A weekend in the Mountains… or NOT. Thank you to Mother Nature and the horrendous weather she has been laying on the whole of Australia – Bushfires prevented me from getting into the Stirling Ranges national Park.
“And tonight I wanna drive so far we’ll only find static on the radio, and we can’t see those city lights…”
Having driven 4 hours from where I’m staying to hit the mountains for the weekend, it’s safe to say I was pretty gutted that once I got to the turn off for the Stirling Ranges I could see crazy amounts of smoke, and knew that I wasn’t getting much closer to the mountains.
I was hoping to hike up peaks: Bluff Knoll, Toolbrunup and Mount Magog. Bluff Knoll I have thankfully done before (The highest peak in WA) but the others were going to be new, but they were all in the vicinity where the bush fires were, and they weren’t small bushfires. That afternoon the fires had been upgraded to emergency fires – ‘leave your house as there is a threat to lives and homes’
So, after a glimpse of the Mountains, I turn around and head to the south coast – an absolute beautiful coast line here in WA. I mean I love the West coast but the South coast is stunning! I hit Albany just as it was getting dark and parked up fort the night, curled up in the back of the car and researched more the ‘back-up’ hikes I had noted down in case of fires!
Saturday I did a hike at Tornidirrup National Park – a 13km traverse hike along the Flinders Peninsula – actually way more challenging than it looks, with a lot of unstable ground, and sand and rocks to clamber over! Not quite a mountainous hike, but a lot of up and down elevation and a fantastic Bushwalk! Felt like good training for Tassie! I could definitely feel in my legs the lack of hiking I’ve been doing – I guess all the cycling has been using totally different muscles! I finally broke in my New and first ever pair of hiking boots (Im aware this is nuts with the amount of hiking I’ve done) my ankles are grateful for sure!
On the way to Denmark I stopped off at some touristy spots along the Peninsula – The Natural Bridge and the Gap. Full of people – of course, but beautiful none the less!
The afternoon hike I did was part of the Bibbulum and ‘wow’ (Wilderness Ocean walk) track, from Little Pools to Green Pools in Denmark. On the hike I came face to face with a Kangaroo hiding on the side of the trail in the shade – Im not sure who was more surprised. Im used to being on guard for bears, not Roo’s! Anyway, she was happy for me to pass and didn’t feel like eating me 🙂
A nice 10km round trip to an awesome beach with some amazing rock formations (Elephant Rock). Id been here before and the water was a lot more clear and blue but today the wind is crazy and the ocean is wild! Sat at this beach a while, reading and just waiting for the sun to set – I don’t think I’ve felt this relaxed in a long time!
