Stirling Ranges

Stirling Ranges NP
30 November & 1st December

For the first time in the trip, Fabian took over the navigation. He guided us to another forest drive - this time through Shannon National Park, passing the site of Shannon township which had built up around a sawmill only to disappear when the resource was quickly exhausted with a few decades, and then on along the coast past Mandalay Beach and through the Valley of the Giants and lots of other places we could have visited ... With his help, we found the western end of Stirling Range Drive, a dirt road which traverses the length of the western section of the park.

From Stirling Ranges

Rising up from such a flat plain, they provide a dramatic backdrop visible from many kilometers in many directions. As in much of south west WA, everywhere in the park there is signage about preventing the spread of die-back, a fungal root disease which has devastated large areas of the park.
We set up camp at Moingup Spring which is a bit too close to the main road for my liking but the road trains trucking out the wheat harvest stopped rumbling past before midnight so it was fine. Camping has become much cheaper without the girls. Just $11 per night for the three of us in WA national parks. That night we enjoyed a delicious fish curry of feral Redfin. Yum!
In the morning, we drove to the start of nearby Mt Toolbrunup which is shorter than the popular Bluff Knoll by 50 meters but a harder climb and affords views over the rest of the parks peaks. Well it does when there is no cloud. As we scrambled up the rocks to the last shoulder, we caught a few glimpses of the side of the mountain before all we could see was white.

From Stirling Ranges

Although there was no rain, water was dripping off all the bushes as they caught the mist from the cloud racing up the mountain-side. We sat on top eating our morning tea and a bit longer, but no break in the cloud, so we turned to face the wind and headed back down. As Sod's law would decree, the top of the mountain emerged from cloud once we were three quarters down.

From Stirling Ranges

Ah -well you can't win them all. We drove over to bluff knoll lookout to eat our lunch but spared our legs from another 3 hour climb with a white out view at the top. We'll have to come back to the Stirlings another time.

On the drive out next day, we detoured slightly to the start of the Castle Rock walk at the Porongurup Ranges. Unfortunately it was closed for trackwork and the other walks didn't appeal in the time we had available -  another one to come back for.

New birds – Golden Whistler, Scarlet Honeyeater