First Journeys - Mount Cordeaux

I knew I was going to be in for an interesting morning when my walking partner, Cherry - about to experience her first taste of the Aussie bush - revealed that she'd never been somewhere that didn't have phone reception... except the airport.

"Don't worry," I explained, "we're not going anywhere too remote. There's even a toilet at the trailhead." Apparently this did nothing to alleviate her fear that we'd encounter some kind of disaster in the wilderness and be unable to call for help, or at least upload photos of our impending doom.

I must have conjured up some kind of black magic to convince a university student to rise before the sun, but it paid off as we were the first people to rock up at Cunningham's Gap for the day.

Just about every sensory input was a novel experience for Cherry. She seemed to take delight in hearing the unusual and varied sounds of the rainforest birds. Thanks to our early arrival, we also heard and saw quite a few pademelons.

Despite my insistence that it would be chilly, she hadn't felt compelled to allocate space in her pack for something that might, even at a stretch, offer anything closely resembling warmth.

I'm not sure what exactly she was expecting the track to consist of - maybe of some well-kept pavement, dutifully swept clear of leaves each morning - but her pair of extremely clean, unscuffed white flats didn't seem well suited to today's task, particularly as recent wet weather had muddied the track up a fair bit in a few places, and created several temporary waterfalls in others.


Then there was the whole fern thing. Far from never having seen a fern, she had never even heard of one. An entire group of plants, widespread throughout the world, had, until this point, not even existed within her realm of experiences.

Perhaps the strangest moment of all was when she stopped to rub her fingers over an inconspicuous leaf. Cherry told me how amazed she was that it "felt clean." Apparently, where she comes from, all of the plants are covered in dirt or dust - even in the forests out of the city. It's hard to imagine enjoying a bushwalk in such a place.

Cherry at Mount Cordeaux summit 

The Scenic Rim from Mount Cordeaux

For me, Cunningham's Gap has always felt far removed from a true 'wilderness' experience, being so close to the noisy highway traffic. But for Cherry, this was clearly the most wild and remote place she had ever experienced. On the way back, she paused, pointedly drew in a breath of air and smiled, announcing that even the air felt cleaner here. It's hard to argue with that.