Audio Excerpt

Take a look to the North and you’ll see a mountain.. Or two.. Or three.... Oooor just one giant imposing wall of rock.. Well that my Tripvia loving friends.. Is Mount Rundle! The impressive 12 km long mountain was once described by artist Dave Birrell as his, “bread and butter mountain”.  Each day, he would make the 8 hour climb to the top, only ever bringing a loaf of bread and a pound of butter for food…… juuuuuust kiiddddinng.. That’s not true at all. Birrell described Mt. Rundle as his bread and butter because he never got tired of painting it, as in his words.. Clears throat..“I never tire of painting it, for it is never the same”.

 

Like all beautiful and picturesque mountains, no one is ever content with just admiring the view….. Someone's alllllways gotta try and climb it.  Well, Mt Rundle is no exception! The Mt Rundle Traverse is a demanding mountain trek that visits all 11 of its peaks and valleys taking most people at least two days to complete!

 

Mt Rundle was named after Reverend Robert Rundle, who came to the area to do missionary work in the 1840’s. He introduced syllabics to the area…. Hmm.. any idea what syllabics are? Are they,

 

1. Symbols representing consonants and vowels,

2. A linguistic centred school syllabus introduced to Aboriginals or,

3. A fun charade like family game played in the 1800’s?

 

If you answered A, symbols representing consonants and vowels, well done! Reverend Rundle introduced syllabics to the Cree inhabiting the area, which helped them communicate with not only the new arrivals like him but to other Cree tribes as well! Thanks to Rundle, the Cree achieved what many considered the highest literacy rates in the entire world!