The Test of Strength and Will at Mt. Warning

First off, thank you to my 16 followers! You guys are great and I hope you enjoy reading about my experiences here in Australia.
Secondly, I apologize it has been forever since my last blog. I'll try to be more consistent.

Well, I put my Nike Dual Fusions to the test last weekend as I hiked up the 3,973 ft mountain in New South Wales, Australia. Due to its proximity and height, Mt. Warning is the first place to receive sunlight on the mainland of Australia.
As we left Uni around midnight, we got on our Koala Coach bus and drove the hour long trip to Wollumbin National Park, arriving around 1:00am. After getting our 1.5 L water bottle, snack packs, torches (flashlights) and redbulls, we split up into groups based on ability and began the trek up. With the time change, it was 2:30am when we started.
At the beginning it was just some easy stairs that we were climbing, and I thought nothing of it at first. The humidity and night heat was relatively comfortable...at first. After we surpassed the steps, we hit the trails. Being the "athletic" people we are, we chose the fast group and kept a very, very quick pace. Looking back, it was like we were running up this mountain, which some people actually did do after daybreak (crazy, I know!).
Pitch black darkness and a small flashlight while climbing huge rocks and stepping into the unkown was quite the challenge (Mom, you would have hated it!). Along the way we spotted glow worms, toads the size of my foot (much fatter of course) and spiders. They were sights to see, but only to see. Also, a few people had leeches on their feet (I ended up with two on my ankles, but they did their deed and fell off before I even knew it had happened).
After almost 2 hours of hiking, we finally reached the top. The last 30 minutes or so we had to hold onto chains because it was so steep. Crazy in the dark navigating a torch and foot holds while holding on. You kind of just kept your feet moving constantly so you didn't fall down and hit the person behind you. Might I add, the kid behind me had a knee brace on because he re-tore his ACL while at the beach one day. Bad deal, I'd say.
After reaching the top, we ate our snack packs and waited on the sun and the rest of the hikers to come up. At the top it was almost 20 degrees colder, so being covered in sweat and water didn't help. After what seemed like forever, the sun finally started making its way out, but there was so much fog that we saw this:

YAYYY FOG!!!

It was truy exciting to see absolutely nothing! So, we decided to head down the hill and venture our way towards some brekkie. As we walked down the hill I did snap a few pictures of the sun FINALLY coming out.

It was absolutely lovely to see in real life. The hike down took about just as long, as we were fighting off tiredness, exhaustion, and the longest trek we have ever made (P.S. I didn't go to sleep the night before). After finally making it down, I kissed the flat ground and screamed "LAAANNNDDD!" and enjoyed a nice sausage sandwich and Lollies for breakfast (quite the combo, but I would have killed for some of Mama Cheryl's French Toast!). I relatively changed out of my sweaty, damp clothes and reboarded the bus for another hour drive back to Uni.
After arriving back I immediately showered, put on my trackies and jumper and went to sleep, as we returned at about 10:30am. After being awake for over 24hours and hiking for 4 hours, I was exhausted. Definitely worth the trip though, try it if you get the chance. And hey, maybe one day I'll go back and run it like those guys we saw....


In other news, I once again got published in UNews and you can read my article ==> here.

Thanks for your support and see you soon,

Until Then,

Wilson