Last Sunday a friend and I got up early and drove from Brisbane to Mount Cooroora, Pomona for a few hours of mountain climbing. 

Pomona is a sleepy, small town inland from Noosa. Mount Cooroora is home to the annual Pomona, King of the Mountain Festival where a number of fearless entrants attempt to go up and down Mt Cooroora the fastest to win the race.

The track starts off at a medium gradient and advances to the point where you are climbing on your hands and knees up rocks. There is a safety chain to hold onto for the majority of the climb and then near the top it disappears and you’re on your own.

As we were heading up there were a number of people who were obviously training for the King of the Mountain event. It was very scary to watch these people running, jumping, careening, sliding up and down, and barely dodging the recreational climbers in training for the big event.

We eventually reached the summit and were rewarded with sweeping 360-degree views of the country side around Mount Cooroora.

The decent was scarier then the ascent. In some areas we were free sliding down on our butts or crab walking down on our hands and feet. It was a relief to get to the bottom in one piece.

It took us about an hour and a half to go up and down Mount Cooroora.

The weather was amazing, we had clear blue skies, a hot sun, and you would never have known it was the middle of winter.

Once we got back to the town we have a bit of a wonder around. We stopped in at the Pomona Hotel had a beer and the best chips and gravy I’ve have in a long time.

It was a lovely daytrip which I would definitely recommend to others.