Message was edited by: philbox on 2002-11-04 21:47 ]
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ergophobe
Dec 17, 2002, 5:16 AM
Post #2 of 3
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Registered: Jul 1, 2002
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Quote: On the way back up Tom got a hold of a few rocks and tried to splash me with them but I managed to scamper back from the edge of the pool and Tom fell in and got drenched so we all laughed at him. Back in the USA we have a funny name for statements like this. We call them LIES. More specifically, we call them PROJECTIONS, by which I mean that at least one witness can attest that it was Phil who threw the rocks and then fell in and then we all laughed, including Phil, even though he got completely bested by the Yanks. Anyway, Phil was an amazing and generous host and took a lot of time out to show us around, as out of shape and bubmly as we were. He spent a whole day just driving us around the region showing us fantastic rainforest, lizards, bird, plants, and, much to my delight, absoloutely no Taipans or other snakes with a fatal bite. I just got back and am still suffering from jet lag and sleep deprivation, but I finally had a computer and a chance to rebut the LIES that were told and also to thank Phil for showing us an excellent time. We also did some really fun climbing in Arapiles and the Blues. After some sleep and some family parties, hopefully I'll have time to put down some thoughts and memories. Thanks again Phil, but I think it's time to fess up! Tom
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philbox
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Dec 17, 2002, 5:41 AM
Post #3 of 3
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Registered: Jun 27, 2002
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Crikey, a bloke can`t get away with stretching the truth even one little bit. I got a good bite there though Tom you must admit eh. Dudes I had a wonderful time showing you guys around. When will we expect a fullsome trip report, huh huh, hint hint. ...Phil...
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