Day 7 - Day of Rest?!

Morning came early and ominous today.  Planning a 3:50am wake up to join the mountain climbing group, Tammy and I ended up waking just after 2am and got little-to-no sleep the rest of the way until 4.  Nonetheless, I dragged by sorry backside out to the kitchen and left Tammy to recover what sleep she could until we returned.

We pulled up to Cooroora Mountain just about the start of dawn after a 20 minute ride and everyone piled out of the vehicles and onto the trail.  The first kilometer or so was a reasonably good bush trail until we reached the base of the steep part of the mountain and began to fight our way up.  Just before starting on the steeper climb I snapped a shot of the horizon through a thin group of trees.

The mountain is a very popular hiking destination and the entire climb was very well set-up in terms of stairs either as poured concrete, galvanized steel sections or footholds cut right into the rock.  There were chain handrails as well for those places where the climb was the steepest.

I was part of the group of 3 that reached the top first, after our guide, Allan (featured on the mountain top in LVS' "we're looking forward to seeing you" video on Youtube).  He was there to take pictures and video clips at the top and to announce each persons time 'for the record'.  The climb took me 28 minutes and 36 seconds, during most of which I was remembering the CN Tower climb I had done back in 1998 and wondering why I had agreed to do such a climb again : )  Especially since there was no glass floor lookout on the mountain!  [Mount Cooroora is 438 metres high; CN Tower = 553m]

After some individual and group photos at the top we made the descent and then had a look at the summit from the park at the base.  Don't think I'll be doing that again : )

View from the top toward Living Valley

All 438m of Mt. Cooroora

Gary gave a 9:30am lecture called "Focus" and he discussed how our attitude and response to the world around us can control release of chemicals in the body such as endorphins, adrenaline, serotonin, phenylaniline and others.  He essentially appealed to the group to consider that happiness is a choice and our body chemistry will benefit from a decision to be happy and will reward us with improved health and satisfaction in life.

There was an 11:15am pseudo-church service down in the chapel which about 1/2 the guests attended along with a small number of staff.  Very nice mix of singing and Bible readings.

Pure anticipation, no?

Because the group is back on the detox path, there were protein shakes and vegetable juices at 12:30, to be followed by (ominous music here...) an isotonic flush!  Tammy was one of the few people in the group eager to receive and drink her 2L of hot salt water.  See?

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and socializing with a viewing of "Gifted Hands", the Ben Carson story, instead of an evening lecture.