Friday 30th January 2015 – Hamersley Inlet – Cloudy Windy Warm

Here is another month almost over.  When we started out 12 months seemed such a long time to be away, but now we can see that the time is starting to fly by.  We have more of a schedule now and it seems that the next few months will fly faster than the trip so far.  We have heaps to look forward to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is camp Hamersley.  Above left is our set up showing the kitchen in the background and above right is a close up of the kitchen area.  Left is the toilet block.  Very large toilets with a bench seat inside. 

 

 

 

 

This morning we walked up to the day picnic area and did the Hakea Trail out to the beach. It is 3.4 kilometres return, so with the 1.2 kilometre return to the picnic area and the same distance again which we walked along the beach we covered around 5.8 kilometres.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The red sign points to the picnic area start of the walk.

We saw these hakea on our scenic drive, at this time of year they are green, yellow and orange leaf colour.  The walk totem shows them from orange to yellow, so they must change colour over summer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The walk is through the high sand dunes.  This was our first glimpse from the top of a dune.  You can see the closed entrance to the inlet.

This was our first look at the ocean.  The sky appeared to be clearing, but at the end of our walk it had totally clouded over again and later this afternoon it is clearing again.  The changes down here come through quickly.

This is the view when you come off the track and onto the inlet entrance.  It is a long way between the ocean and the inlet water lines.

This is my panorama of it.  If you look closely you can see Glen in the distance on the left, that will give you an idea of the size of the area. We saw many foot prints in the sand.  A cat had walked across and we saw kangaroo prints as well.

Once you are at the beach, there are lots of rocks on the right, so we decided to walk up to the next point.  It is amazing that there are two different types of rocks. 

 

 

 

 

 

The quartz rocks

 

 

 

 

 

The beach was fascinating.  Obviously the currents are quite specific.  In this particular area it was feet deep with just pink sea shells.  They are lighter than the sand and we all in just one small area.

 

The other rock.  It has been uplifted and is on it’s side.  It appears that it must have been layers and layers of hot ash as the layers are so very small.  These were definitely not for sitting on. :))

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the largest outcrop of quartz.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then there was the area which consisted of the tumbled shells and rocks.  This was also several feet deep without sand.  You can see quartz tumbled smooth in this photo.

I could have stayed there for hours crawling around these pebbles taking photos of natures designs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were many rock pools which were deep and calm.  The outer rocks stopping the surf from pushing in too hard.

Of course this was a calm day with a incoming tide.  It would be very different once the weather turned. Glen spotted an orange crab, but there wasn’t much in the pools.  By the polishing of those stones, anything in those rock pools would get a pounding.

On our way back along the walk we met up with a Canadian couple, who are retired and travel the world.  They have been to Australia eight times. They live in Toronto and obviously every winter take off to some where with a better climate, what a great life. 

We headed back to camp for a late lunch.  It is lovely here, we are going into Hopetoun to refuel and do some park exploring tomorrow.  There are some 4wd tracks in the park.  Hopetoun is probably less than 20 kilometres from here. 

Thursday 29th January – Stirling Range to Hamersley Inlet - Hot

Wake up this morning, was a mob of cattle in the camp at Stirling Range.  A cattle truck had rolled just before we camped there, letting loose 40 cattle.  Some were killed, a couple have died from eating the poisonous plants in the park and the rangers are trying to round up the rest.  The smell of water in the camp ground tanks attracted them into the camp very early.  We have seen one or two, but they have obviously been finding each other and this morning there was a group of about 15.   We were up very late, so it was around 8am before we finally got moving.  After packing up we headed over to Fitzgerald National Park to Hamersley Inlet for our next camp.  We headed north, then east and then south and came down to the coast by the back door.  Our trip from Stirling Range was north to Borden, East to Ongerup, then onto Jerramungup and then to Fitzgerald (a locality) 17 kilometres past Fitzgerald we turned south into Fitzgerald National Park. Once we left Stirling Range National Park, we were in much open and drier land.  It is mainly sheep, wheat and gypsum.  The tree started to thin out and we were entering more desert like conditions.  Without off road gear, you arrive at Hamersley Inlet by going to Ravensthorpe and down to Hopetoun – we saved a fair bit of mileage by being able to use the dirt road straight down, although there were sections that were a little rough.

 

The bottlebrush at our lunch spot, were very different to anything else that we have seen.  The bushes had very small leaves and spare flowers.  The structure was of desert type plants.  There were a lot of bird calls, but we couldn’t see them.  Everything was only about 1.5 metres high.  The soil is very sandy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a natural sandstone barrier forming the waterhole.  With the cloud cover it was noticeably cooler once we turned south.

The inlet is not open to the ocean, but with heavy rain, the sand bar is washing away about once every ten years.  We were hesitant to head to the coast because of the high wind.  It is forecast 47 kilometres an hour tomorrow, however this camp is protected from the beach, so we hope that we are not boarding the SS Camper Trailer here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything is very new, so the camping area has had a very recent upgrade.  The sites are $10 per night.  All are levelled and terraced.

When we got to the camp ground, no one was there, so we had the pick of the sites.  We had barely positioned the trailer, when two other vans arrived.  One left and the others are staying the night.  We had a nice chat with them.  There are plenty of birds here, but plenty of cover, so although we can hear them, they are difficult to see.  There is a houseboat based on the inlet which you can hire.  We haven’t seen it as yet.  The water is shallow and the salinity level rises in the dry season.  White sand borders it, but it is not appealing to swim in as it looks stagnant.  We are going to put the kayak in and have a go fishing.

Some of the decorative images laser cut from stainless steel.

It seems strange that it is called an inlet when 90% of the time there is no access to the ocean, it is more like a coastal lake.

Wednesday 28th January – Stirling Range Camp 39.5C - hot

Finally today is our rest day – time to catch up with the weekly laundry / housekeeping and plan the next part of our trip.

We have decided that it is too hot to walk and won’t bother with our planned walk to the second highest peak.  The track has full sun from sunrise and it’s madness to try to walk it in this weather.  Our camp neighbours headed off this morning for Knoll Bluff and did the walk between 7.30am and 11.30am and said it was just too hot and all the crazy people they saw starting the track when they arrived back. 

We are packing up tomorrow to move down to Fitzgerald National Park which is on the beach, so it will be a lot cooler and our length of stay will depend on the wind.  We now have just six weeks to be in Adelaide to fly home.  We are excited about meeting our next grandchild – and starting the build on our house. 

Our time at Stirling Range has been fantastic, it is a pity that the weather has turned a little too hot for walking, however we have done most things on our list so that is good.  The hot day was followed by a threatening thunder storm.  We only got a couple of spits of rain – the car could do with a wash.  Checking the weather, I spotted the grey currawong in the tree near our camp and with the grey sky, it looked an appealing photo.

Monday 26th January 2015 – Stirling Range NP

We decided against walking Toolbrunup Peak 1052 Metres 4 kilometres return Grade 5 today as we didn’t want to be tired to do Bluff Knoll on Tuesday, so we were to have a rest day….. but that just didn’t happen.

The plan is to do the Red Gum Scenic drive into Mt Barnet and restock and then head down to Pongoorup to do a walk  that we had intended to do after we climbed Castle Rock and then head back to camp.  Porongurup is half way between Stirling Range and Albany.

Our day started to unravel at this point.  Central Lookout is a bit of a uphill hike.  No get out of the car and see the view here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These Banksia sit and hang under the tree.  They were difficult to see but were full of nectar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I put my hand on the cone to feel the texture and came away with a very honey hand.  It tasted like golden syrup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you want to see the view from the lookout, then you have to walk it.

Above Left is the view back to the car park

Left is the walk to the lookout hill.

 

 

 

 

 

The path was on the rough side as well.

 

 

 

 

 

I did manage a half decent photo of a buff headed honey eater.  It is almost identical to the same photo that NP has on display at the information shelter.  Insect in the mouth and one foot up on a branch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then went on to Western Lookout, that’s more like it, view from the car park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, on to Mt Barnet.  We stopped at a roadside stall and bought apricots and strawberries, then went back for more apricots.  These are grown locally and are the best apricots that we have tasted.  Luckily being a public holiday, the Supa IGA was open and we could do a small shop to sustain us for a while.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was one short walk and did we choose that……no

The map above left, shows the gradients, so that was the deciding factor on what way to walk.  I was thinking it was better to do the hard part first and that turned out to be a very good accidental choice.

We did the Wansbrough walk to Nancy Peak Walk at 5.5 kms which took us three hours. 

 

We went a little way up the track to view Devil’s Slide – more photos of that later

This is the view of Nancy Peak.   Dieback is a problem as you can see with the dead trees in the photo.

 

It is no stroll in the park, we are tackling the rough and steep section anti clockwise to get it over first.

Above is the view of Devil’s Slide – I wouldn’t like to try that in the wet.

Above is our little path guide.

There were lots of natural little garden settings, lots of wildflowers in bloom and quite a few birds and animals living right on the top.  We even disturbed two large kangaroos at the top.

 

We still have to walk across to that other peak yet.  You can see Albany and the ocean from here.  It is 45 kilometres away.

This is looking north to the Stirling Ranges.

Some very nice paper daisies in flower.

 

This opening was just a body wide.

 

Nature’s Window

Even more hill to climb.  Okay at this point this is not really not a rest day is it?

This was a good sign at the top naming the mountains and peaks in the Stirling Range.  We had tried to guess them, I only got one right which was Mt Hassell.   Mt Trio from this angle isn’t distinctive enough to recognize.

When we chose to walk anti-clockwise we walked up a vehicle track which was covered in very small and round stones – like walking on ball bearings.  To have had to walk down this would have been very dodgy and in fact we met a couple half way who were doing the loop clockwise and he with his new knee and hip was going to have to tackle, the very steep and rocky decent off Mortons View and then tackle almost 1.65 kilometres of this surface back to the car park.  We had a relatively easy slope all the way back to the car park.  They had less to walk than us and we arrived back at the car park, had coffee and they were no where to be seen, so it was obviously very hard going for him.

This tree is growing in the middle of a very large rock – it’s roots have not split or damaged the rock, yet it is existing.

It is called, now wait for it  “Tree in the Rock”.

Here is a photo of just the base of the tree.  No roots are showing running out and over the rock.

The Rufus Tree Creepers, came out to play now that the picnic area is deserted for the day.  Check out how large their feet are.

We had a 45 kilometre drive back to the Stirling Range Camp and were wondering how we were going to pull up for the walk tomorrow to Bluff Knoll without the rest day.