Mount Cooroora

Location: Tuchekoi National Park (Sunshine Coast), South East QLD
Date: 10th August, 2014
Distance: 3 km
Time: 1 h

North of the Glass House Mountains lie several scattered, rocky peaks, jutting out above the coastal plains inland from Noosa. I set out this arvo to tackle two of these isolated mountains: Mt Tinbeerwah and Mt Cooroora, both a short drive from the Bruce Highway and the town of Cooroy.

Mt Cooroora is a 20 minute drive west from Mt Tinbeerwah, and the mountain looms ominously over the small town of Pomona on the way in. A bright white smear carved into the side of the mountain, defining the route I was about to take, made me realise it was going to be tough. Apparently this is the site of the annual "King of the Mountain" race, where people zoom up and down the mountain in as little as 20 minutes. Most walkers (the sane folk) do the route in 1.5 to 2 hours. Again, being pushed for time I had to take it pretty quickly and fell somewhere in between.

The walk begins gently enough, winding slowly uphill through open forest and crossing several 4WD tracks. You can see where runners trying hard to shave those extra seconds have bashed rough routes through the scrub. After 10 minutes, the gravelly path meets a steep, rocky cliff with steel steps built into the side of the mountain. A lookout halfway up offers some relief and nice views towards the ocean. Already I could see I was higher up than Mount Tinbeerwah, where I had been less than an hour ago.

Mt Tinbeerwah from halfway up Mt Cooroora

From here on it's a draining slug to the summit, requiring at times some minor scrambling, over slippery and dusty rocks. I had to stop and take several breathers here.

Chains are helpful... but it's still slippery

Shadow of Mt Cooroora stretching out towards Mt Tinbeerwah (left) and Mt Cooroy (right)

Finally, nearly half an hour after setting off, I could relax and enjoy the sunset from the top of Mt Cooroora. I imagine climbing this mountain in the morning would be horrible, because you would have the rising sun beating on your back all the way. Being late afternoon, it was all in shadow until the summit.

Sunset was absolutely spectacular, made the more exceptional because I had the summit to myself and because, by chance, my walk date coincided with the full moon, so as the sun set on one side of the mountain, I could see the moon rising on the other. Amazing! Unfortunately the good camera died just before I got to the top, and then my crappy camera died not long after so I missed shots of the moon.

On my way down I passed a local elderly couple who apparently try and walk the mountain (to at least the lookout at the halfway point) every single day! They must be pretty damn fit.