Mount Ngungun

Location: Glass House Mountains NP, South East QLD
Date: 16th May, 2015
Distance: 2.8 km
Time: 3 hours

Mounts Beerwah and Coonowrin from Ngungun

Last weekend I took the two Singapore 'kids' from work hiking to give them their first taste of the Aussie bush. They were keen to climb a mountain, and my first thought was the easy route up Mount Ngungun at the Sunshine Coast.

I explained that the Glass House Mountains are technically just hills, the tallest being only 556 m, but climbing one certainly feels like tackling a mountain. I reckon if it looks like a mountain then it gets to be one. In any case, I have come to suspect neither of the 'kids' had actually seen a mountain before so it didn't matter anyway - as long as they were impressed.

Last time I climbed Mount Ngungun - in fact, all of the previous times - my group basically had the mountain to ourselves. In the past few years popularity appears to have exploded here and now every man and his dog uses Mt Ngungun for their morning exercise (except the dog, since they are not permitted in national parks). This could be in part due to the upgraded summit track, which sadly bypasses the old route that involves scrambling past a cave.

The old caves scramble (on the right) is closed for revegetation. New track is at the left

The new track does offer a different lookout site, which is nice... but there are plenty of views from the top anyway.

Mounts Tibrogargan and Beerburrum

Up on top, the views were even more spectacular than I remembered. Even with all the groups of people milling around, we found a relatively quiet spot to sit and enjoy the surrounds.

One disappointing aspect of walks in national parks becoming more popular is that people with no concern for the environment dump their rubbish everywhere - we saw burger wrappings, drink bottles, even a handful of fries tossed away! The summits of many peaks in the sunshine coast region, in particular, are home to an incredible diversity of animals and plants, many found nowhere else. All visitors should make an effort to keep the fragile environment in as prestine a condition as possible - if you can't do that, you don't deserve to be there.

Mount Coochin from the summit of Ngungun

Panoramic view from the summit of Mount Ngungun. From left to right: Mounts Cooee, Tibrogargan, Beerburrum,
Tibberoowuccum, Tunbubudla, (Ngungun), Coonowrin and Beerwah

Crooked Coonowrin and Beefy Beerwah make a nice pair

The 'kids' were enjoying themselves as we moved about on the summit and took in the surrounding Glass House peaks from various angles, although they spent a lot of time taking 'selfies,' whatever that means.

Enjoying the views

View from the western end of Ngungun's summit

All up, we spent 2 hours wandering around, taking photos and exploring the unusual microfauna that included tiny spiders, insects and butterflies. Several flowers were in bloom, despite being only May.

Nicodamus species?

As we descended, the sun lifted itself over the northern flanks of the mountain and showered the fern-filled slopes with sunlight.