Traveling To Black Mountain
By R.e. Taylor
I love to travel so when I got the
chance to see the Black Mountain in Australia I jumped at the chance. Of
course, my trip started with 100+ degree heat and that was quickly followed by
a hurricane that flooded most of Queensland. That was just my luck. I stopped
in Brisbane to plan the rest of my trip. It was about 1,500 miles away and I
wasn’t driving so I got out a map and figured out how long the trip might take
me. I figured a couple weeks at the least.
I spent a couple days hanging out
at the beaches and the bars. There was one I liked a lot but for the life of me
I cannot remember its name but it had beers that were so cold they burnt my
fingers and sandwiches that made so much of a mess I spent time everyday
washing my shirts.
I had heard so many stories about
the mountain. Stories about people going into to explore and never finding
their way back out…just like the Bermuda Triangle but the best one was that no
one or nothing would go anywhere near the place…not even a fly. Maybe the natives
knew something no one else knew because they would go nowhere near the place.
Everywhere I stopped, everyone I
spoke to told me not to go…to turn around and go back to Sydney or maybe go out
west and have a shot at the opal fields but the more they told me not to go the
more I became resolute that I was going to go no matter what.
I got a ride from Prosperpine to Cookville.
The woman’s name was Renee and she was the sweetest person I had ever met. “I
had a brother who went up to the mountain,” she said. “He heard some crap that
there was gold hidden up there. I don’t know where he heard that but no one I
spoke to ever heard of such a thing. I tried to stop him, I really did but
there was nothing I could say. He left one night about three years ago and he
never came back. There were rescue efforts and I even went up there but there
was nothing that could be done…he was just gone!”
We spent the rest of the trip just
talking. We stopped at a Macca’s to get something to eat…I got a hamburger,
fries and a coke and she had a salad. It was really a nice trip, especially
having her as a companion. When she dropped me off in Cookville she explained
that she couldn’t go any farther and that was something I could understand so
she gave me her phone number and asked me to call her when I got back into
town. Of course I said I would…even with the area’s reputation I had hopes.
I was still a distance away about
25 miles away…not that bad of a walk but I figured there was no way anyone from
this city was going to drive me any further toward the mountain. I was right so
I just started walking.
The walk was pretty nice. It wasn’t
hot but it was cloudy. I guess that kept the temperatures down. There were a
lot of animals all around. I saw hundreds of wild lizards running back and
forth across the road and the birds made it so hard to hear anything because of
their chirping and squawking. I could not believe that is was so loud. I made
it about 20 miles by nightfall. I was quite tired so I just stepped off the
side of the road and fell asleep leaning against a tree.
I was up with the sun thank to a
couple crows who decided that they liked the tree I was sleeping under. I swear
I caught them looking down at me as I opened my eyes. I thought for sure that
they were laughing at me but a shift throw of a rock scared them away but I was
awake and there was no way I was going to get back to sleep so I got up, ate
and started on my mission.
Once again the birds were making as
much noise as they were the day before but that couldn’t have been right. Maybe
I just thought so but who knows.
I walked about 3 miles when I
decided to sit down have some water and rest for a few minutes. It was then
that I noticed that the animals were all gone and there was not a single noise
coming from the trees. It might have just been a coincidence I thought that had
to be it…a total coincidence. I put my hands around my mouth and yelled
“cowards” as loud as I could. I knew there was no one around but it made me
laugh anyway.
Finally, I was within a mile of the
mountain. It was hard walking and I started seeing things I never expected. The
path was lined with crosses, wooden markers and stone tributes that looked
centuries old. The stones were covered with markings that showed some kind of
beings and others had spirals covering their entire surface. I took some
rubbings, folded them up and placed them in my backpack. The closer I got to
the mountain the more monuments I could see and they were a lot more detailed
than the more distant ones. They were actually beautiful to look at but I knew
what each of them meant. Each one was there to remember someone who had gone
beyond and never came back. There were hundreds of them but suddenly, about a
quarter of a mile from the mountain, they stopped as did the path I was walking
on. Trees, that had been so prominent, turned into dead grey skeletons and then
they completely disappeared as I kept walking.
I had no idea at the time that I
had wandered into an area that had been deemed off limits by the Queensland government
as a religious site for the local aboriginal peoples. Caucasian people and
travelers were NOT allowed to go in and, especially take rubbings from the
area. It turned out that the aboriginal people were the ones who had placed the
monuments in honor of those who came before and they were not to be seen by the
general public. Actually, later on, as I was walking off of the mountain I was
stopped by the Queensland State Police and cited for being in a restricted
area. It cost be $400 but it was worth it.
Anyway, before me was a field of
black stones of every size. Some were as small as a baseball, others were the
size of a small car with some even bigger. The thing was they were solid black.
There was no sign of any other color…just black. It was actually scary looking
at them. They looked as if they were burnt but the kind of heat that could
blacken every stone in the area could only come from one place…the Center Ring
of Hell.
I wanted so bad to see the place
where legends were written I just took my first steps between the stones and
the second I did my body started tingling. It wasn’t painful and yet it wasn’t
pleasure but it did have my whole body experiencing a whole new sensation that,
I believe, no human should ever experience.
I didn’t want to stop so, no matter
what my body was feeling, I just kept walking, making my way through the rocks.
It was in the rocks for about an hour when I decided to take a break and have a
Coke and a sandwich. I took my time eating, after all it was noon and the sun
was right above me and the temperature must have been near 100 degrees and with
no trees around there was no shade to take refuge under.
I took a drink of water, collected
my wits and started out once again. The closest people were quite a distance
away and I was alone when I found the entrance of one of the large caves in the
mountain. The entrance was small but once I got inside I found a spacious room
that looked like a church except there were no pillars. It was just large
rounded rocks that went from floor to ceiling.
As I walked deeper into the cave
the ground changed from sand to rocks. They were slippery and covered with some
kind of slime that made it hard to walk but I kept going. By that time my skin
was tingling so bad that I could hardly bear it. My thoughts went to turning
back but my heart overrode my smarts and I kept going.
The room kept getting larger and
larger as I walked farther but then I heard something strange. The ground
beneath me was cracking as I stepped like I was walking on eggs. I took my
flashlight out of my pocket, lit it and saw the truth. I was standing on a
field of human and animal skulls and bones hidden deep within the mountain.
I remember that I started to panic
but I remember where I was, how far underground I was and that those people
died in the exact spot I was standing.
I reached down and picked up one of
the skulls. It was gross. I was not sure but I am almost sure that the skull
was still covered by remnants of skin and tissue. I took it, looked for just a
second eye to eye and placed it in my backpack. Then came time for me to get
back out.
Although it was a straight path in,
the way out seemed more like a maze! I got lost a few times and hit my head
more than a once but eventually I found my way out. Luckily, it was after dark
when I finally made it back to the surface and I was hungry, thirsty and sick
at the same time. I knew that there was something wrong…something seriously
wrong.
I went to a nearby hotel and
checked in for the night. After ordering some food I spent the rest of the
night puking my guts out. I also saw something that scared me…I saw burns all
over my hands and arms and it wasn’t just sunburn…it was severe second degree
burns. I couldn’t sleep that night but I waited until morning before making my
way to a local hospital. The minute I got there the doctors locked me in an
isolation room, took my clothes and started scrubbing my body with “sponges”
that felt like they were made out of barbed wire.
I was in the hospital for more than
a year before they finally released me with a diagnosis of severe radiation
poisoning. The doctor knew where I had been and what I had been doing. “They
tell people to stay away from there for a reason,” he said. “You are one of the
few who make it back here alive and, to be honest, you were almost too close to
death to be brought back.”
I sarcastically thanked him for
saving me and then I asked for my backpack.
“Oh,” you probably want that
skull,” he said.
“Well, yeah,” I replied.
“We took that last night,” he said.
“It has been returned to the mountain. That site is a burial site and very
sacred.” Just then a state trooper walked in and handcuffed me to the bed. “It
is a crime to take body parts from a grave. Didn’t you know that?” The thing
was I never thought of the Black Mountain as a burial site. To me it was just a
place like Loch Ness or the Bermuda Triangle.
I was arrested and, in addition to
the $400, I also spent six months in jail for removing an object from a grave
site but, all in all, it was worth it because I found out the truth about
Australia’s Black Mountain.
Once everything was over and done I
went back to Renee and told her what I had learned. Yes, she was sad, almost
heartbroken, but she appreciated knowing that might have been the closest possibility
as to what happened to her brother. At the end she kissed me on the cheek,
thanked me and drove me to a nearby train.
Me, I returned to the U.S. I still
travel but I go to the normal places and try not to go to places where people
die or disappear. Personally, I think that is a good idea…at least for now!
