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.
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